The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Rafer Alston wouldn't torch Rondo right now... would he?

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “The consensus is there needs to be major improvement on defending point guards if the Celtics expect to make a push for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. And a two-day respite allowed the Celtics to focus more on help defense, especially with physical and gifted Baron Davis of the Los Angeles Clippers coming to TD Garden tonight. In the past four games, opposing point guards have averaged 21.2 points, 8.7 assists, and 7.7 rebounds, shooting 50 percent from the field.”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Rivers acknowledges that part of Rondo’s development into an upper echelon player in the NBA involves doing a better job at defending bigger point guards. But some of his struggles defensively, especially in Friday’s overtime win over Portland, wasn’t solely because of Rondo. ‘We did a terrible job of helping the other night on Andre (Miller),’ Rivers said. ‘We allowed Andre to post Rondo and get to the basket. And that can not happen.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “With the Celtics about to play five times in seven days, Garnett’s own focus will be on acclimating to the grind. ‘It’s definitely a challenge,’ Garnett said. ‘At the same time it’s a measuring stick for where we’re at and where we’re trying to be. We’re trying to prepare ourselves for later on in the season, and this stretch is good for that. When you’re traveling, (playing) back-to-backs, you try to stay as positive or mentally strong as you can. You see where you’re at and what you’re made of as a team – how you lose games and how you bounce back.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “What’s more, opponents owned a 130-106 advantage in total rebounds during that three-game losing streak to Atlanta, Dallas, and Chicago, with a 32-19 advantage on the offensive glass. Asked about those troubles this past weekend, Celtics coach Doc Rivers didn’t seem overly concerned. In fact, he suggested the lopsided numbers actually show how well the Celtics are playing defense this season.”

Zach Lowe, Celtics Hub – “Memo to all non-Celtics fans: Any C’s fan with a functioning brain understands that Tommy Heinsohn is (at times) a homer. We are not all sitting there in front of the TV, drool running down our chins, nodding as Tommy accuses LaMarcus Aldridge of not even trying on defense (as he did Friday) or laments a call against Boston as ‘bogus!’ Boston fans are just as capable as anyone else of discerning objective commentary from rooting.”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “[Paul Pierce] On reestablishing home-court dominance: ‘Our goal before the season was to try to get home-court advantage, but we haven’t been doing a good job of protecting home court. We’ve done a good job on the road and, if we do [protect home] our record would be a whole lot better. We have to get back to being stingy at home and not letting teams think they can come in here and get wins.’”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.