Paul Pierce strained his knee during shootaround on Sunday morning, which made it doubly painful when he aggravated it during the second quarter. Avery Bradley warmed up with a harness on his left shoulder, an injury that has bothered him throughout the season. Ray Allen has bone spurs in his ankle and while Allen talked about possibly not having surgery after the season as planned, it’s still painful. Oh, and Mickael Pietrus has a hamstring injury. That’s a new one.

That may be why coach Doc Rivers looked less than exuberant following his team’s emphatic 101-79 victory over the Hawks in Game 4 that gave it a 3-1 series lead and a chance to close things out on Tuesday.

“We had a lot of stuff going on,” Rivers said. “You may not have noticed, but we had a lot of things going on our bench with bodies. You know, [Pietrus’] hamstring, we had to take him out. Avery’s shoulder, Paul’s knee, Ray’s foot. The whole game you just felt like -- I mean, you just kept looking down there -- was there enough guys to put in the game?”

Honestly, it was hard to track who was coming and going on the Celtics bench, and who would notice when Pierce was making 10-of-13 shots and Rajon Rondo was dropping 20 and 16 with just one turnover? The Celtics played their best game of the series -- their best game in a month, really -- and now are in control, but they would do well to get this over with as quickly as possible.

“This is not going to be a vacation trip,” Kevin Garnett said. “This is definitely a business trip. After you have a win like this you have to anticipate those guys having some pride and coming back. That atmosphere down there has changed since the playoffs started. So we know what we’re walking into. We’ll be ready.”

Wise words, but this is the Celtics we’re talking about -- when was the last time they ever did anything the easy way? Funny thing though, over the weekend they are suddenly in an extremely good position, and not just because of their 3-1 lead in the series.

In Philadelphia, the 76ers took two more games from the Bulls and now have a 3-1 lead on Chicago -- a.k.a., the toughest matchup for the Celtics in the Eastern Conference. The prospect of starting the semifinals with a few days off and with homecourt advantage is a tantalizing one.

“You know, I don’t talk in those terms,” Rivers said. “You’ve just got to take them one at a time and go out and play your best. If you win it, then you move on. But never look at the finish line, never even talk about the finish line.”

Rivers was asked if he was confident that Pierce would be ready to play in Game 5. “I have no idea,” he said. “You know, with a couple of guys -- actually three of them -- we literally don’t know.”  

For three games the Celtics played as if they were stuck in some of pre-All Star Game time warp. Their defense was tight, but their offense was mired in sludge. “Sometimes, we get a little dysfunctional at times,” was how Garnett put it.

Game 4 was different and it was obvious right from the start. They posted up Pierce for the game’s first basket and then went right to Garnett on the block for an easy score. It was 13-6 after the first four minutes and wasn’t much of a contest after that.

Pick you favorite video game analogy, that was Pierce. He made everything in sight -- post-ups, mid-range jumpers, 3’s -- and scored 24 points on just 13 shots. Even after banging his knee late in the second quarter, he remained unconscious in the third quarter.

Pierce was unstoppable, but Rondo was sublime. One game after recording a ho-hum triple double -- if there is such a thing -- he played even better with 20 points, 16 assists and just one turnover. He made 8-of-11 and was deadly on outside jump shots.

The Hawks started the series playing him tight to cut down on his passing angles. They switched it up and gave him room but really, there is no defense for Rondo if he makes jump shots.

“That was Rondo doing Rondo,” Pierce said. “That’s why he’s the best point guard in the NBA, the way he runs the offense and controls the game. Tonight you saw him do it offensively with his shooting. We already know he’s the best passer in the game, but tonight offensively he really picked up the slack.”

“The way he sees the game is totally different,” Keyon Dooling said. “He’s really a detailed oriented person. Guys just love to play with him. When he’s out guys don’t get their normal shots. He can make every pass from every angle.”

They’ll tell you that this all started on the defensive end with multiple stops and there’s undoubtedly a lot of truth in that. As they have throughout the series, the Celtics forced tough shots and then hit the glass. The difference was they were finally able to put together a transition game that was more than just Rondo running up the court with his teammates chasing him from behind.

This was the Celtics at their best and they may never play this well again in the postseason. They don’t have to play this well to beat Atlanta -- they’ve proven that twice already -- and the finish line that Rivers doesn’t want to talk about is right there in front of them. Beyond that lies infinite possibility, but only if they take care of business in Atlanta.

“You don’t want to give a team any confidence,” Pierce said. “You got to go down to Atlanta with the right mindset. You don’t want to bring the series back to Boston because anything can happen. You know the NBA is a weird league. One game can give a team confidence.”

And in this postseason, one game, heck one shootaround, can change things in a hurry.