It's not true that Celtics coach Doc Rivers never blasts his players in public -- just ask Glen Davis. It is true, however that he rarely indicts the whole team like he did after Thursday night's 93-86 loss to the Bulls. On the surface, the Celtics stayed close on the second night of a difficult back-to-back. The seven-point margin was the closest they've come to winning in Chicago since defensive guru Tom Thibodeau left Boston to take over the Bulls.

But beyond the result, Rivers was annoyed and he let his team have it.

"I had to use two timeouts to remind us that we were actually in an NBA game tonight," Rivers said. "I thought that was the worst loss for us this year with the way we approached the game. And then the second half, I just thought Chicago, they're too tough for us. Their toughness made us let go of the rope. You could see it. We wanted to use all the excuses all night. I just thought Chicago was too tough for us."

There's a method to the public airing of grievances. It was a little over a year ago that Rivers similarly put his team on blast after a wretched loss to the Bobcats when he called the players "selfish." That was a team that was falling apart and in truth, the C's never did recover from their March swoon.

This was different. This Celtics team has thrived on its resiliency. Whether it's been the slow start or the one-two punch of devastating injuries and season-ending surgeries, this team has found itself at the right time and against huge odds is suddenly back in the conversation in the Eastern Conference. This was about getting his team back on course, but it was also about Chicago, a team cast in the C's very image.

"This team has shown great resolve," Rivers began before turning his attention back to the Bulls. "That's twice now. They get into us, they frustrate us and our guys let go of the rope. We're not going to go a lot of places playing with that type of mental toughness. Chicago's tougher than us right now. We've got three weeks because the way we're playing, we'll be playing one of those guys in the first round. And we got to get better. That was unacceptable. That's an unacceptable effort for us. I don't say that very often. I don't think I've ever said that. That was a crime."

For good measure, he added, "I don't want to hear us about winning crap. Not with that effort."

The Bulls outscored the Celtics 55-37 in the second half and outrebounded them 24-16. They got to the free throw line eight more times, which provided the point differential. They forced nine turnovers in the final 24 minutes and generally turned the Celtics into a halfcourt team that was forced to fire up contested jump shots.

If the Celtics are going to make a run this spring -- and Rivers remains convinced that they can -- they are going to have to figure out some way to beat Chicago. The Heat present their own problems and should never, ever be taken lightly, but the Celtics have a plan when they play Miami. With the Bulls they are still searching for answers.

Their frontline does not matchup well at all with Chicago's, and Luol Deng dominated Paul Pierce in the second half, outscoring him 18-5 This was a night where the C's missed Mickael Pietrus badly, but the Bulls were without Derrick Rose, and Rivers didn't want to hear about any of that anyway.

"I'm just so pissed at the way we played, honestly," he said. "The playoffs are the furthest thing from my mind right now. Because that's not us."

This is what the Celtics are. They're a very good defensive team that has been playing better since the All-Star break. Over the second half of the San Antonio game and the first half against Chicago, the C's allowed 66 points to two of the top four offensive teams in the league. But they don't score enough to cover for any kind of a defensive lapse. They don't get to the free throw line enough, and when they turn the ball over they can be beat by any team in the league. Rebounding remains their Achilles' heel.

Even with all that, they had a 15-6 record since the break going into Thursday's game, but it's a thin margin. They can't afford to take plays off, let alone halves. So, Rivers left them with a final parting shot.

"We were cool tonight," he said sarcastically. "We were the cool Boston Celtics tonight. That's who we looked like. You could see it, walking around, walking the ball, we couldn't get the ball inbounds. Nobody wanted to work to get the ball inbounds. It was a joke. We were the cool Celtics and there's nothing about me that's cool, I can tell you that. And you don't play basketball cool."