It's rest for West after surgery

Delonte West underwent surgery on his broken right hand yesterday at New England Baptist Hospital. Dr. Drew Terrano and team physician Arnold Scheller performed the operation in which a fracture of the fourth metacarpal was reduced and held with two screws.

The Celtics have not set a timetable for West's return, though they did place the rookie point guard on the injured list and activated Tom Gugliotta (sore lower back) in his place.

"The doctor said the surgery went well, which I've never heard a doctor go the other way on that," said coach Doc Rivers. "I've never heard him say, `Oh, it [stunk].' But he said it went well and that [West] was resting at home and he didn't give me a time frame."

Rivers didn't use Gugliotta last night against the Bucks since the veteran forward had not run since being placed on the injured list Nov. 23. But Gugliotta said his back was back to normal.

"The past few days it's been feeling really good," said Gugliotta. "I did a lot of ice, stretching, normal things you do for a sore back. Rest. I did a lot of swimming to take the impact out. I've had it before and it usually only lasts me, the most, five days. Usually, I get it once, maybe twice a year."

Time management
With the point guard rotation back down to two (Gary Payton and Marcus Banks), Rivers voiced his concern about overplaying Payton.

The coach does not want to wear out the 36-year-old Payton early in the season. Ideally, Rivers would like Payton to play about 30 minutes a game, but that is rarely realistic. Payton, who played 36 minutes last night, was on the floor for a season-low 22 against Orlando Monday night, though the outcome was in hand early and Banks was playing his best game of the season. Payton saw a season-high 44 minutes in an overtime loss to Washington Nov. 17.

"Right now, I think he's overly concerned," said Payton. "He's doing what he has to do. I'm not going to complain about it. I'm not tired or anything like that. But if that's what he wants to do, I've got to help him out with these younger guys, to get them developed.

"I'll talk to him about [the minutes]. It doesn't really make a difference to me. As long as we're winning basketball games, it's OK. If we're losing basketball games, I don't want to be off the floor. You can say anything about it. He's trying to save me. I'll talk to him about it, depending on what's going on."

Rivers has to make sure he gives Payton enough rest without letting Payton get cold.

"In the Miami game, I thought I made a mistake and let him sit too long," said Rivers. "When I put him back in, I don't think he was ever the same. He asked me about it and I said, `When I sat for more than eight minutes, I was done.' He said, `Well, I feel the same way.' The problem I have is I want him to sit because I want him to be fresh."

Trial run?
Rivers did not know how to react when he saw highlights of the Mavericks-Spurs game Tuesday night, in which former San Antonio teammate Avery Johnson made his quasi-coaching debut for Dallas, with coach Don Nelson sitting beside him on the bench. "I don't know what that is," said Rivers. "That's Nelly. I give Nelly credit. I think they're telling you they want Avery Johnson to be the next head coach of the Mavericks and giving him on-the-job training. Who do the players listen to? They have a tough time listening to the head coach. I wish they had won, because I love Avery, and I've always said Avery is going to be a great coach." . . . In a pregame ceremony, John Havlicek presented Payton with a commemorative basketball marking Payton's 20,000th career point. Havlicek was the first Celtic to score 20,000 points and stands as the team's all-time leading scorer with 26,395 . . . The Bucks brought a pair of familiar faces back to town in point guards Mike James and Erick Strickland.