Celtics’ Latest Excuse: No Effort

Initially, they were bored with the tedium of the regular season. Now, they tell the Boston Globe that, for whatever reason, they’re not playing hard. Riiiight: “Center Kendrick Perkins didn’t even feel comfortable trying to measure his team against the Cavaliers, because the effort, he said, wasn’t there yesterday or Feb. 25 when Cleveland came into the Garden and dealt the Celtics a 108-88 loss. ‘I don’t really know where we’re at because we haven’t played them with our best game yet,’ Perkins said. “If they were to beat us playing Celtic ball, where at least we’re playing as hard as we can, it would have been different. But I don’t think we went as hard as we should have.’ As plain as it was to see how far apart the teams might be, Rivers said there were points when he could see how close his team was to breaking through. ‘Our goal is to get us at our peak when the playoffs start and see where we are at, but we’ve got to get there and work hard,’ Rivers said. ‘We’ve have a lot of work to do.’ Exactly how much time they have left is another question.”