Their glass is half-filled. It's half-empty. The state of the Celtics at the All-Star break is purely a matter of perspective. For their part, despite limping into the break with a rash of injuries and poorly played games, the Celtics have chosen the former.

``I know a lot of people will look at some of the losses we had the last couple of weeks, especially the way we played (in a 102-85 loss to Sacramento on Wednesday) and figure we could be better off than we are right now,'' said Paul Pierce, en route to Philadelphia yesterday to prepare for his first All-Star Game appearance Sunday. ``But the way I look at it, every team is going to have its ups and downs during the season, and lately we've hit a bit of a tough stretch.