Trust runs in the family

"I told our guys before the game - we talked about Mother's Day, actually," coach Doc Rivers said before Glen "Big Baby" Davis hit the deciding jumper in a 95-94 win over Orlando last night. "And we were talking about emotions, looking at the qualities of Mother's Day. What did she give you? And it was usually determination, heart, discipline. You don't talk about any other things and I told them that was what we needed. I thought we really dug deep."

Rivers could have added faith and mutual trust to the pregame talk, as exemplified by Paul Pierce finding Davis for the final shot.

"We have a saying, 'Trust the pass,' " Rivers said. "Our best player trusted the pass. He may have made a shot, but Dwight Howard was in his face. Baby was open. He trusted the offense, he trusted the pass, and Baby knocked down the shot."

The Celtics tied the second-round series at 2 going into Game 5 tomorrow night in Boston.

"Going down, 3-1, would have been very, very difficult," Rivers said. "But, then again, we've got a lot of basketball left in the series."

"Our guys did exactly what we were supposed to do and it didn't get the job done," Van Gundy said. "So, that one is on me and that is a tough thing to sit up here and say as a coach. I'm not going to get into that. I don't want to talk about that, for other reasons. But, let's just say our guys played it exactly right, played it very hard, took away all their options, and had I made a different decision we probably could've taken away the last option.

"I thought we did a great job on the play and they had to have the patience to go all the way to their last option and not force up a tough shot."

Said Howard, "We can't blame it on Stan. We win together and we lose together. That's the same thing I told him after the game. There were a lot of plays during the game where we had chances to take the lead and keep it, but that one play right there, we can't blame it on coach."

"The defensive player of the year is not here," Rivers said before the game of the loss of Kevin Garnett to a right knee injury. "I'm sure if you told Orlando to take the defensive player of the year [Howard] off the floor it would impact them, as well. There's no post play, it's tough to go to the post, so we're a perimeter team and I don't particularly like that.

"This is actually a very young team we have here. Last year, bigger games, they just knew where to be, they never panicked, and you kind of knew who they were going to be every night. That didn't mean they were going to play well every night, but you knew what they were going to give you every night and that's why veterans play better in the playoffs, for the most part. Young players are so volatile, and there are emotional games, big games - that's just the nature of it, that's just part of the maturity process."

The Celtics concentrated on defending the penetration of Orlando point guards Rafer Alston and Anthony Johnson, plus Hedo Turkoglu.

"After the first quarter it was pretty bad," Rivers said of the Celtics' defending. "I thought it was a replay of Game 3 [a 117-96 loss]. And, from that point on, we turned the game into Celtic basketball - physical, contested shots, we took away driving lanes. And they missed some open shots, too. And that's what we have to correct. But, overall, our defense was really good for three quarters."

"It didn't pop out, it's something like a muscle strain," Perkins said of his shoulder. "It's the playoffs and the tissues don't have time to heal, so it's weak back there. It'll take two months and I'll be all right. I'm not taking the MRI. If I take the MRI and they find something, I may be out."

"The sun comes up, I'm going to be in the gym and getting up shots," Allen said.

Frank Dell'Apa can be reached at f_dellapa@globe.com.