After meeting the Heat in Miami Sunday, the Celtics move on to Charlotte, San Antonio and Oklahoma City on this trip. While the journey will present challenges, it also offers the Celtics an opportunity to get their act together. They will have a week together to get on the same page. "Well, I hope so," said Paul Pierce. "We play better on the road than we have at home (three of their four losses have come in Boston). It's definitely a challenging road trip for us. You look at all the teams we're playing; they're really playing well. Miami went to Orlando and beat (the Magic), and you know what Charlotte's doing since the addition of Stephen Jackson. San Antonio's San Antonio, and Oklahoma City's playing well. So we've got our work cut out. It's not a normal road trip. It's early in the season, and hopefully we can carry on what we've been doing on the road thus far into this trip. "This is a time where you've got to concentrate more. We understand what being a successful road team is about. It gives us more focus time. I think we understand that being on the road you have to focus a lot more. You can't play the way we've been playing at home on the road, because you won't get those wins.
"That's not going to be allowable on the road."
Coach Doc Rivers is hoping for the best.
"We've got a bunch of these trips this year, so we're going to have ample opportunity to do it," he said. "But every time you go out on the road I think you have a chance to find out a lot about your team and find yourself. ... We're not going to go out on the road and find everything, but, like I've said, this is a process. We're building, and this will be part of the process."
CELTICS 92, HEAT 85: The Celts gave up 31 points in the first quarter Sunday night in Miami, but they buckled down and surrendered just 54 the rest of the night. Kevin Garnett took care of things at the other end of the floor with 24 points on 11-for-12 shooting.
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