"It's nice," said Doc Rivers, "but, again, all that gives us is something to talk about. Hopefully by the end of it, we'll be able to say more about what we've done than just this."

A giant turnaround is no assurance of playoff success. The 1980 Celts lost in the Eastern Conference Finals (4-1 to Philadelphia) and the '98 Spurs fell 4-1 to Utah in the Western Conference Semifinals.

It's also interesting that both those teams got to their poor records the year before through not rushing people back from injury.

"We had a lot of injuries," said Rivers, noting that his team wasn't as bas as its record. "And people forget that before the injuries we had won five in a row, and three of them were on the road (actually four). And we were two games under .500 I think (actually three) and had a chance to make a run. Then that next game is when all those injuries started happening. I don't ever forget that.

"But having said that, almost none of those guys are here, so it's pretty much a completely different team. But I've always thought we were far better than what we were (record-wise) last year."

CELTICS 112, HORNETS 92: The Celtics came back from four points down at the half to roll past the Hornets Friday night in Boston.

Paul Pierce had 27 points and Kevin Garnett had 21 to go with 13 rebounds, leading the Celtics to their second straight 20-point win over a Western power (Phoenix was the Wednesday victim).

Pierce and Garnett had eight each in the third quarter when the Celts were outscoring New Orleans, 32-15, to take control. Leon Powe kept it rolling with 10 of his 12 points in the last quarter.

The Celtics shot 61.1 percent in the second half while holding the Hornets to 33.3 percent.

"Great win for us on both ends," said Doc Rivers. "I mean, when you shoot 60 percent and score 112 points against a good defensive team, you're thrilled to death."