The Celtics beat the Knicks in Boston on Tuesday night as tensions rose between the two teams.

"They won the game," New York guard Quentin Richardson said, "but I think a few of those guys know that they can't just say anything to us."

The Celtics claim it was the Knicks that opened their mouths, but New York insists otherwise.

"I'll just be real curious to see what a lot of those guys would say if we weren?t in a basketball arena, where there ain?t no referees and the NBA officials are going to stop certain things," Richardson said. "I mean, it wouldn't be the same story. They are the world champions and rah-rah-rah. But I mean the tough talk, I don't buy.

"I come from a neighborhood where you can say what you want to say ? until you do something, it really don't mean nothing. Some of those guys are woofing about, 'Get a ring.' You ain't been in the league long enough to talk like that to some people who's got as many years as we got over here. I don't got a lot of respect for that."

Kendrick Perkins flipped the script.

"They was doing all the trash-talking," he said. "They started everything that was going on. We really weren't talking noise. They started it."