The Celtics improved to an NBA-best 33-6 overall and 15-3 on the road.
"Guys have been playing with a lot of passion and emotion," Garnett said. "We have been playing good basketball, great basketball."
But their passion and emotion clashed with their good and great basketball against their heated Atlantic Division rivals.
The Celtics had three technicals, New York two. After continuous trash-talking and tangling between Paul Pierce and New York guard Quentin Richardson, both were ejected with 1:57 left in the third quarter. Pierce had 10 points and 7 assists while Richardson went scoreless.
The Knicks also expressed displeasure with Boston guard Eddie House, who had some words for their bench after nailing a 3-pointer to push his team ahead, 107-87, with 2:24 remaining. After hearing House, Garnett told him, "Just play. Just play." New York coach Isiah Thomas declined comment on what House said.
"I can't really repeat [it]," said House. "It was something colorful to myself."
Rivers said five Celtics - including Pierce, House, and Perkins - were talking too much, and added that his team has gotten away with trash-talking in previous games. He said such actions in a playoff game could cause them to lose.
"New York's playing extremely well right now and there's some frustration," Rivers said. "But we can't answer to it. We can't get in a moaning contest when you got a lead on the road.
"I told them to be quiet and play the game. So I was disappointed in us in that. It wasn't just Paul. It was five of us.
"All of us were running our mouths instead of just playing basketball. The scoreboard will talk all right. You don't have to run your mouths. I wasn't happy with that."
Pierce and Richardson began yapping at each other and getting physical in the third quarter. Veteran referee Joey Crawford slapped them both with technicals to try to calm their emotions with 3:07 remaining in the quarter.
