Doc Rivers returned to the TD Garden on Wednesday and admitted the Boston Celtics' trade of Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green in 2011 was a mistake -- one that hurt Kevin Garnett.

“I think so,” reflected Rivers, “because we needed the toughness. The one thing we did by losing Perk was we removed Kevin’s protector. I didn’t think it was a coincidence that, after Perk left, that Kevin got into all those little flicks with the other teams. Perk deflected all that.”

Perkins reached the 2012 NBA Finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Green performed well in last season's playoffs after a sporadic regular season.