"The Celtics are in their worst stretch of the season, and now's not the time to start fretting about reasons, according to one of the newest hands on deck.

"I wouldn't say we're angry," Jermaine O'Neal said of the fact the Celts have lost three of their last four games. "Angry is when you're mad and you don't necessarily know what is happening.

"We know what is happening. We're not putting together a full game. Our issue in the Orlando game was not closing that game against a very good team. We got away with it in Indiana, and we didn't against Detroit or New Orleans. Teams with very good players are going to put you in that position."

Just as teams lacking their best players are going to be especially vulnerable.

But that's why the Celtics signed the O'Neals — Jermaine and Shaquille — in the offseason: To combat the current predicament.

Kevin Garnett will miss his second straight game tonight in Toronto due to a strained right calf, and point guard Rajon Rondo [stats]'s status is as fuzzy as ever. Rondo, who has missed the last seven games to a sprained left ankle, is questionable at best for a return at the Air Canada Centre.

"If we want to be a championship-caliber team then you can't have excuses," Jermaine O'Neal said. "The conversation coming into the season was how deep we are. When Kevin's out for a while and Rondo's been out, do we say we should lose? No, we don't say that.

"We know what it takes to win. We have people who have been around, and we just have to do our job better. We have a lot of games, but they're still winnable games. We just have to do a better job to win."

That means that O'Neal, who played an unexpected 33 minutes during Friday's loss to the Hornets, will continue to wrestle with a sharp reacclimation curve."