``Posturepedic,'' he pointed out. ``I have the back problems.''

He also had close-out problems, of course. One thing Doc Rivers & Co. didn't need was the possibility of one additional game that could be avoided by beating the Magic last night.

The playoffs were 12 games long, but to the Celtics it had to feel as if it was the Fourth of July already. Doc's got a skimpy eight-man rotation going, and it would have been difficult enough to get this far under normal circumstances, let alone dealing with a first-round series that included 35 grueling additional minutes of play.

No one is more aware than Doc Rivers of just how close the Celtics have come to being finished for the 2008-09 season. If Glen Davis doesn't make the jump shot in Game 4, and, a game later, if the Magic don't implode and if the officials notice that a Rajon Rondo shot never touches anything but the bottom of the net, we could very well be doing a boiler plate Celtics' boo-hoo postmortem, and wasn't it too bad they didn't have Kevin Garnett and they didn't have Powe?

Well, they still don't have Garnett and they still don't have Leon Powe, but they were in a Game 6 at Amway Arena last night, and there will be more spring Basketball in Boston until further notice, whether it be Game 7 against Orlando or Game 3 against Cleveland.

As far as the mini-rotation is concerned, Doc might as well cite a well-known phrase from the Book of Bill. No, Coach Rivers has not yet said of his rotation, ``It is what it is,'' but he could.

Entering the playoffs, Doc knew what he was up against and how he was going to proceed. ``We didn't have Kevin, OK, but then we lose Leon in Game 1 or Game 2 - they're starting to blend together in my mind,'' Rivers said. ``That shortened our rotation even more. But, other than that, we knew what we were going to do.''

For the record, coach, you lost Powe in the eighth minute of his first appearance of Game 2 of this series. Check that. You actually lost him around minute five, which is when he went to the hoop and came down wrong, tearing his ACL. The young man channeled his inner Bruin and carried on gamely for the next three minutes before you had to get him out of there.

The loss of Garnett, 12-time All-Star, reigning Defensive Player of the Year, active NBA leader entering the season in defensive rebounds, first-ballot Hall of Famer and emotional leader of this team, is evident. But Powe is a major loss, too.

We are talking about a powerful inside player who averaged 21 and 10 during a four-game stretch in March that included three double-doubles and who had a memorable 21-point outburst in Game 2 of the 2008 Finals. The Celtics don't have another reliable inside scorer.

In Powe's absence, Brian Scalabrine has been asked to play a large role. It's revealing that Doc would rather employ Scalabrine, rotate Glen Davis into the five-spot, and juggle things with a four-man frontcourt rotation rather than play Mikki Moore. The 7-footer is simply not in favor, having played a total of 27 minutes since Game 3 of the Chicago series and working on his third consecutive DNP heading into last night's game. He was not going to be in the plan, and the loss of Powe hasn't changed anything.

Tony Allen hasn't been a factor, either. He may have thought he was after playing a total of 70 minutes in the 81st and 82d games of the regular season, but now that the playoffs are here, the supposed defensive stopper has been relegated to the role of cheerleader.

So it's been the starting five of Kendrick Perkins, Davis, Paul Pierce, Rondo, and Ray Allen, backed up by Scalabrine, Eddie House, and Stephon Marbury.

This has meant heavy minutes for Rondo (41.7), Allen (40.2) and Pierce (39.7, which would be more had he not been restricted to 16 in a foul-plagued Game 2 of this series). Scalabrine has averaged 20 minutes off the bench, which has enabled both Perkins and Davis to get some rest.

But no one is asking Scalabrine to win a game. He's strictly a support guy, and in the postseason he's been playing well, both overtly (12 for 24 on 3-pointers) and subtly (the coaches swear the offense and defense functions very smoothly when he's in the game).

The fact is that for this thing to work, certain people must stay on the floor. ``The three guys who literally can't go down for us are Paul, because we have nobody else to guard [Hedo] Turkoglu, and then Perk and Baby,'' Rivers maintained.

One of the most pleasing developments of the postseason has been the heady play of Perkins, who drastically reduced his fouling. Once upon a time, he was the type of player who had two personals by the time someone hit ``Rockets red glare'' and perhaps a third by the first official timeout. But despite logging serious minutes, Perkins has had three games in which he has finished with three personals, two with two, and then, in a real groundbreaker, a 48-minute performance in Chicago Game 5 in which he was not assessed one personal foul.

Notice that I said he was not assessed a personal as opposed to saying he had not committed any. For what might be going on in the playoffs of his sixth season - hard to believe, isn't it? - is that the officials may finally have arrived at the conclusion that he is a legitimately good defensive player who is worthy of their respect. It is not likely that in the course of a 48-minute outing Perkins never touched, banged, whacked, or otherwise impeded someone. It's more likely he did stuff in front of a referee who thought, ``Hey, that's Kendrick Perkins; he's pretty good.''

How long can they survive like this? You have your thoughts; I have mine and even Doc, I'm sure, has his. It's day by day, it is what it is, and no one who loves Basketball can say it hasn't been fun to watch.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist and host of the Globe's 10.0 on Boston.com. He can be reached at ryan @globe.com.