Said captain Paul Pierce: "He probably needs a little rest, anyway. This has been going on for the last couple weeks. Maybe this will be good for him down the stretch - we want a 100 percent Kevin Garnett, especially going into the playoffs."
Meanwhile, the Suns have had crises of their own. They seemed to be sinking as they played host to the NBA All-Star Game last Sunday, then replaced coach Terry Porter with Alvin Gentry and went on a scoring spree. But during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers Wednesday, forward Amar'e Stoudemire absorbed a blow to his right eye, which caused a partially detached retina that will keep him out for at least eight weeks.
Still, the Suns took a 140-118 home victory over Oklahoma City Friday night, their third straight 140-point game.
"They may [score 140], but they haven't done it against us yet," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I don't worry about those teams. You know what they're doing. First of all, they are terrific offensively, they always have been, they always will be, as long as [Steve] Nash is there. But we're terrific defensively.
"Obviously, we don't have Kevin, but that doesn't change our team defense. We have to be efficient offensively, too. Some things Kevin did we can't duplicate; we're not going to try.
"It's got to be a team effort. Kevin has the ability - he's just so smart - he has the ability to see things that we didn't discuss as a staff or in shootaround, that he has the ability to sniff out. The young guys are not to that level yet. And we're going to miss that.
"You can't prepare for those misses, where it looks like we were prepared defensively but sometimes it's Kevin seeing something that we didn't pick up. Our team defense has to be very solid and it has to be a collection.
"It's a great challenge. [The Suns] are playing with great confidence."
If Garnett sits for two weeks, he'll miss six games. Any longer and he could miss home dates against Cleveland (March 6) and Orlando (March 8).
