The Celtics second straight win, a 101-100 victory over Milwaukee, was overshadowed by an open dispute between Paul Pierce and Doc Rivers in the final minutes of the contest. Pierce hadn't been heeding Rivers' directive to fill a fast-break lane, preferring to stay outside and look for a pass and a chance to isolate his defender.

With 4:45 remaining, Rivers benched Pierce in favor of Jiri Welsch. Rivers and Pierce barked at each other, with the former getting the last words, an emphatic, "You sit."
   
"Sometimes I'm going to make great decisions; sometimes I'm not going to make great decisions," Rivers said after the game (Pierce left without addressing the media). "But I'm always going to make a decision that I think at the time is good for the team. I think that's the way a coach always has to coach. It's never personal, and you can't look at who it is. You have to look at execution. This team is execution away from being a very good basketball team, and I've got to demand it of all five all the time."
   
The Celtics were leading by one at the moment, and the margin was the same when time was called at 2:54 and Pierce, who hadn't joined the huddle, was summoned. Gary Payton was in Pierce's ear as the team moved back onto the court, and those two were speaking loudly after Pierce drilled a trey on the ensuing possession.
   
"When situations happen like that, players seem to always get mad and then they stop playing - and that's not a good way to do it because we're looking for a win," Payton said. "With young players, they always think the way they're going to get back at somebody is to don't take shots and we lose games and then you say, `I told you so.'

"But Paul is a competitor, and when I got out there I re-emphasized to him that we don't need that, we need wins. That's why I went right to him on the next play, got him a big shot. He hit the 3, and that's what a big-time basketball player should do."

"We've got a lot of young kids," said Payton, clearly referring to one in particular. "They don't understand. They've been playing so many years and they've been the man. Nobody's saying nothing to them, and they've got to understand sometimes you're going to have to take what a coach says. He's your coach."
   
Rivers insisted he is willing to let go of the confrontation.

"There really was no issue except I wanted everybody to run the floor," he said. "I didn't think (Pierce) was running the floor on the last couple of possessions, so I took him out. I don't mind him being upset at all. The game's a fiery game and it's an emotional game. I made my point, put him back in and he made a big shot for me.

"I thought that was a game that if we ran deep in transition we could beat them, and I just wanted him to do that. That was the point I was trying to make to him."