"Shaquille O'Neal, who Saturday night played for just the second time since Feb. 2, was predictably sore yesterday, especially in the right Achilles tendon/calf area.

The veteran center logged just eight minutes in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Heat, recording two points and zero rebounds. But he clogged up some valuable space in the middle to help the Celts to their best defensive performance of the playoffs in the 97-81 win.

Coach Doc Rivers expects to send out O'Neal for Game 4 tonight, again off the bench.

"I know he can (play)," Rivers said. "That part of it is good. Obviously it's day-to-day with Shaq, but I do think he can do the same. Right now he has the typical swelling that we thought he would have, but he's just going to have that for the rest of this year. In the first half (Saturday night), Shaq and that new group struggled a bit because of the newness of Shaq, but in the fourth quarter, I thought that was a key part of our game. We were scrambling with guys being out, and we needed somebody to step forward for us, and Shaq did that in a big way."

That's the Ticket

With forward Kevin Garnett now scoring out of the post, the challenge is to keep him close to the basket.

That's not an easy task, considering his unselfish nature. But as his 28-point performance on 13-of-20 shooting in Game 3 proved, the C's are hard to beat when Garnett is attacking."