Celtics Title Town

"I just know the Knicks have been struggling, I can’t tell you how far we’re behind them," said Rivers. "But I think there’s a team in front of us -- Brooklyn -- so I don’t pay much attention to it. I really don’t. To me, there’s no reason to -- why? We have to focus on the next game, at least I do. I’m sure our players do at times, and everyone else does it for them, so I don’t need to do it."

Added Rivers: "We would like to win the division. But I would rather win a world championship, if I had my choices. That’s the key, you want to be healthy, be right, and give yourself the best opportunity to win in the playoffs."

I like what Doc says about taking a game at a time. I've been up and down when it comes to seeding, and rest. I say rest, with seeding in mind, and it sounds like that's the goal with Doc is to snag both, but at the same time not the main focus. The Celtics as of this moment stand 3½ games back of the beat up New York Knicks, while the Brooklyn Nets are a mere 1 game back in the division race.

Rivers also said this when it came to issues with this club. "You’re not going to solve [the issues] with one practice." This is a team still playing well without Rondo, but at the same time still learning to play without him.The Guys on the Heat's streak..

Asked if he wants the Heat to still be carrying that streak on Monday, Pierce offered, "I really don’t even care. I hope they lose every game the rest of the season. I just worry about what this team does."

That said, Pierce admits you can't avoid the hype around Miami's streak.

"It’s rare when you’ve got a team that plays so well to be able to do that," said Pierce. "It’s hard not to keep track of it. Anytime you go to NBA.com or ESPN.com, it’s going to be right there. It’s very impressive what they’re doing. It is what it is. But I think they don’t care about the winning streak."

The Celtics put together a 19-game winning streak early in the 2008-09 campaign coming off their title season. The Heat are in a similar position, which isn't lost on Boston coach Doc Rivers.

"It’s impressive, it’s really impressive," said Rivers. "The year after we won it, I think we won [19] in a row, right before Kevin went down [with a season-ending knee injury], and it’s hard to do -- for a lot of reasons. But it’s harder to do for a defending champ, because every night is the other team’s biggest game. And the fact that they are doing it under those circumstances, is pretty impressive."

But Rivers maintained the company line about the streak.

"I don’t really care," he said. "We’re going to play them one way or another, whether they have a streak, or coming off a loss. We’ll be ready, I'm sure they will be."

I think its destiny that the Celtics beat the Heat this Monday at the Garden. This will go down as one of the best games this season. With the streak on the line. The Celtics have the grit. and guts to beat them..