"Reservation for three, please." (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “The Celtics had to get the taste of Friday night’s home loss to the Rockets out of their mouths. Kevin Garnett had missed eight of his 12 shots. Paul Pierce missed the potential game-winner. But worse than anything, Ray Allen had played just 16 minutes, riddled with fouls. So not long after the game was over, the three of them went to dinner to hash things out. ‘Paul paid for the valet,’ Garnett said. ‘I picked up the dinner, and Ray got the dessert.’ [...] ‘Houston was pretty much the last straw for us,’ Pierce said. ‘That’s why we decided to go out after that game and talk about it. We said if we’re going to go anywhere, we’ve got to be the leaders. We have to go out there and be consistent on a night-in and night-out basis.’ ‘The one thing we’ve understood since we’ve been here,’ Garnett said, ‘is that if the three of us set the tone, the others will follow.’”

Brian Windhorst, Cleveland Plain Dealer – “The blow the Cavaliers absorbed Sunday wasn’t as much of a loss as it was a cautionary primer for fast-approaching playoffs. They walked out of the TD Garden defiant about the 117-113 defeat to the Celtics, even if it may have caused them to miss the point of what some self-inflicted mistakes can do to a playoff game or series. The Cavs (60-17) brushed it off, believing it was they who had sent the message. Erasing a 22-point second-half lead on the road without two centers — three by the end of the game thanks to foul trouble — on an afternoon when the Celtics seemed to give their best shot only emboldened them.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “The Cavaliers had no choice but to foul at that point, but as they broke for their huddles, James and Tony Allen capped an afternoon full of fireworks with one last spark. James (42 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds) ended up in the Celtics huddle, with Tony Allen behind his teammates — still clapping. ‘It was funny if you ask me,’ said Ray Allen. ‘TA said, ‘I stopped you. I kept you from shooting. You missed.’ ‘ The animosity between the teams is so rich it didn’t take long for the powder keg to blow. ‘They don’t like us, we don’t like them,’ James said. ‘So there’s a lot of things that go on on the court.’ On both sides, there’s almost a disdain for what the other team stands for. To the Cavaliers, the Celtics are a roadblock in the path to an NBA title. ‘It comes from a tough seven-game series that we had, it comes from them wanting to be really great, them winning the championship, us wanting to win the championship and having to come through Boston to try to win it,’ said James.”

Brian Windhorst, Cleveland Plain Dealer – “Somewhere between Tony Allen trash-talking in his face and Kevin Garnett grabbing his crotch while issuing LeBron James a sort of invitation Sunday afternoon, James decided he did indeed want a rematch with the Celtics in the postseason. He didn’t say it exactly in the locker room after the game but his point was clear. You could see it in his eyes and in his body language. In a way, LeBron may have even been OK that the Celtics won the game. The Cavs certainly have some issues to deal with but it didn’t take the Celtics to remind him. It just gave something for Boston to chirp about and it seems LeBron is welcoming it.”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “It just seems like there are more of those things when the Celtics and Cavaliers are placed in the same gymnasium. ‘Where does it come from?’ James said after scoring 20 of his 42 points in the last quarter to bring the Cavs back. ‘It comes from a tough seven-game series that we had (in 2008). It comes from them wanting to be really great, them winning the championship, us wanting to win the championship and having to come through Boston to try to win it. The regular-season battles that we have had, the battles between me and Paul (Pierce). The competition, that’s what’s good about this game.’ All the woofing had LeBron almost longing for the old days when bitter rivalries would boil over on the hardwood stove. ‘I think this game has lost a little bit of that in the years, all the talking, teams not liking each other,’ he said. ‘That’s the same thing I kind of figured out last year when I walked off the court in Orlando. People were mad I didn’t shake hands. Why should I be happy? Why should I be happy? I’m not happy. I’m disgusted that I lost. I move on to the next season. That’s what this game has lost. It’s lost what it had in the ’80s and early ’90s where teams really didn’t like each other.’”

Rich Levine, CSNNE – “Are they good enough? Do they have what it takes? When the game is on the line, and nothing matters but a W, will the Celtics flourish or fade? Coming into Sunday’s game, most of Celtics Nation was set up firmly in the ‘fade’ camp. With the two minutes left, and the C’s up one on the Cavs, most of Celtics Nation was expecting that result. How could they not? It’s who the Celtics had been, and with the playoffs only two weeks away, it was almost time to say: ‘That’s who they are: A team who can’t finish. A team who can’t get the job done. A team that’s probably good enough to win, but probably won’t.’ But on this day, the Celtics flipped the script.”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “The Celtics weren’t happy to let a 17-point lead evaporate in the fourth quarter, especially as emotions spilled over. But captain Paul Pierce was happy to see the team pull it together late when it could have let the game slip away. ‘I thought that both teams were up and down,’ said Pierce. ‘You saw both teams get technicals. It is something that we are going to learn from. There are going to be a lot of tight games in the playoffs where we are going to have to keep our composure. I mean we are going to get technicals and get riled up, but let’s do it early in the game instead of late, because if it comes down to a one- or two-point game, that could be the difference. We want to do a better job at that and learn from it. These are good games for us to learn from because it is a playoff atmosphere, playing against a team with the best record in the NBA. We could just take a page from this game and say, ‘You know, when you get this type of situation, we cant give them points like that.’ Garnett liked the atmosphere around the game and inside the Garden. ‘A lot of energy in the building today,’ said Garnett. ‘It’s Easter, it’s a beautiful day out, 1 o’clock game. It had all the makings of a playoff atmosphere. The [Red] Sox open today, so the city was loud today. I could feel it when I came into the city, even though it was 8 o’clock when we all got here. I could just feel it, especially when you jump out there… We anticipate, we all just looked at each other and just knew that. Plus, we needed the game. I really felt like we had this three-game slide, it’s not our character. Definitely not sitting well with anybody in the locker room. Every time that we play Cleveland, it’s a dogfight, so today was nothing different.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Wallace picked up technical foul No. 14 late in the third quarter, just about when the game’s momentum started to slowly shift away from the C’s. Teammates tried to calm him down. It didn’t work. Coach Doc Rivers didn’t have any more luck, as he and Wallace had a heated exchange on the bench. Rivers didn’t seem overly upset with Wallace’s antics following the win. ‘We know who Rasheed is and at times he’s an emotional player,’ said Rivers, who said Wallace will not be disciplined for his outburst. ‘He’s just like all of us; when we do something emotionally, five minutes later, 10 minutes later, you think, ‘Wow, I wish I could get that back.’ But you can’t.’”

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