Rivers can't just go with flow

The local bloggers have been on Doc Rivers's case for a while. They want him fired. There was a sign in the Garden recently making the same request. Last week, ESPN blogger Bill Simmons weighed in with a lengthy tome that called for Doc to be fired pronto.

Doc certainly has had his problems this season. This is the worst Celtics team, recordwise, since the final days of Rick Pitino. There are a lot of things wrong with the way this team plays, and that comes down to coaching. How can a team that has lost three straight games come out and play a first half like the Celtics did in Atlanta Tuesday? Had they been playing any other team in the league that night, the losing streak would have risen to four.

I don't know what Danny Ainge has in mind, but I do know it would be a monumental admission of wrongdoing if he were to sack Rivers right now, 1 1/2 seasons into the job. If he chooses that route, or is forced from above to choose that route, Ainge should submit his resignation as well, for Rivers was his guy from the start, the coach he wanted, the coach he courted, the coach he got for $20 million. You fire him now, you're on the hook for $10 million-plus.

Ainge and Rivers looked to be joined at the hip when it all began at DocFest I, shortly after Indiana punched out the scatterbrained Celtics in four straight in 2004. I wonder if it's still that way. Ainge has to be wondering why, after nearly half a season, there is absolutely no coherent rotation and why this team has trouble with basic defense. We won't even go near Brian Scalabrine.

This is not a good basketball team right now -- stop the presses -- and the nonsense that's being spouted about being only two or three games out of the playoffs should stop. No one cares. The goal should be to build this team with the guys who are going to be here and to forget about the playoffs. It's not as if they're winning doing it the way they're doing it now. Other than providing two games of revenue (which the owners wouldn't mind), what exactly is the benefit of being the eighth seed in the East? If you get there, fine. But don't sweat it.

Toward that end, Doc must be told he has to do the following:

Sit Raef LaFrentz and Mark Blount down. Tell them they are going to be backups and that their time will be 15-20 minutes a game. Tell them their agents have the team's blessing to seek trades. They're both overpaid, even by NBA standards, but Memphis reportedly has interest in Blount and LaFrentz is the consummate pro. The Celtics could add some No. 1 picks to make it work because they do not need any more young players.

Start Al Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins and leave them in the game. Let them learn, let them develop. Maybe this isn't the 1-2 inside punch of the future, but we're never going to know when Jefferson plays 6 minutes in a game in the middle of January. Or Perkins plays 1 second. Rivers's contention that the two of them clog things up for Paul Pierce is silly. Pierce can play on the perimeter; in fact, that's where he mostly plays, especially when his shot is going. And while we're at it, since when do the Celtics always have to be the team that adjusts? Let the other team try to guard Jefferson or Perkins with a 6-6 forward masquerading as a big man.

Stop going all out for victories by playing Ricky Davis 40-plus minutes every game. What's the point? I would rather see 30-35 minutes of Ricky and 10-12 minutes of Gerald Green. And I haven't seen Gerald Green play; no one has. After his stint in Fayetteville, a roster spot should be cleared for him and he should be put in the swingman rotation, along with Tony Allen and Delonte West.

If these messages are delivered, then there should be no argument from Rivers. If he's worried about how a 25-win season will look on the resume, tell him that's what he signed up for. It's too bad we're into Year 3 of the Ainge Era and still looking far down the road, but that's the way it is.

I have a neighbor who remains a Celtics fan for one basic reason: He sees hope. So do a lot of fans. But, sooner or later, we have to find out. Wouldn't you like to see whether the above recommendations would work? And wouldn't you like to see them implemented consistently, night in and night out, not haphazardly, depending on whom the Celtics are playing? I think it's time. I think a lot of the fans feel the same way.

Diop does more with less

One of the less noted but apparently pretty significant offseason signings came in Dallas, where the defensively challenged Mavericks brought in DeSagana Diop.

There didn't appear to be much of a market for the kid, who had gone through four highly unproductive years in Cleveland. The Mavericks were skeptical at first as well.

''We brought him in for a workout, and I like to interview players, look them in the eye," said Dallas coach Avery Johnson. ''I wanted to know what went wrong in Cleveland because I didn't like him in Cleveland. I thought he was overweight. I thought he was slow. I thought he looked disinterested in the game.

''He explained the whole process. He came in 30-40 pounds lighter, in the best shape of his life. He really impressed me with the workout."

Diop himself said the weight loss was huge.

''It helped a lot," he said. ''I thought that was my problem, having all that weight. If I would have lost that weight before, I would have been better. But I was young, coming in out of high school, I didn't know. Now, I'm 23, and that helps a lot."

Johnson said he has been watching to see whether Diop puts the pounds back on. So far, so good. The guy played a big role in Dallas's 104-102 win over the Celtics last week.

''He lost the weight on his own," Johnson said, ''so I was curious to see if he'd put it back on by being lazy. But he has been one of our harder workers. He's really been one of the steals of free agency. He won't get the credit because he doesn't put up numbers, but, defensively, we think he's awfully good."

The one-man show hasn't been a winning approach

Last week, both Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson went for 40 or more points -- in games their teams lost. How often does that happen? Well, according to the folks at the Elias Sports Bureau, it looks as though we are getting more 40-point games every year, but fewer wins for the team with the 40-point scorer.

Two years ago, back when points were harder to come by than a ferocious Mark Blount rebound, there were 41 instances of 40-point scorers. The team with the 40-point scorer won 31 of those, or 73 percent.

Last season, there were 67 games with a player scoring 40 or more. The record of the team with the 40-point scorer: 45-22 (67 percent).

This season, there had been 40 games of 40 or more points as of Thursday (one fewer than the entire 2003-04 season). The team with the 40-point scorer had a record of 24-16, or 60 percent. The 76ers are only 4-5 when Iverson scores 40 or more.

Etc.

Doc Rivers thinks Ricky Davis should be the Celtics' best defensive player. Not ''could" be. ''Should" be. ''He has quickness. He can jump. He has that energy mechanism that you need to be a great defender," Rivers said. ''I'm pretty tough on Ricky, but as good as he is, he's not even scratched the surface of what he can be. And I won't let up on him." This is all new stuff for Davis, who said he was never asked to be a lock-down defender (although John Carroll suggested he could be and challenged him to be just that). ''When you're doing a lot of offensive stuff, you [overlook] some of the defensive stuff it takes to win games," Davis said. ''Once you start seeing it on film and seeing what I am, what I could be, it's a big difference. They've given me a great opportunity to play offense and defense and I'm going to work at it."

The new year brought some much welcome (and long overdue) financial relief to NBA players who played for three and four seasons in the league but retired before 1965 and have not qualified for pensions. (After 1965, three-year veterans qualified. Prior to 1965, you needed five years or a combination of playing time and military time served contiguously that equaled five years.) The indefatigable Bill Tosheff, who heads up the organization for the pre-1965 players, reports that he received two checks of $50,000 each, one from the NBA and one from the Players Association. Tosheff has sent the money to those of his 41 players still alive who need it the most. He estimates it would take around $5 million to pay all of the players. The $100,000 is a nice first step, but the league and the Players Association can and should do more. A lot more.

FIBA, basketball's international governing body, will conduct the draw today for the 2006 World Championships, which will be contested in Japan in August and September. The 24 teams will be divided into four groups of six and play every team in their group. Once those five games are completed, the top four teams from each group will move on. The prelims will be held at four sites, with the competition for the final 16 in Saitama City. The coach of Argentina said he planned to attend today's drawing in person. That may be in part because the coach of Argentina's World Cup soccer team did not attend the recent draw in Germany -- and drew criticism at home for that. We kid you not.

On the topic of international hoops, Serbian point guard Milos Vujanic has been ruled out of the World Championships because of knee surgery. He is supposed to lay off competition for eight months. Vujanic was drafted by the Knicks in 2002, but his rights were traded to Phoenix in the Stephon Marbury deal. Asked recently if he was concerned about Vujanic's situation, Suns general manager Bryan Colangelo said, ''I haven't looked into it very deeply." Then again, when you have Steve Nash playing like the MVP that he is, why would you feel compelled to?

Philadelphia's loss to Utah last week was the first in nine home games for the 76ers against Western competition this season. Utah has swept the season series from both Philly and Detroit. The Jazz just went 3-1 on a recent Eastern swing and had won eight of nine going into last night's home game against Miami, a run that has moved them to the top of the Northwest Division. Utah has gotten a lift lately from old friend Milt Palacio, who went the final 16 minutes in the win at Philadelphia, collecting 17 points. ''He seemed to be very confident in playing the [point guard] position," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan.

What is going on with Tony Delk in Atlanta? He's not hurt, but he doesn't dress and is not put on the inactive list. Atlanta dressed 11 players for the Celtics game last week. Delk, who has yet to play this season, is in the final year of his contract and thus will likely find yet another home by February. Atlanta coach Mike Woodson recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he has ''no beef" with Delk. Said Woodson, ''I'm sure the organization feels the same way that I do. He just has to continue to work as long as he's with us, which I'm sure he'll do, and we have to figure out what we're going to do on our end." Delk isn't talking.

Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.