Ray Allen has been through things like this before. More than a decade ago in another time and place, his Milwaukee Bucks team began the year with a 3-9 record.

“There was panic, because we expected to be good that year.” Allen said. “It was just a bad sequence of events for us. We knew we weren’t a bad team. We just had to keep fighting through everything that we we’re going through and not get discouraged.”

The Bucks recovered and went all the way to the Eastern Conference finals behind Allen, Sam Cassell and Glenn Robinson where they lost to the Allen Iverson-led 76ers in a brutal seven-game series.

“Never do you get discouraged,” Allen said. “If you do, then you’ve already lost. The guys in this locker room aren’t losers. Being a winner is just getting back up, trying to figure it out and trying to get it going again.”

This is a little bit different. No one knows what to expect from the Celtics this season. They could rally much like they did in 2010 when everyone left them for dead and they made it all the way to a Game 7 against the Lakers. Or -- and this seems more likely -- they could be in the final days of a five-year run that has always had an expiration date hanging over their heads.

This is also different because barely three weeks into the season, the Celtics have already played 20 percent of their games and everything seems to be on an accelerated timetable. They got a much-needed win against a depleted Raptors team at the Garden on Wednesday that snapped the longest-losing streak of this era.

It didn’t matter that Toronto is a bad team that is beginning another rebuilding project behind new coach Dwane Casey, or that leading scorer Andrea Bargnani didn’t play because of a calf strain. When you’ve lost five straight games you don’t take anything for granted.

This was also a reprieve of sorts because already the trade rumors are swirling. As reported by Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski, teams are calling on Paul Pierce who has two years and $32 million left on his contract. Celtics president Danny Ainge has never been reluctant in considering all the options when it comes to the next era of Celtics basketball, even if it means trading the rock of the franchise.

Pierce didn’t talk to the media after this game, but really, what is there to say? It shouldn’t be a surprise that teams are calling because when you’re down that’s when opposing teams sense an opportunity to buy low. But there’s no reason to panic, and certainly no reason to make a panic move, even if the current era has already played itself out.

Ainge doesn’t have to blow things up because he has positioned the team to be blown up regardless of whether there is a move to be made. Allen’s contract, as well as Kevin Garnett’s and Jermaine O’Neal’s all come off the books this summer. There will be a rebuilding project at some point. Everyone involved understands that reality and if the opportunity exists to jumpstart the process, Ainge will surely examine the possibilities.

Trading Pierce would be a dramatic move, but it wouldn’t necessarily be for cap purposes. There is only one sure-thing free agent available this summer and that’s Dwight Howard, who has given exactly zero indications that he would consider Boston as a possible destination. Cap space allows you the freedom to make moves, but it doesn’t guarantee that you can sign anyone.

If Ainge is going to trade one or more of his Big Three, it will be have to be for talent. There is no way to get equal value for Pierce in a trade, but he could bring back younger pieces and possibly picks in what will be a loaded draft.

But Ainge doesn’t have to do anything, and he certainly doesn’t have to do anything now with the March 15 trade deadline a little less than two months away. Players who signed contracts in the offseason can’t be dealt until March 1, which will significantly expand the player pool. In other words, the trade rumors aren’t going away and everyone involved should understand that reality, as well.

“I was a couple of months ago,” Rajon Rondo said. “It’s a part of it.”

Rondo, not Pierce or Garnett or Allen, is the key. He scored 21 points before taking a hard fall in the third quarter on his right wrist and had only two assists. He wasn’t trying to do everything, he was doing what needed to be done. Doc Rivers said it last week: This is Rondo’s team and Wednesday night was one of the manifestations of what that means.

“Tonight was just one of those nights he was basically just scoring and not getting assists, but it was good for the team,” Rivers said. “We’ve asked him to do it and he’s taken it. It’s exhausting. I think he’s finding that out. Not playing, it’s exhausting being a leader. Sometimes you have to tell guys the truth and that’s not always fun.”

If the Celtics rebuild around Rondo – and that’s no guarantee, obviously – Ainge will have to find players who compliment his game. He needs to find players who can run with Rondo and finish on the break, players who can shoot and defend the basket. Those players are not easy to find, but one of the ways to get them is through trades and Pierce, Allen and maybe even Garnett (in some descending order) are the only real assets Ainge has to acquire them. So, the rumors will continue because that’s the business.

The only thing the Celtics can do now is play better. It would help if the bench found some consistency and was able to offer some real support. Mickael Pietrus and Brandon Bass form at least a solid two-man punch, but as always it comes down to the four of them: Rondo, Allen, Pierce and Garnett.

They played much better on Wednesday. They finally got off to a strong start and they put the hammer down to the start third quarter. No one else can save them and they know that too.

“What’s constant is the four guys of the starting five,” Allen said. “We’ve just got to make sure that we keep our sanity, one, and two, get better and make sure we bring along the guys that we have on this team so we can understand. We’re the ones who give the culture of what Boston Celtics basketball and the tradition is like here to the guys who haven’t been here.”