Final Thoughts before Game Six

ORLANDO—Doc Rivers is hopeful the referee trio of Dan Crawford, Dick Bavetta, and Mark Davis call Game Six the way the game was called in the second half of Game Five Tuesday in Boston. That is to say, let them play.

If not, and if Kendrick Perkins gets in foul trouble, that could spell trouble for the Green.

“We can go small at one, two, and three but if we have to go small at four and five, clearly that’s not been the recipe for success for us,” Rivers said an hour before Game Six at Amway Arena. “We are small to start when you think about it. Perk is undersized compared to Dwight (Howard) and Baby (Davis) is 6-7, 6-6, and we bring in Scal and we get smaller. But that’s who we have and they know their roles and they’ve been great at it.”

If the Celtics need to go small then Stephon Marbury needs to be the Starbury that showed up in the fourth quarter Tuesday.

“Steph was huge because he gave us another scorer when we needed it,” Rivers said. “They’ve clearly decided they’re going to run off Rondo and make him beat them. Steph came in and made shots and that’s what we needed.”

Win tonight and the Celtics are sure to get a couple of days of rest before the Eastern Conference finals begin next week in Cleveland.

“As far as closing out, you focus on winning, you have to just focus on just playing,” Rivers said, when asked if he reminded his team about the Game Six that got away in Chicago. “We played great that game. The league is make-miss league. If we could play that game every game, we would would do that. I would hope they perform that way. That would be terrific.”