CLEVELAND - Rivalries are mainly for the fans. Players generally act as if they are above such stuff. But LeBron James is very much a fan - right down to the Yankees and Cowboys gear he favors - so he likes what the Celtics and Cavaliers are building.
``Any time you can develop something where you can be competitive every time you play, for me as an individual, I thrive on that,'' James said. ``That's fun to me when every time you play that team it's going to have that intensity of a playoff game.'' And while the Cavs would love nothing more than to beat the C's, there can be no mistaking the respect they have for the Green. ``Not just us, but I think everyone in the league still looks at Boston as the team, the standard we're all going after,'' said Cavs general manager Danny Ferry. No matter how well the Celtics were doing last season, they always talked of the Cavaliers as the team to beat because they were defending Eastern Conference champions. Now James' gang is thinking along the same lines. ``We've done this in the past,'' said Cavs coach Mike Brown. ``When Detroit was the Eastern Conference champion or the NBA champion, that's who you kind of have to look up to and target and want to be like. That's who you've got to take it from. Last year (the Celts) won the East and they won the NBA championship. We want what they have. We want to be where they are. We can't hide it or sidestep it. We have to go earn it because they're definitely not going to just give it up.''
No guarantees
Doc Rivers isn't taking it for granted that the Celtics will simply sail their way out of their recent rough stretch.
``I don't ever assume that,'' he said. ``I think that's what got us here. It's like, `I know I didn't go over on the pick this time, but I'll do it the next time.' I think that's exactly the type of thinking that's gotten us in this position.''
Brown doesn't believe opponents are figuring the Celts out.
``I think it's not necessarily what teams are doing to the Celtics,'' he said. ``I think the Celtics right now are just in a little bit of a funk, which everybody goes through throughout the course of the season.
``Obviously (Rajon) Rondo is not playing the type of Basketball that he was playing when they were winning, and I think that has a big impact on them. If he's not playing well, do you sit him? And if you sit him, that's a key component they rely on that's off the floor. Or do you go with him and you rely on your `D'? And their `D' at times has been great and at times it hasn't been so good. . . . And I think that's what hurts them.''
Take it easy
The Celtics certainly missed Tony Allen's defense last night, but the team left him home to rehab his right ankle and to avoid temptation.
``I'd rather do the treatment and get him ready,'' Rivers said. ``He wasn't going to play (last night). There was a chance he could play (tomorrow), but to me at this point in the season, I want to try to get our guys 100 percent. . . . Your job is to get our guys 100 percent by the end of the year.''
Allen will have company in the trainer's room back in Waltham. Bill Walker (knees) and J.R. Giddens (wrist) were called up from the D-League for medical reasons.
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