Tensions running high, but Celtics keeping cool

By Marc D'Amico
April 18, 2010
Celtics.com

WALTHAM, MA - Playoff basketball is a different animal than anything you will see during the NBA's regular season. It bleeds intensity, feeds on physicality and breeds high emotions that sometimes morph into altercations.

That playoff brand of basketball is often used to justify the altercations it occasionally leads to, but in the case of Saturday night's scuffle between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, Doc Rivers adamantly refutes that argument.

"Anything physical, any fight, anything... it's amazing how everybody - 'Well it's the playoffs' - that's what everybody says. I don't know if that part was," said Rivers, who was speaking particularly about Quentin Richardson's decision to stand over Paul Pierce and taunt him while he was on the floor in front of Miami's bench. "I don't know if we need that part. There's [40] seconds left in the game, a guy looked like he was hurt pretty bad. You don't need to be over there bothering him. I don't know what that was about."

It may not have been about anything in particular outside of the facts that, 1- the Heat were about to fall behind 1-0 in the series, and 2- Pierce and Richardson haven't quite gotten along in the past. Richardson, who was assessed a technical foul as a result of his actions, didn't stop his taunting on the court, either. He took it into the locker room and released it to the press, calling Pierce and Kevin Garnett "actresses" and "good basketball players, and that's about it."

Those sound like the words of a player who is first and foremost frustrated that his team wasn't capable of snagging a Game 1 win on the road, and secondly a player who is doing his best to get in the head of his opponent.

That doesn't seem to be working, at least judging by Pierce's response today.

"I don't get paid to act," Pierce said with a chuckle. "I get paid to play basketball."

Luckily for the Celtics, Pierce and his teammates have been here before and know better than to let this type of situation fester in the press. Instead, the C's chose to let their on-court performance do the talking in Game 1, and the goal is to do the same moving forward.

"The only thing I can do is respond with my play," said Pierce. "Regardless of what anybody says or what anybody does to me, (I'm) just going to respond with my play."

Most of the talk at today's practice was about Pierce and Richardson, but the biggest story that has come from the altercation is the following question: will Kevin Garnett will receive a suspension due to an elbow that inadvertently landed in Richardson's face?

When Sunday's practice concluded, the team had still not heard any news from the league regarding possible suspensions, so at this point both squads will plan as if all of their players will be available. If that's the case, both the C's and the Heat will have to do their best to quell those emotions in Game 2 and beyond in order to keep this series clean.

As Rivers noted at today's practice, it's more than possible to have an emotionally charged playoff series that's played with integrity, and that's what he hopes will happen between these two teams.

"It's going to be a tough, hard-nosed series," said Rivers. "That's just part of it, and we all have to accept that. And that may mean physical basketball, but physical, clean basketball is fine."

Pierce acknowledged the fact that the emotions between these two teams are probably not going to lessen throughout the remainder of this series. Both the Celtics and Heat are fighting for something that is cherished by every player in this league - a championship - and when they have to go through each other to achieve that goal, emotions will run high. The challenge is to maintain composure during those emotional moments.

"This has much more meaning," said Pierce. "This is it - it's only 16 teams left and everybody's fighting for one thing. And so you've got to expect that tensions are going to rise, you know flare-ups, or whatever, but the thing is just keep it in the framework of the game to where it doesn't get out of hand, but you've got to understand it's going to get edgy at time because we're all fighting for one thing and only one team can have it."

Rivers echoed that sentiment with what may have been the quote of the day.

"Emotions are emotions, but nothing gets in the way of winning," he said.

Those "playoff basketball" emotions didn't get in the way of Boston winning Game 1 against Miami, and the Celtics' plan is for that to continue for the remainder of their postseason run.