01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, April 28, 2005

BY CAROLYN THORNTON
Journal Sports Writer

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Last season, Gary Payton joined the Los Angeles Lakers filled with hope.

With his professional basketball career nearing an end and still no championship ring on his finger, the veteran point guard thought that playing with Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and Co. would give him his best chance at an NBA title.

Payton soon learned, though, that even the best-laid plans do not guarantee anything, and the season ended in disappointment for the Lakers and Payton.

Now 36, with perhaps a couple of seasons left, he finds himself here in Boston, where uncertainty abounds and the chances of the Celtics hanging a 17th championship banner in the FleetCenter rafters this season are a long shot.

But Payton says he has come to accept that he may end his career without a championship, and he is finding great satisfaction in developing a group of possible future champions.

"It's a great situation for me because I came in with some young guys, I got back to my basketball playing that I want to, running up and down the floor, doing the things I need to do and then helping these guys," he said yesterday before the Celtics headed off to Indianapolis for tonight's Game 3 matchup against the Indiana Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse. "I like it."

Payton wasn't saying that about his situation in L.A., where he had great difficulty operating in former Lakers coach Phil Jackson's triangle offense last season. He says he became a "crash-test dummy," essentially passing the ball once and then hanging out at the 3-point line as a spot-up shooter. By the time the playoffs rolled around, he had become disgruntled and ineffective.

Boston's system, on the other hand, allows Payton to do what he does best -- serve as a stabilizing force at the point for the team's uptempo offense.

Although he has lost a step or two and does not play defense at the level that once earned him the nickname "The Glove," Payton still does an adequate job at the other end of the floor, as well.

"I think he's been good," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who has carefully monitored Payton's minutes throughout the season. "I think he's been in and out with us, but usually down the stretch he makes great defensive plays."

Where Payton has been perhaps the most valuable, says Rivers, is in mentoring Boston's many first- and second-year players.

The veteran may have a colorful way of delivering his messages, but one way or another he gets his point across.

Payton says he understands his role on the Celtics. Unlike in Seattle, where he spent his first 12 1/2 seasons, he does not consider this to be "his" team and understands that to try to "dictate" what the club should do would only "be a distraction and a disappointment to the young guys here." Instead, he is simply trying to facilitate Rivers' vision.

Having advanced to the postseason every year except twice since joining the league in 1990, Payton boasts extensive playoff experience, and he knows that the best way he can help his team is to pass that knowledge on to the underclassmen.

He watched some of the players tighten up in Monday night's loss, seemingly afraid to shoot when the game got close, and he has been talking to them about not becoming tentative.

Payton also pointed out to his teammates how the Celts shot themselves in the foot in the first quarter when they allowed Indiana to jump out to an early lead by going an uncontested 5-for-5 from the perimeter. They also allowed the Pacers, who normally rely on a half-court game, to score 10 points off the break.

'If we eliminate that, we win the basketball game," he said.

Payton is encouraged, however, by the feedback since that game.

"It was funny to me that when we were in video (Tuesday), one of the young guys said, 'We've got to value possessions.' And I looked at him and I said, 'That's what I said in the beginning.' And we see this on video tape now.

"In Game 2, two important possessions [in the fourth quarter], we lost. It turned the whole game around and we lost. And I'm glad that they're seeing that now and they can understand that. Now, they're going to take it a little bit more serious in practice."

On a personal level, Payton insists this playoff series isn't about redemption, but merely doing whatever he can to help Boston advance as far as possible.

"I don't have anything to prove," he said. "It's not about me. It's about the Boston Celtics and the Indiana Pacers. I've proved a lot of stuff over 15 years. One playoff series last year or a playoff run that didn't go my way -- I can't go back and have any grudges against anything. It happened that way. Now, I'm back in the playoffs, and I'm just going to play."