"No," Paul Pierce said emphatically, rejecting that question altogether.
Dead silence. Next question.
Make no mistake — the Celtics were fantastic on Tuesday night. They ambled into the locker room at halftime with only a four-point lead, and they took the floor in the second half to blow the Sixers away. They held them scoreless for half the third quarter, they quickly built a double-digit lead, and they got up by as much as 21 before resting their starters and cruising in the final minutes.
They won by a 99-82 final, beating a Philly team that they very well might face in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. It was a nice little victory, but in no way was it a matter of "sending a message."
"No," said coach Doc Rivers. "Not at all. I just think we won today and they lost today. Now they're going to watch film, and we're going to watch film. But it's nice to win."
Perhaps past Celtics teams would have made this game into a battle of wills, a personal grudge match against a key rival. Last year's C's certainly kicked it up a notch last April against a Milwaukee Bucks team they expected to see in round one. But this year's Celtics are merely focused on themselves. It's not about who they're beating and why — it's simply about the C's improving themselves.
"We're working on something here," Kevin Garnett said. "We've got — I don't even know how many games left, but I do know next Wednesday is the end of the season. We're working on things here. One of the things we're working on is trying to be more efficient in the second half. We've got to get more stops, and we've got be better defensively starting off. We're not perfect, but tonight, we did what we had to do to win the game."
Indeed they did. Most importantly, they clamped down defensively. That started with eliminating the Sixers' dribble penetration, forcing them to take jumpers. Philly's guard duo of Jrue Holiday and Jodie Meeks combined for 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the first quarter, but Boston wised up after that and slowed those two down. The Sixers' bigs were getting easy points early, but the C's began protecting the rim late.
Over the course of the night, the Celtics evolved into a more focused, more energetic, more collaborative team.
"I thought we did a good job," Pierce said. "We had a better sense of urgency. We've been talking the last couple games — we've built up 10-point leads, and teams have gotten right back into it. I think we did a better job of holding the lead. Doc always says that when we get these leads, we get a little bit lackadaisical. Just the simple plays are the ones that we need to make, and I thought we did that well for the most part."
These are the older, wiser, more mature Celtics — the regular season is winding down and the playoffs are right around the corner, but the C's aren't getting sucked into the extracurricular drama. They're merely focused on getting themselves right. Tuesday night was a nice display of what they're capable of.
