Seems that way.

But ever since the first shaky minutes of the first game of the season, the Celtics have turned the NBA schedule into a never-ending, multistate shootaround. They came back on Opening Night to throttle the Cavs; the next night, in the Garden opener, they rolled to an embarrassingly easy victory against the Charlotte Bobcats.

And it continued last night at the Garden, as the Celtics took on the Chicago Bulls in Game 8 of last spring's playoff series, emerging with a 118-90 victory.

But this isn't the Big Three beating up these teams. It's the Big Whatever Number of Players that Celtics coach Doc Rivers decides to use. The Celtics have been so methodical in their dismantling of the early-season competition that Rivers has been able to mete out plenty of rest to his big guys . . . especially Kevin Garnett, whose knee injury kept him out of the playoffs last spring, thus dooming the pursuit of banner No. 18.

Garnett played just 24 minutes and change in last night's victory. He could have played more, but what's the point? The man still is on the mend, sort of, so it doesn't make much sense for Rivers to get all crazy with the minutes.

But it can be tricky. Garnett dominated in his 24 minutes last night, scoring 16 points, and, yeah, sure, resting a guy in a blowout makes sense.

``You still have to be careful, because you have to keep their rhythm,'' Rivers said. ``With Kevin, like, 28 minutes are probably not enough for him to have a rhythm game.

``You try to figure it out as you go along. I don't know what the minutes will be for Kevin yet. We have to figure out the least amount of minutes that Kevin can play and still be effective.''

Talk about your ``good'' problems. The Celtics have so overpowered the opposition in the early going that the issue isn't overusing Garnett, but over-resting him.

To be fair, it's doubtful many Celtics fans were what you would call ``worried'' after watching Garnett's performances in the first two games of the season. Against Cleveland, he logged 33 minutes, scoring 13 points and collecting 10 rebounds.

He took a hard fall in the game, and, OK, perhaps you couldn't help yourself: You gasped.

No problem, said Garnett after that game: ``Physically, I'm OK. I'd like to be better, and through the course of the season I will be . . . rhythm-wise, I'm not there yet, but that's a process.''

The next night, Garnett's numbers were not of much relevance, this being a blowout. OK, so he had 10 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. He sat out the fourth quarter.

Oh, there was another injury scare: He slipped on a wet spot that night, going down like a cartoon character after a bad experience with a banana peel.

Last night, there were no falls. And last night we saw the kind of Kevin Garnett whose play is of such precision and athleticism and emotion that old injuries were not being whispered about during timeouts.

``He's just getting better each game,'' Rivers said. ``He feels good, he doesn't have any pain. And it doesn't have anything to do with the knee. He had everything else - the body was sore, I think he had a strained tendon . . . everything starts happening.

``Now,'' Rivers said, ``his body is starting to adjust to the NBA.''

It's a perfect situation for Rivers. He has a vastly improved bench and he has blowouts, and that's why Kevin Garnett missed the fourth quarter of the Charlotte game and played just the 24 and change last night.

He is sitting because he can, not because he must.

- sbuckley@bostonherald.com