By Gary Dzen, Boston.com Staff

Rajon Rondo warmed up on the parquet floor at TD Garden without headphones tonight, a sign that he was all business as Game 7 approached. Celtics coach Doc Rivers was in a serious mood before Game 7 too, eschewing the usual laughs and jokes during his pregame session with reporters. Rivers said he wants Rondo to come with greater effort tonight while also not trying to do too much.

"It's tough because you want him to play with high energy," said Rivers. "Sometimes you talk yourself out of it. He didn't have a game with great energy. We need him to play with tremendous energy, defensively first. I've always thought when he does that, his offense follows."

Rivers said that he expects either Sasha Pavlovic or Marquis Daniels to get some minutes tonight.

-- Rivers said he isn't sure what to expect from Ray Allen tonight. The Sixers stopped trapping Allen off screens in Game 6, letting him get off 11 shots.

"That was the one change they made," Rivers said. "They kind of let him get shots. Their thinking was, if he's going to hurt us, he'll hurt us. Clearly they didn't think he could. In a sense they were right, because they were using Ray's guy to help out on Paul and Rondo.

"I know my Ray Allen. He knows exactly what they did. And if he physically has it in his body, I wouldn't be surprised to see him do something about it."