Spirit isn't willing

ATLANTA -- When he coached in Orlando, Doc Rivers was always a strong candidate for the All-Interview team. He was, and still is, a notebook filler. You ask a question, you don't get monosyllabic responses. You get treatises.

After Saturday night's deflating 100-96 loss to the Hawks, the first question asked of Rivers was for his thoughts on the game. His answer went for 2 minutes 32 seconds.

Among the tidbits in that mega-response was Rivers's dissatisfaction with his team's play, his disappointment that his team has no spirit and can't handle adversity, and his belief that, despite everything, this Celtics team still has a chance to be pretty good. (He sort of had to say that.)

But you couldn't help but feel after listening to him that the honeymoon, if there ever was one, is over.

We're going to see a lot more of Tony Allen, who made his first start Saturday night, scored a career-best 20 points, and defended like a demon.

"The sad thing was, we couldn't have him guard all five guys," Rivers said. "His defense was phenomenal. The guy has a competitive fire. He has a spirit, and I love that spirit."

Allen may be a Solitary Man on this team in terms of spirit and competitive fire. Rivers mentioned no one else. But he had plenty to say about the many unidentified anti-Allens, who were out in full force once the Celtics built a 17-point third-quarter lead and then collapsed like a house of cards.

"I think the basketball gods said, `Screw you.' That's the way I look at this game," Rivers said.

"We lose our spirit so quickly it's a joke," Rivers said. "We're great front-runners. We're beautiful when we get a lead. But when things go wrong, or when we start missing shots, we get extremely frustrated and we lose the game. We've just got to play harder. We've got to play the game with more passion. We've got to want it more. We played with a sense urgency for about 10 minutes.

"I guess we thought Atlanta would just come in and roll over," he continued. "I don't see where we won a championship. I didn't get that memo. We're not good enough to just show up and win games. We prove that to ourselves every night.

"Yeah, I'm frustrated. I don't know what you're supposed to do sometimes when you're pushing guys. That shouldn't be the coach's job. We all make salaries. You're supposed to come to work. You're supposed to punch in. We've got to start punching in. Everybody. Not just three or four guys a night, and the next night, three or four guys. Everybody has to punch the clock on our basketball team, and right now, we're not doing it."

The Celtics, who play in Charlotte tomorrow night, got together yesterday for some film work -- in a bonding move, the team and coaching staff went to see "Coach Carter" -- and will practice today at Georgia Tech before heading to North Carolina.

This was supposed to be a road trip where the Celtics would end their losing ways away from home. They haven't. They've now lost nine straight roadies. This was supposed to be a road trip where they moved closer to .500 and maybe even a secure hold on first place in the dreadful Atlantic Division.

They instead have dropped two straight, but are only a half-game out of first. This was supposed to be a road trip where they capitalized on weak foes: Their three opponents represent the worst, second-worst, and fourth-worst records in the conference. They're 0-2.

In Saturday night's game, the Celtics opened the third quarter with a 14-0 run that Rivers said was "like a Picasso. Guys were running hard. They were playing hard. They were sharing the ball. The spirit was great. Then one guy comes in, takes a bad shot, another guy takes a bad shot, then it's selfish basketball. When you play like that, you should lose, because you're playing like losers."

Atlanta quickly cut the deficit to 11 after three, then outscored the Celtics, 31-16, in the fourth, as Boston shot 33 percent, turned it over five times, and was overwhelmed on the glass, 17-8.

"I had to blow three timeouts just to tell our guys that the game wasn't over," Rivers said. "I had to waste three timeouts just to remind our guys to be a team and play together. But we're going to get this fixed. That's my job. That's not their job, that's my job. And we are going to get this fixed."

You're going to see more of Allen and less of Jiri Welsch. You're going to see more of Kendrick Perkins and less of the brutally struggling Mark Blount. You're going to see more of Delonte West, who, although he played only four minutes, was the first point guard off the bench. He'd better get minutes because there are 15 games before the trade deadline and Gary Payton's likely relocation.

You can make a case that the Celtics should be significantly better than 18-22. They won 36 games last year amid massive change and dysfunction. They had to be better this year, didn't they, with a new coach picked by the boss, a healthy Raef LaFrentz, a Payton to run the point, and some promising rookies? Right now, at best, they're on pace to win 38 games, which, come to think of it, should be plenty to win the Atlantic. But it's still unworthy.

Asked if players had been put on notice, Rivers said, "They have been and they will be. To me, that is a crummy way to coach a team. But if that's how you have to coach, then that's how you have to coach. That's not the way we should have to coach this group of guys. We have to be better competitors. I still believe in this team. But we have to play the game with a spirit, a collective spirit, and it has to be consistent every night. To me, we're not consistent. That's why we lose."