"The Starters have Earned the Right to Rest"

It’s funny. At halftime, I told our coaches I thought we honestly had a better chance to win with our second unit than our starters. You could just see it in the third quarter that their energy was low. And you can’t fault them. They’ve earned the right to rest...

--Doc Rivers

The 2007-08 Boston Celtics are human after all. Starting the season 29-3, and often playing every quarter like it was the fourth quarter of the NBA Finals, including several exhibition games, some of us doubted whether this squad was capable of the notable mental lapses suffered by the 1986 Celtics during games against the New Jersey Nets on opening night and against the New York Knicks on Christmas Day.

So many of us will take comfort from Doc's honesty here.

The Celtics starters are indeed in coasting mode.

Another reason not to get too concerned about the loss to the Wizards.

I also like the fact that Doc isn't coasting. He's still calculating the best ways for the Celtics to win.

I would really like this team to win 66 games. I've been thinking about their final regular season record for some time. Sixty-six wins would be two fewer than the all-time team record, set by the 1972-73 Celtics, who didn't win a championship, and one fewer than the greatest Celtic team of all time.

66 wins would build an historic identity for this team in the won-loss column.