The Celtics have two days off before playing the Nets in New Jersey Wednesday, and that's a sign that the schedule is changing. Once they got home from their west coast trip, the Celtics knew life would be getting less hectic.
And after squeezing 59 games into their first 121 days (including three days "off" for an All-Star Weekend that was no break for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen), their last 23 games are stretched out over 48 days. The Celts will have three two-day breaks and one four-day fiesta. That will give them a chance to rest their regulars and get Mikki Moore and Stephon Marbury into the mix.
"The schedule favors us the rest of the way," said Doc Rivers. "We get a lot of rest the rest of the season, which is good.
"We've just got to get familiarity and continuity. We've got new people coming in, and they have to get comfortable with what we're doing so we can call the plays we need to without wondering what they know and don't know. And, of course, we've got to get ourselves healthy. I've been saying that we'll accept whatever happens in the regular season if we can go into the playoffs at 100 percent, and we're willing to do that."
Nursing a bad right thumb and fatigued from extra minutes, Pierce is looking forward to the stretch run.
"We've got a lot of guys that we need to get healthy," he said. "I think that's the most important thing. We've shown what we can do when we're all together, and I think we'll be able to get the new guys involved and ready. But we have to get our people back."
Noting the schedule, Pierce said, "It's been a tough grind so far, but I think we were all looking forward to this part where we can get some breaks and have some time to get in the gym for practice. We definitely need to get some rest, but we also have things we need to work on. You want to definitely be going into the playoffs playing well, so hopefully with these last 20-something games we can get a real run going and carry it into the playoffs."
CELTICS 95, PISTONS 105: The Celtics allowed Detroit to shoot 60 percent in the last quarter Sunday in Boston, blowing a lead and losing for the second time in the last three games.
Richard Hamilton had 25 points and the Pistons, playing without Allen Iverson, scored eight points in the last 1:19 to pull away.
The Celts were playing their fifth game without Kevin Garnett, and it showed.
"We're a team that doesn't want to make excuses," said Paul Pierce. "It was definitely a winnable game, we had the lead in the fourth. The guys we had out there in the stretch are guys that have been here. Definitely, practice time is going to help us to get healthy. It's definitely going to help. But this was definitely a winnable game. We just didn't play with the defense and intensity we needed regardless of who was out there."
