The Celtics got their swagger back. They discovered their identity. However you want to describe it, this is what Danny Ainge had in mind when he built what everybody back in training camp, including coach Doc Rivers, called "the deepest team" of this Celtics era.

After growing increasingly frustrated throughout his team's 14-17 start, Ainge appears to have called off the trade dogs -- despite even more players becoming eligible on Jan. 15 -- upon seeing these C's finally begin to realize the vision he imagined when adding depth behind his aging superstars.

“Our spirits are better, obviously," Rajon Rondo said after a sixth straight Celtics win. "It's not fun losing. Since we've been winning, the locker room has been a little bit more relaxed and not so tense. Guys are smiling again and joking, so it's back to where we began from the start.

"We lost a couple of games. We never got down. We just tightened up in the locker room a little bit, but I wanted to be the guy who just tried to get us back as far as how we play. We play loose. We might smile out there on the floor sometimes -- I don't, but some of my teammates do -- to get that swagger back, and I think we've done that the last couple of games."

After jokingly crediting himself and his pregame soundtrack -- a series of songs he recorded himself ("They're so hot I haven't let you guys listen to them yet.") -- Rondo praised Keyon Dooling for the C's attitude adjustment off the court. The former Celtics guard, who accepted a player development role within the organization after abruptly retiring this past summer, earned the nickname Rev. Dooling for his influence on the locker room last season.

On the court, Avery Bradley's return restored the defensive identity that had been the trademark of the C's runs to three Eastern Conference finals in five seasons. His 0.69 points allowed per possession already ranks 10th in the NBA, according to Synergy Sports Technology, and his energy has spread like the flu.

Bradley's presence also allows Rivers to offer more clearly define roles to the rest of his roster. Take Courtney Lee's newfound consistency, for example, including improved defensive tenacity that has translated into 60 percent shooting on the other end this month.

"Defense is going to lead to offense," said Lee. "Once you get in a rhythm on defense, you're definitely going to have one on the offensive end."

Likewise, Jeff Green has averaged 12.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in 24.8 minutes over his last four games, and Jared Sullinger's team-leading plus/minus numbers continue to rise (He's plus-68 in 156 minutes over this six-game win streak). Both have begun to grasp the C's defensive rotations, as reflected by their own dwindling points allowed per possession numbers, which now each rank among the league's top 50 at 0.75 and 0.76, respectively.

The performance of all three has also given Rivers the luxury of resting his weary superstars, limiting both Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to 30 minutes a night during the streak, and provided Rondo with running mates on the break. As the C's point guard explained, "What I do best is run the show."

"When we get in transition, we're going to get assists, and Rondo's going to get a lot, because they're running the floor," said Rivers, who just watched his protege unleash his 26th career triple-double. "So, that was good. That's how we want to play; we want to get stops, and we want to run. All we talk about is pace, pace, pace -- defense, offense -- and it makes us really good when we can get multiple stops in a row."

Added Rondo: "Our defense is creating mismatches on the offensive end. When guys are wide open or they're cross-matched in tranition, it's easy for me to pick the defense apart."

Perhaps most surprising is the C's improvement with little to no help from struggling perennial Sixth Man of the Year candidate Jason Terry and injured athletic big Chris Wilcox, a pair of veterans with proven track records of NBA production. In other words, further reinforcements are coming, and for the first time in months the Celtics are brimming with confidence about the depth of their roster.

"As far as all-out raw talent," Lee reiterated Monday, "this is the deepest team that I've been on 1-12."

As Rivers said back in October, there's a difference between depth on paper and impact on the court, and the Celtics are beginning to blend the two. After all, the C's have climbed into the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and trail the top-seeded Heat by only 4 1/2 games.

It wasn't too long ago the swagger-less Celtics were left for dead -- the Eastern Conference all but conceded to South Beach -- but the Heat have since gone 4-6 in their last 10 and begun infighting, as evidenced by Dwyane Wade's proclamation that he misses Miami's pre-LeBron James era "every day."

Suddenly, that conference finals rematch doesn't seem so ridiculous. Just as Ainge envisioned.