He added, “No, it’s not [Rivers’s] job to explain that. The coaches make their decisions. But at the time we had a pretty good lead, so I can understand. I can understand.’’
Before last night’s game, Rivers said, “We were up 11, 12, and he had probably still played 33, 34 minutes. If Paul was 25 [years old], he would have been in. But he knows what I’m going to do and he likes it most of the time but when you lose no one likes it. So I don’t think it’s a big deal.
“It’s not something I need to have a conversation [with him] about. I’ll let you guys do all that. I can give you this, we haven’t said one word about it. It’s so silly. He was frustrated after the game. He said a word. It probably won’t be the last one.’’
Rivers was more disturbed about his team’s reaction to the Cavaliers’ frantic push.
“We should have played harder, played with more of a sense of urgency the whole game,’’ he said. “I think our guys, when they watched the film, they were disappointed in their defensive urgency throughout the game, and then moreso down the stretch. They kind of let up and thought they could squeeze out the game and all of a sudden Cleveland got excited and we couldn’t turn them off.
“I thought there was a lot of frustration after the game, which was a good sign.’’
O’Neal sharp
Jermaine O’Neal returned from a three-game absence because of a bruised left knee and scored 12 points in 23 minutes, including two dunks, as the Celtics tried to capitalize on the aggressiveness of Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao.
“He’s all over the place,’’ Boston’s Kevin Garnett said of Varejao. “I watched the game previous and saw that [Chris] Wilcox and [Brandon]Bass had early slips [to the basket] and we never found them. Tonight was just making a conscious effort of getting JO involved, a confidence builder. Any time you come back from a layoff you want to get some easy baskets.’’
O’Neal has been battling various ailments all season but has taken advantage of his limited offensive chances.
