"This is, as Ray Allen admits, quite a dead period.

The Celtics guard is trying to get a feel for how the NBA lockout should affect his preparation — whether he should kick workouts into high gear, whether he should start getting teammates together for independent workouts at UConn.

He doesn't know if the increase in doomsday predictions — the belief that there will not be a 2011-12 season — actually means something.

But Allen doesn't believe a lost season would end the Big Three era, even if he and Kevin Garnett have only one year left on their respective contracts.

"I don't think so," Allen said yesterday before teeing off in his charity golf tournament at the TPC River Highlands. "They're not going to send us away because possibly we miss a season. We're not going to say we're done and we're not going to play any more. I still have a lot left in me and I'm sure that Kevin feels the same. At this stage of the game, I'm sure he's rejuvenated and he'll be ready to go."

"When you stop so abruptly — it wouldn't be anything I would accept. As far as being ready to play another season, I would just be ready. Especially if you get a whole year off. It's not as if you go into the next year and say I'm done. I'm not going to play anymore. We're competitors. When you lose a season like that, you come back and you're ready to get after it. It will fuel our fire, and enable us to go after it a little more next year."

For now, though, Allen has to cool his heels. Yesterday's tournament, with the proceeds going to Allen's Ray of Hope Foundation, will help fund computer labs in two Hartford schools."