In fact, Davis was playing so well that Perkins looked back at Doc Rivers to make sure the Celtics coach really wanted to make the move.

Rivers agreed and gestured Perkins back to the bench.

``I asked him if he wanted to leave (Davis) in,'' Perkins said after the 90-80 win. ``It seemed to me that that was the right thing to do.''

Davis ended up with a 12-point fourth quarter while putting a body to Magic star center Dwight Howard, who ended up fouling out.

A night earlier in Miami, Rivers went the distance in the fourth quarter with another hot reserve - Eddie House. For all the talk that the Celtics haven't been able to fill the void left by James Posey's offseason departure - and there indeed have been moments when the swingman's absence is obvious - their current seven-game winning streak has shown that the backup unit is improving. This sense of faith, from top to bottom, may have gained strength after the C's followed up their franchise-record 19-game winning streak with a slump.

All told, they now have an .800 winning percentage (36-9) that was five games heavier than the .800 mark Cleveland (32-8) carried into last night's game at Golden State.

Kevin Garnett admits he still doesn't always know what to expect from his bench.

``Baby and Leon (Powe) are hit and miss,'' he said. ``But what (the bench) has been doing is incredible. It's huge, because the bench will be the reason that we win and lose on some nights. When these guys play like that you have to love it, because they're taking on the responsibility.''

Thus, a bond has grown since the last week of December, when that 19-game winning streak was snapped by the Lakers.

``One of the biggest tests in this league comes when you lose because you can't know about these things while you're winning,'' Garnett said. ``I've been on losing teams when people start to argue once things start to go wrong.

``They start pointing fingers at each other. Cats start fighting over the ball, things like that. But I think we've learned on this team that you do it all together, winning and losing.''

In hindsight, Garnett still laughs to himself about the pressure the Lakers put on themselves leading up to that Christmas Day win.

``The Lakers felt like that game was the championship,'' he said. ``Some of the comments those guys made were incredible, and it was just the regular season. It was kind of comical. But we knew that we just had to move on from that.''

And so they have, with a bench that appears to be growing by the week, even as the opposition grows a little more dour.

Consider their parting impression of Orlando. ``We can't let him have a good game or a funny game,'' Davis said of Howard. ``When he is smiling he is playing good and feeling good. We tried to discomfort him. We tried to make him feel angry and frustrated. No smiles and a lot of frowns. We got a lot of frowns from Dwight, so that means we had a good night.''

- mrmurphy@bostonherald.com