"Good stat lines from Rasheed Wallace might appease the fans, but Doc Rivers doesn't mind something ugly, as long as it includes the kind of defense turned in by the Celtics backup center in yesterday's 97-87 win against Cleveland in Game 4 at the Garden.

Wallace didn't make a shot, grabbed three rebounds and had two steals and two blocks in 20 minutes. But he got his hands on twice as many balls in the defensive end. His disruption of Cleveland's ball rotation and ability to hand out hard fouls were of far more value to the coach, who needed production out of his bench.

"It's what we needed," Rivers said. "Rasheed got a lot of play after Game 2 because he shot the ball well and he scored points, and I made a point of saying, 'That looks good and that was great for us.'

"But we're going to win this series because Rasheed plays defense. And that's what he did today. You look at his line and he was 0-for-3 and grabbed three rebounds. But he was deflecting, blocking shots, clogging the lane, fouling hard. That's what we need from him, and it was great to see."

In Kevin Garnett's mind, it still goes back to the shower room pep talk he gave Wallace following Game 1."