When the Celtics signed Rasheed Wallace as a free-agent last offseason, they had his track record against Dwight Howard in mind.

"Oh, it was huge," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "This summer we were thinking about how can we beat Orlando, not Cleveland, because Orlando won the East. So it was a big factor."

Howard hurt the Celtics in the postseason last year, so they were looking for help even though they were without Kevin Garnett in 2009.

"[Rasheed's] equally as big because you have two guys who are capable of matching with Howard one-on-one," said Paul Pierce.

"A lot of times you see teams go down and double him to where it frees up their shooters. We have the advantage to point where we don't have to double with these guys guarding him. He's going to be key, too, and if eventually, if Kevin has to guard him, we have another guy who can guard him."