But neither coach, Doc Rivers or Mike Woodson, sounded convinced the Pierce-Felton matchup would turn out to be lopsided.
NEW YORK -- With point guard Pablo Prigiono back in the New York Knicks starting lineup after missing Game 1 with a sprained ankle, Raymond Felton will defend Paul Pierce during Tuesday's Game 2, in what looks to be a mismatch favoring the Boston Celtics.
But neither coach, Doc Rivers or Mike Woodson, sounded convinced the matchup would turn out to be lopsided.
"(Pierce) presents challenges for everybody," Woodson said. "We'll be fine. Raymond's okay. He's guarded bigger guys like Paul, not in the playoffs but during the regular season, all season. He'll be fine."
So Woodson's not worried?
"Not at all," he said. "We started (Felton) on (Pierce) the last two outings of the regular season when we played. So no, not at all."
Rivers agreed with Woodson's premise that Pierce will cause issues regardless of his defender, noting that Boston will always look to its leading scorer no matter his matchup.
"We're going to attack whoever guards Paul," said the Celtics coach. "I'm sure Woody's thinking the same thing; it doesn't matter who's guarding Paul. Paul's going to get the ball, he's going to get it in the post, they're going to come trap. So I don't think -- hopefully there's an advantage there, but I don't know if there really is."
Other notes:
- Prigioni provides New York with another ball-handler and battle-tested veteran. Despite being a rookie, the 35-year old has played for Argentina's national team for many years on the biggest international stage.
He won't be on any minute restrictions, Woodson said Tuesday.
"He gives us a guy that can help on our team, give us a defensive presence out front, guard the ball," the Knicks coach said.
Added Rivers: "He just gives them another decision-maker. He's brilliant. He's another Jason Kidd-ish type guy, so it just gives them another smart player on the floor, and another guy that can create plays. That makes them really good. It's no coincidence that when he's in the lineup they play better, because they have a lot of IQ on the floor at the same time."
- Figuring that Boston will establish Kevin Garnett more often in the low post, Woodson still wouldn't say that New York would focus any more of its efforts on the center. But he does expect that Garnett might search more actively for opportunities.
"Garnett's a hell of a player, he's a key matchup. Paul's a key matchup, (Jeff) Green's a key matchup, Jason Terry I think is a key matchup because he's battle-tested, he's been in enough playoff games. Those four guys are all key matchups across the board. We have to key into those guys. (Garnett) had eight points, but I'm sure tonight he'll come out looking to establish his game, and we have to be ready for that. "
- Despite Terry's 0-5 shooting performance in Game 1, Woodson did not at all sound ready to call off the dogs and let the veteran shooter get free.
"Like I said, he's a key matchup," said the New York coach. "Terry's capable of putting numbers on the board, he's capable of making big shots when they count. So you really have to keep an eye on him, try to contain him."
- Could staying in the Big Apple actually have helped Boston during the two days off between games?
Asked how the Celtics dealt with the long gap between outings, Rivers said: "You never know, but I think pretty well. Especially on the road, you'd rather get right back at it. You just feel like you're sitting around the room and doing things like that, but obviously being in New York helps in some ways. Not a bad city to hang out in, go have dinner. I think we'll be ready."
- Look for Boston to run more often and spread the wealth, rather than letting the clock run down and trying to let individual brilliance save the day.
"You just have to attack them as much as possible," Rivers said. "You can't get into what we did in the second half, when you slow the game down and get into an iso game against iso players, where we're not. Just the logic of that doesn't make a bunch of sense, and that's what we did in the second half. And then you have to execute your stuff. You can't get caught up in whatever they're doing."
- For the most part, Rivers was happy with how his team defended the Knicks on the 3-point arc while holding them to 9-25 from deep in Game 1.
"They got a couple in transition," he said. "I think (Carmelo Anthony) had two off of rebounds, and those are the ones you want to take away. But overall, I thought we ran them off the 3-point line as much as you're going to. They're still going to take them, and made them take contested 2s. We don't mind contested 2s."
- Rivers was asked at what moment he realized the 2008 championship run was special, responding: "I was concerned going into the '08 playoffs, because we literally had the easiest year that you could possibly have. When you think about that year, we won every game it felt like and didn't get tested a lot. And I was concerned going into the playoffs -- even though we were really good, we hadn't been tested. And I thought the Game 6 in Atlanta, we came apart a little bit. And I thought that was really a good thing, as crazy as that sounds. I thought that was the first time that our guys had to gather themselves, and you could see them doing it even by game's end. I really felt good about our team the rest of the way."
That 2008 team didn't win on the road until the Eastern Conference Finals, holding serve at home for most of the way. Still, Rivers was asked what stood out from that team about what a team needs to win on the road.
"I thought that team, and the 2010 team did the same thing, they embraced the road," Rivers said. "I thought (the 2008) group, even more than the (2008) group, it almost felt like they wanted to play on the road. If you remember, we lost one game late in the year, lost home court (advantage); it was almost like they wanted to. It was a strange group in that way, and it worked out for us.