Factors matter in this equation

The Rest Factor: The Cavs have been off since eliminating Washington Friday. The Celtics have been off since, well, they haven't been off, getting extended to the max by Atlanta. Of course, the predictable line from the Boston players was that they'd rather have it this way, playing every other day, just like the regular season. "I don't like to sit around three, four, five days anyway," Paul Pierce said. "We got a bunch of old guys. We don't need to sit around too much." Of course, if they had taken care of business against Atlanta as they should have, Pierce would have said, "We got a bunch of old guys. We need the time to rest." One thing that wasn't affected by the seven-game series: preparation. "When Cleveland went up, 3-1, we put away the Washington file," Rivers said. "As for our preparation, we were done three days ago. The players all had booklets in their lockers after [Game 7]. I don't know if they read them or not, but judging by what happened at practice, I think most of them did."