Time on Celtics’ side between series

The Celtics [team stats] took the first of two days off. They’ll begin practice tomorrow and watch the Miami Heat play Game 5 of their first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers [team stats] tomorrow night.

Their viewing pleasure may even be extended, should the Sixers somehow win and force a Game 6 on Friday night in Philadelphia.

Game 7 in Miami on Sunday? That’s generally assumed to be the day and place where Game 1 of the Eastern Conference second-round series begins between the Celtics and Heat, but right now it seems a month removed.

The Celtics get to prepare, rest, go out to dinner, play with the kids and prepare some more.

Those horrid back-to-back swings of the regular season aren’t coming back.

The Celtics aren’t kidding when they say that this is their time of year. With at least a week between their Game 4 win Sunday against the Knicks and their next game, they can prepare as if it’s training camp all over again, minus the bus ride to Salve Regina.

“It’s going to get us more healthy, and it will give the Big Four a chance to get their rest,” Jeff Green said as he hurried out of the locker room Sunday in New York to meet some friends and family. “It just gives us an opportunity to get our chemistry going.”

That is the bit of unfinished business that has to be tended to during the next six days.

The bench finally played well in Game 4, and especially where the performances of Green (five points, seven rebounds) and Glen Davis (14 points, five rebounds, 6-for-8 shooting) were concerned. Overall, the bench scored 25 points, after averaging 12.3 points in the first three games.

Delonte West played better in Game 4, but he still hasn’t produced one of his classic energy games. Nenad Krstic no longer makes appearances after halftime.

If this is what constitutes depth for the Celtics, then they have a lot to work on.

And then there’s the ongoing mystery of Shaquille O’Neal to worry about. His possible return for the second round will require a reconfiguring as well.

“There’s a lot of work ahead of us — a lot of work,” said Jermaine O’Neal, whose own progress in the starting lineup has helped revive the C’s defensive soul. “We’re going to take the next day and a half off, some guys are coming in on Tuesday, but we’re not even halfway there yet. We have much bigger plans than just getting into the second round.”

Nor do they want to expire among the palm trees on South Beach. The 100-77 pounding they suffered April 10 in Miami aside, the Celtics still consider the Heat a good matchup, one they can improve on with the extra time for preparation.

The rest will help tremendously, because coach Doc Rivers won’t have to worry as much about extending minutes for Paul Pierce [stats], Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo.

“We make story lines either way,” Allen said. “You talk about going from one series to the next series without any rest. Or you can have so much time off. For us the rest is good.”

Dating back to 2008, when the Celtics [team stats] didn’t even win a playoff road game until the conference finals on their way to the NBA title, they never have had this kind of gap between rounds. It’s uncharted territory.

“I think we talk ourselves into either way something is going to be good for us,” Allen said of the rest vs. no rest debate. “We’ll talk ourselves into it, whether we have no rest or there’s plenty of it. It’s all mental. The guys that we’re bringing along, the seventh and eighth guys on the team — that’s where it helps us a lot.”

It sounds good in theory, anyway.

“With our team you never know,” Rivers said. “Honestly I think it’s great, but who knows? We know that we’ve played well when we’ve had rest.”

Garden crowd quieted by Celts

Doc Rivers didn't care much about whether Amar'e Stoudemire would play or not Friday night. The Celtics coach was more concerned about his team getting right.

They did, and in resounding fashion as the Celtics hushed a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd hungry for the Knicks' first home playoff game in seven years.

The Celtics showed the overall complete game that made them NBA finalists twice in the last three years, and now has the Knicks staring at elimination after a 113-96 loss Friday night.

If the Celtics play the same way Sunday in Game 4 of the best-of-seven first-round series, they could sweep the Knicks, giving Stoudemire plenty of time to rest his injured back.

The Knicks' All-Star big man clearly wasn't himself as he finished with seven points, but the Celtics looked like their old selves.

Paul Pierce scored 38 points on 14for19 shooting, including 6-of-8 from three-point land. Ray Allen hit eight threes and finished with 32 points, and Rajon Rondo had an eye-popping 15-point, 20-assist, 11-rebound triple-double.

"It was a conscious effort to run our offense," Rivers said. "Paul and Ray were the focus. I thought Rondo had one of those great catcher games, one of those [Jason] Varitek games. He called a terrific game. That's a great sign for us, because when he does that it allows us to run pretty much what we want to run."

In the first two games in Boston, the Celtics weren't that impressive, aside from their end-of-game execution. But with Rondo leading them in Game 3, the Celtics went through stretches where they did whatever they wanted.

It started in the first quarter as they came out primed to run the Knicks off their own court. Eight minutes in, Boston led 22-5. The cushion came from a combination of Knicks sloppiness and Celtics effectiveness.

The Knicks roared back to draw within five on five different occasions in the second quarter. But the Celtics took control in the third.

They outscored the Knicks 34-19, registering the highest-scoring quarter either team had in this series. The Celtics shot 14for23 in the period and built a 23-point lead.

"We put together four quarters," Rondo said. "In the second half we played our game and we opened the game up."

It allowed Rivers, who said before the game he was "worried about getting our rhythm," to exhale. The Celtics found it with Rondo as the catalyst.

"He got himself into a rhythm," Rivers said.

"He got us into a rhythm and allowed us to make calls. When he gets into a rhythm it allows all of us, even the coaches, to get into a rhythm."

BRIEFS: Rivers said he hopes Shaquille O'Neal (strained right calf) will play at some point in this series. "He's on the road, which means he's getting better and he's closer," Rivers said. "I don't know if he'll play Sunday or not. We'll probably find out a little bit more [today]."

The Celtics may not need him.