BOSTON - Doc Rivers has pushed the concept of mental toughness all year.

He talked about it in timeouts.

He talked about it in practice.

He talked about it before last night's game.

``We talked about adversity all year,'' he said, ``and we kept saying that it had to come our way and we had to accept it and embrace it. We talked about it before the game this morning.

``I said as a group, we said it togehter, no excuses, don't use them. We don't need them. I just thought we had a very tough team mentally in that way.''

And when it was over he embraced his players.

And what did he say?

``Just that we loved each other,'' he said. ``They all said, `Thank you,' and I said, `Thank you back.' Paul kept saying, `Thank you, thank you, thank you for sticking with me again,' and I kept saying the same thing to him. So it was really a nice moment.''