Stretched Celtics rest and regroup for Lakers
Paul Pierce casts Boston in an underdog role but says the team will adjust for the finals against L.A., which has had an easier path in the playoffs.
BOSTON -- Paul Pierce admits he was running on fumes.
The Celtics have had a meandering path to reach the finals in these playoffs. Their shortest effort was six games against the Detroit Pistons their last series.
That is the longest their final counterparts -- the Lakers -- have had to play in a series this postseason.
So, the Celtics followed the Lakers suit, practicing Monday after two days rest. Pierce called the rest good for him and the team, but they still have some business to tend to.
"It's good to be here, but we didn't make the finals just to make it," he said. "We've got a goal to accomplish."
The Celtics are already taking an underdog approach.
"A lot of people are looking at how we struggled against Atlanta, had a tough time versus Cleveland," Pierce said. "That's all right. This is our first time together as a unit in the playoffs and you've got to understand that what you do in the regular season is far different from how you play in the playoffs.
"We learned a lot about ourselves during the regular season, but the playoffs are a different thing. We had to relearn ourselves once again in the playoffs, and then I think we kind of figured it out in Detroit. That's probably why we're considered the underdogs, but we're relishing that role."
And what about matching up against the Lakers, whom they swept during the regular season, pre-Pau Gasol?
"They're definitely a different team than the last time we saw them," Pierce said. "We just have to wait and see Game 1 and then from there, we'll make adjustments."
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The rest of the NBA may as well have not existed to Celtics guard Ray Allen when he was growing up in the 1980s.
"You were either Magic [Johnson] or you were Larry [Bird]," Allen said Monday. "I didn't really know that Milwaukee existed [or] those Texas teams. I didn't really know they existed because around that time of the year [the Lakers and the Celtics] always played" in the NBA Finals.
So, who was he?
"I was a Magic guy. I lived in California, so I was always a Magic guy."
jonathan.abrams@latimes.com
