The Celtics insist that forward Kevin Garnett's surgically repaired right knee is just sore and nothing else.

"Kevin looked great tonight," coach Doc Rivers said following the team's loss to the Hawks on Friday night.

"You know, it's going to be this way for a while with him. He just came back, and (Thursday) he labored in the game, but it wasn't an injury. He just didn't have any rhythm. He was out of sync. And today he looked much better. For a while it's going to be hit or miss."

"It's an adjustment," Ray Allen added. "When you're playing the game, you have to learn to manage your body a little bit better. I don't think it hurts Kevin so much, but you do have to deal with some soreness when you're coming off surgery.

"And it doesn't really get better until you get rest. Most people who have surgery don't do what we do, so they get better faster."

The Hawks defeated the Celtics 100-91 on Friday night to sweep the season series for the first time since the 1995-96 season.

Prior to the game, Boston coach Doc Rivers paid extra attention on reserve guard Jamal Crawford, who "toasted" the Celtics in the team's three previous games.

"He owns us," Rivers told his team.

"We put a hit out on him today," center Kendrick Perkins said before the game. "Doc said somebody's got to step up and stop him."

Crawford ended up scoring 28 points in Atlanta's victory.

"I was kind of fired up, but I wasn't too worried about it," Crawford said of hearing about the comments by Perkins.

"They can knock me down, and I'll get back up. I know my teammates got my back."

The Boston Celtics announced Friday that guard J.R. Giddens has been recalled from the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League. Giddens appeared in four games for the Red Claws and posted averages of 18.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steal in 31.8 minutes per game.

Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com writes that the Celtics could add a veteran player to their roster over the next month.

Boston could wait for a veteran to be bought out by his current team and Sheridan listed Keyon Dooling, T.J. Ford, Mark Blount, Tony Battie, Jarvis Hayes, Trenton Hassell as potential fits.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers doesn't think the team needs to make any moves prior to next month's trade deadline.

"No," Rivers said Monday night when asked if he thinks the Celtics need to make a move. "I like our team. I would be willing to go into the playoffs exactly the way we are right now. If we can improve, we improve it, and that would be great, too.

"But if we started the playoffs with the 12 guys or whatever number we have and everybody was healthy, I love our team."

However, obviously, the Celtics won't hesitate to make a move if it makes sense.

"No, never," Rivers said. "Never afraid of that. But having said that, I like our team."

Celtics guard Ray Allen is in the final year of his five-year, $85 million contract and has begun pondering his future.

Allen's first choice would be to re-sign with Boston, but he understands that the feeling may not be mutual.

"I would love to be here," Allen said. "In my mind right now, for me there's no other place to be. It's a great tradition. This is really NBA basketball to me, being a part of a team and the tradition of winning, a great fan base. But the situations have to be addressed. There is a business connected to it. The team is going to do what they think is necessary. We'll have to make a decision based on how they come to me business-wise."

Allen, who will likely have to accept a hefty pay cut as a free agent on the downside of his career, is open to signing a contract extension with Boston.

"I am a loyalty person. If the opportunity presented itself to get a deal at the current moment as we speak, I would be all over it," said Allen.

"So moving forward, I don't have to worry about how the summer is going to go and long term we at least between myself, Kevin [Garnett] and Paul [Pierce], we know we are going to be here, Rasheed [Wallace] and [Rajon] Rondo. You know what the core is going to be."

Warm temperatures in Boston caused condensation to form on the floor of the TD Garden during the Celtics' 95-89 win over the Clippers on Monday night.

There was a brief delay as workers mopped the court dry late in the first quarter.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers said the game was nearly stopped because of the condensation.

The issue brought Rivers back to his playing days. While with the Hawks, a game between Atlanta and Boston was halted due to similar conditions. The game was continued a month later.

"The Celtics had the court wet on the Hawks' side, offensively, and got up by 30 and then called the game, which the people in Atlanta thought was very unfair at the time," Rivers said.

"I was nervous, though. I really was. [Referee] Joey [Crawford] was terrific. [Clippers coach] Mike [Dunleavy] and I came together and, at that point, we were very close. If anybody slipped in the next two minutes, the game was over. Joey was going to make that call. Mike said the same thing, we said it almost simultaneously, 'We can't afford a guy to get injured on this floor.'

"We're not used to 55-degree days in January."

Glen Davis is ready to drop the 'Big Baby' nickname and he loved a suggestion that came from a reporter.

"I've been called 'Big Baby' all through my life," said Davis. "But I'm going through changes. I'm in a cocoon and I'm coming out a different player, a different person. Basically, the new person is growth. I'm shedding that 'Big Baby' and you can see something else, not the past."

Davis said that fans should give him suggestions via his Twitter page, but Jeff Howe from the free daily newspaper the Metro suggested, "Uno Uno."

"'Uno Uno,'" Davis erupted in delight. "I like that, I like that. I'll be 'Uno Uno,' that's my new name."

The Celtics have been burnt by opposing point guards in their last four games, a fact that hasn't been lost on coach Doc Rivers or Rajon Rondo.

Point guards are averaging 21.2 points, 8.7 assists and 7.7 rebounds and shooting 50 percent from the field in the last quartet of games.

"I'm concerned with any one position that gets that many points in a game," Rivers said Sunday. "And the assists as well. I can live with one or the other, but I can't live with both. We have to do a better job when there's bigger guys, just like when we play teams that have slower guards and Rondo takes advantage of that with his speed.

"It's up to the team to help that guy out. And I don't think we did a good enough job."

The coach added that Rondo needs to improve in defending bigger point guards.

"This will be a big game for Rondo," he said of Monday's game against Baron Davis and the Clippers. "It starts with the individual. You've got to take the responsibility of keeping them square, making them shoot over you. Don't gamble because if you gamble on a bigger guy, now his body won't let you back in front. And the team has to understand it's a tough spot for us and we have to help early and then have better weakside help."

RealGM Note: For the season, Boston has net PER production of +6.3 at the point guard position, which is their highest advantage.

After missing 10 games with a hyperextended right knee, Celtics forward Kevin Garnett has returned with no restrictions.

Garnett played 30 minutes in his return on Friday night against Portland.

"It's good to have Kevin back - more important it's good to see him playing better after the game and playing a lot of minutes," coach Doc Rivers said. "That's a good sign for us."

The Celtics aren't monitoring Garnett's minutes as they look to turn it on in the second half of the season.

"We felt pretty good about it before," Rivers said of Garnett's appearance Friday. "There wasn't a minutes restriction -- this is totally different from last season's injury, and that's why we were really not concerned about the minutes. Our only concern with him minute-wise is conditioning. It had nothing to do with the knee.

"We always put an extra guy on (the first) team (in practice) to give him rest and to give (Kendrick Perkins [stats]) rest as well, but he's free to play."