``I didn't even think that was close,'' the Celtics coach said of the play - an inadvertent elbow that knocked Pietrus to the floor. ``(Perkins) was reaching out to feel for space, and he just happened to touch the guy high. But I'm so sick of this flagrant foul crap. It's bugging the hell out of me, I have to tell you. It's almost like we're trying to find ways to get guys out of the game.

``It's everywhere,'' said Rivers. ``Every game I watch it's the first clip - flagrant foul, do you think he's going to play tomorrow? Ron Artest got thrown out yesterday for a foul that wouldn't have even been called when I played. It's amazing to me. I know the purpose is good but, gosh man, we have to get back to playing Basketball.''

Perkins shrugged off the play.

``I don't think anybody out there is trying to hurt somebody,'' he said. ``Guys are playing hard. It's just a physical game. Guys aren't trying to fight. But guys should just be able to play and leave it alone. I try not to even worry about it. I'm going to play my game, and what happens happens.''

Dearly departed

News of the death of Chuck Daly, the Hall of Fame coach who led the Pistons to two NBA titles, stripped Rivers of yet another mentor. He compared Daly yesterday to another coaching legend.

``(Daly) and Red Auerbach were very similar,'' Rivers said. ``When I called him or Red, you would think they would give you this complicated answer, but they both made it so simple - they could see the game so slow. So that's just a big loss.

``He had a way of making a complicated thing very simple for himself, for others and for his players. I thought that's what his secret was. It was huge for me.

``Coaches lean on coaches all the time,'' Rivers added. ``I do it all the time. I have my group of coaches I talk to a lot, and Chuck was obviously one of them. It's going to be a big void.''

Ugly video

Rivers, in particular, seemed to suffer from watching too much video of the Celtics' Game 3 loss to Orlando.

``It made me feel worse,'' he said. ``I was in an awful mood when I turned it on and whatever is past awful, I was in that afterward. They made a lot of great shots, and I thought we were soft, not aggressive. They picked us all game, and we were the retaliators all game. Other than that, it was just a wonderful night of film watching.

``We had a short turnaround today, I thought we needed film, and the film we did was not that long. The film I did was ridiculous. It was over an hour and a half, and after I showed it to the coaches we realized, hell, the game didn't last that long. We decided to do the two edits that (assistants) Armond (Hill) and (Tom Thibodeau) made, instead of my edit, which was probably the smartest move we made today.''

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