"A little rusty, yes. At times, Rajon Rondo appeared to be queasily taking corners on one wheel last night.

But the point guard's return to the Celtics after missing eight games with a sprained right wrist wasn't expected to be seamless. The bonus was that his teammates, after three uneven quarters, needed something far different from precision.

Thanks to perhaps their most hustle-oriented fourth quarter of the season, the Celtics beat the Knicks, 91-89 at the Garden, in a game that wasn't safe until the buzzer. Paul Pierce (30 points, seven rebounds, five assists) and Ray Allen (nine of his 14 points in the last 4:25) covered the sloppiness and floor burns with some of this team's best shot-making of the season.

As evidenced by a two-point fourth quarter from a double-teamed Carmelo Anthony, who had scored 24 through the first three, the Knicks were unable to free themselves once the Celtics discovered their greatest success came by running after every open shooter, loose ball and rebound.

"It was the biggest difference," coach Doc Rivers said of all of the hustle plays, which helped make up for the 23 New York points scored off 20 Celtics turnovers. "They had played (Thursday) night, and Mike (D'Antoni, the Knicks coach) and his staff really came ready to play this game. Their urgency in the first half exceeded ours, but we just hung around after that."