From Kendrick Perkins’s first-half ejection and Glen Davis’s and Marquis Daniels’s late-game concussions to the fact that the team they had dominated for three games had suddenly become the bully, Doc Rivers summed up the Celtics’ Game 5 loss to the Magic Wednesday night as “surreal.’’
As he looked around the locker room, at the wreckage the Magic had left behind after clawing back into the series they seemed all but out of to trail just three games to two, Rivers didn’t have to gauge the mood.
At the time, there was a possibility that Perkins would be suspended for Game 6 tonight at TD Garden, that reinforcements Davis and Rasheed Wallace would be too battered to play, and that the Celtics would be going into their last home game of the Eastern Conference finals handicapped.
“It was a very emotional locker room,’’ Rivers said. “Guys were upset at a lot of stuff. Guys are worried about each other. Guys are injured and sitting in there looking like a M*A*S*H unit at one point. You saw all the trainers and the doctors, and I’m trying to talk, and everybody’s got ice.’’
The Celtics were able to re cover yesterday. They caught a break, learning that they will have Perkins available tonight, as one of his two Game 5 technical fouls was rescinded by the league. Still, the technicals were a disappointment to Rivers, who thought neither justified and who knows that with Perkins sitting on six postseason technicals (one shy of a suspension), he’ll be walking on eggshells.
“Obviously, I’m happy about it,’’ Rivers said. “I’m a little disappointed that both technicals weren’t rescinded. I thought they both should have been and I’m very surprised that they were not. But I’ll take the one and hopefully we can keep working on it.
“Unfortunately, we can’t get those calls back. It clearly affected us in Game 5 not having Perk out on the floor.’’
Davis left the locker room Wednesday night frustrated. Dwight Howard’s elbow landed on him like a tree limb, sending him into a daze that had him stumbling across the court before being propped up by referee Joe Crawford and Wallace. Headaches lingered that night, but yesterday Rivers said Davis had improved, and that he will be a game-time decision tonight.
“Baby looks good,’’ Rivers said. “He was talking. He looked fine. He still has to go through a couple of tests this evening with our doctors to get clearance. He didn’t have any headaches today. He had some last night, which was a big step, I guess.’’
Wallace, who scored 21 points off the bench in Game 5 but fouled out in the fourth quarter, was still bothered by a sore back yesterday.
