BOSTON - ``This is the reason we came here,'' said Kevin Garnett. ``This is it, right here.''

He was in the interview room last night about an hour after the game, and he was talking about his first meeting with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, back last summer when he first joined the Celtics and no one knew how this was all going to play out.

``We said, `No more excuases,''' he said. ``Doc told us this was Paul's team and Ray and I were all right with that. But Doc challenged us. I think in the beginning he thought we had more ego than we do. We're all different individually, we all have different thoughts on the world and everything, but basketball is pretty cut and dried. You have to do things for the team.

``And we helped each other. I thought we made plays for each other.''

But the most important thing?

Garnett quickly learned what it means to be a Celtic.

``You know you're a Celtic when you walk in and see the banners on the wall,'' he said. ``And you see the ex-players watching practice. It's a lot of responsibility putting that jersey on. As soon as you see those banners and see the pictures you know you're around something different and that it's special.''