Backache led to Pierce break

Game 2 had barely passed the two-minute mark last night when Paul Pierce took a hard foul that definitely made the Celtics nervous.

Pierce had been fouled by Atlanta's Joe Johnson and also hit hard by Josh Smith, forcing him to the locker room clutching his lower back, with team doctor Brian McKeon alongside him.

Pierce returned to start the second quarter with what the Celtics described as a lower-back strain, then finished the night with 14 points in 28 minutes.

After the Celtics completed their 96-77 victory over Atlanta, Pierce said he was still a little sore, but that he'd be fine.

"The back is bothering me a little bit," Pierce said. "It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but there's some soreness down in the lower righthand side of my back. Thankfully we've got a couple days of rest to see how it feels and gear up for Game 3 [Saturday]."

Considering it's the playoffs, Pierce wasn't surprised by the physical play.

"I understand, that's what the playoffs is all about," Pierce said. "You've just got to be ready for people to be physical with you when you get inside the paint. You've just got to be ready."

Rivers reflects

Brian Scalabrine knows it's possible he may not play a minute during the playoffs as the Celtics attempt to win their 17th NBA title. But it could be worse. The forward could be in the position his coach, Doc Rivers, was in 14 years ago.

Rivers didn't play for the Knicks in the 1994 playoffs because he wasn't put on the postseason roster after having knee surgery the previous December. Until 2006, playoff rosters were set before the postseason started. The old rule kept Rivers from playing in the Finals despite by that time being healthy. Scalabrine, however, can be activated at any time.

"For the first two rounds I was working out every day, so that was easy," Rivers said. "By the Eastern Conference finals and [NBA] Finals, those were tough, especially in practice."

Doctors projected Rivers would be healthy by the conference finals, and he was. But he was forced to remain sidelined because then-Knicks coach Pat Riley cautiously elected to put seldom-used guard Corey Gaines on the roster instead.

The Knicks fell to the Rockets in the Finals in seven games. Rivers said Riley looked at him twice on the bench in frustration as New York lost at Houston, 90-84, in Game 7. The roster rule changed for the 2006 playoffs, when teams could have 12 active and one inactive player for each game. Last year, the NBA went to a 15-man roster where 12 players could be activated on a game-by-game basis in the regular season and playoffs.

"Pat and I have talked about it," Rivers said. "It killed him. It's funny. He said, 'I clearly made the wrong decision.' At that time, if I were coach it would have been a tough one for me, too. That whole Houston series I could have played. . . That's not one of my best memories."

Rivers's situation in 1994 makes him sympathetic toward any player that is inactive or not playing much in the postseason. Veteran center Scot Pollard is out for the season after ankle surgery and rookie guard Gabe Pruitt was also inactive.

"I'm sympathetic for those guys, anybody, not only guys not in uniform, but also the guys in uniform that are not playing the same amount of minutes," Rivers said. "But it's bigger than them. They understand. They're still a part of it. Every day in practice they are going to do something that's going to help us in a game."

Knicks interested

New Knicks president Donnie Walsh said during a conference call with New York media Monday that he planned on contacting the Celtics about interviewing assistant Tom Thibodeau about their head coaching vacancy.

Rivers said Sunday he was open-minded about letting his assistant interview between playoff series.

"Normally, when teams are in the playoffs, teams are hesitant to do that," Walsh told the New York media. "So I haven't pushed that, but I will because it seems like there is an inclination they would do that. But most of the time you don't call teams up that are in the playoffs."

Throwback player

Even before Kevin Garnett was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year, there was something familiar about him to former Celtic Tom "Satch" Sanders.

"He certainly reminds me of one of the all-time great defensive players, Bill Russell," Sanders said. "He brings a combination, of course, of offense and defense, but it is his intimidation factor, the fact that he's out there, the fact that he's willing to step up against the guards, forwards, anyone that happens to come into his area."

Garnett is the only Celtic ever to be named Defensive Player of the Year. At the time Russell was playing, there wasn't such an award, but Sanders said it would have been Russell's, easy.

"No on falls in that category, bar none," Sanders said. "He's head and shoulders above everyone else. Kevin Garnett plays a similar kind of game and he's cut from a similar kind of cloth."

Not so fast

Pollard said he will have right ankle surgery in Indianapolis May 2, and not tomorrow as has been reported. The 11-year veteran had surgery March 11 to repair a torn tendon in his left ankle . . . Rivers described point guard Rajon Rondo as "the film watcher of the team." Rondo said he watches two hours of film a day, game film as well as segments picked out by assistant Armond Hill . . . Red Sox slugger David Ortiz blurred enemy lines Monday, sharing a meal with Hawks rookie Al Horford. "We went to his house," Horford said. "He's a big basketball fan so we talked about that, we talked about baseball, the Dominican, and everything. So, it was cool."