Remainder has to do with rest

Rivers must also keep players sharp

Doc Rivers is a coach. Brian Scalabrine is a coach in a player's body. So when they talk, they tend to have good conversations.

After watching the Celtics slop through Chicago and still win by 14 points Tuesday night, then play so-so basketball against Indiana last night and still win, 92-77, Scalabrine and Rivers waxed strategic like they do after every game.

Rivers noted him saying, "You know what's nice? We were sloppy in Chicago and we won. We played in spurts tonight and that's a real good thing for your team."

Hopefully.

The Celtics moved a step closer to clinching home court and wrapping up the Eastern Conference last night, picking up their fifth straight win and getting to a spot in the schedule that Rivers has been waiting on for a month after surviving the obstacle course out West.

Two days off. One game. Two days off.

It's like the All-Star break that Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce never got.

The problem is balancing the opportunity to get these guys some rest with the hope of staying razor sharp for the playoffs.

"We talked about it a couple weeks ago," Rivers said. "If we can get to it, we can take advantage of these five days. Whenever you mention that to players, they get excited about that because they see time off."

Garnett, who sheepishly buried his face in the mike, panned his eyes from side to side and said, "Nothing's wrong with rest."

They got a little last night, starting the fourth quarter on the bench, but Rivers put Garnett and Pierce back in with a 15-point lead and about 6 1/2 minutes left.

"I was a little bit surprised," Pierce said, acknowledging the Pacers did make a run, if an 8-2 stretch counts as such. "It is all up to the coaches and how they feel."

But if given a couple days to kick up his feet, Pierce will gladly take them.

"I think I am at the point in my career where any rest I can get is good," he said. "If I was a younger player, I probably would say no. But it is all up to the coach's strategy, to give us the rest. It has been a long season, we have probably earned this, but at the same time we have to stay sharp."

Which circles back to the downside of Scalabrine's observation. Yes, they have played sloppy and won, but that's not something they necessarily want to do.

Rajon Rondo airballed a free throw in the second quarter, and Garnett hung around the free throw line a little longer after the obligatory hand slaps to tell him to concentrate. Rondo knocked down the next one.

"The focus is very important coming down the past couple games," Garnett said. "I don't just believe that you can get to the playoffs and you wake up in the morning and blink and all of a sudden you turn it on. I think you prepare yourself up to a point and we have to do that."

The Celtics end their season against teams with a combined winning percentage that looks more like a batting average. They play only two teams currently in playoff spots, Washington and Atlanta.

"It's not like we can blink and it's over," Garnett said. "It's part of the schedule; you can't start to think about things you can't control. You have to finish these eight games and that's it."

Rivers was on the record as saying there'd be no late-season operation shutdown, but he seems to have backed off that statement.

"It's something we have a chance to take advantage of and we're going to take advantage of it as far as different guys getting minutes and different guys resting, then cranking it back up," Rivers said. "One thing I don't like is resting going into the playoffs."