After end-of-year swoon, Celtics are back on track

It appears the Celtics are back on track.Winners of five in a row the green seem to be peaking, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Celtics coach Doc Rivers said that he has seen this coming.”I’ve said it about four or five games ago,” he said. “I just like where we’re going right now as a team. We’re starting to make plays for each other. And everything is about each other.”Although the Celtics are finally playing better as a team, the defending champions are still playing very shorthanded, forcing Doc Rivers into what is essentially an eight man rotation.Center Kendrick Perkins is still on the shelf with a sore shoulder (he could return later this week), swing man Tony Allen is nursing an injured ankle, Sam Cassell is yet to play, and Patrick O’Bryant is a non factor.The biggest beneficiary of the Celtics shortened rotation has been fan favorite Brian Scalabrine. “Scal” has started every game during the Celtics most recent five-game winning streak, averaging nearly 10 points a game.Although Scal’s time here in Boston has been disappointing, his former coach in New Jersey Lawrence Frank spoke glowingly about his former utility man.”I think the beauty of Brian, and it was the same when he was here, is that he can go from being outside the rotation and not playing and then you can insert him as a starter, and you don’t skip a beat,” Frank said.”You’ve got to have guys like Brian Scalabrine that are always ready. He’s always prepared. He always puts in the work. He’s going to be on point in terms of his defensive schemes and rotations.”He’ll help spread the floor offensively,” Frank said.”Where Perkins is usually a duck-in man, Brian will space them in the corners. Brian is just a phenomenal teammate, and those guys are invaluable in terms of what they mean to your team.”Earlier in the season Scalabrine admitted he was distracted by the Garden crowd’s, jeering, and mocking every time he so much as touched the basketball.Now, however, the jeers have turned to cheers and Scal is loving it. “It was a little bit of a distraction at first because the crowd would cheer,” said Scalabrine, “but I can mentally push through that now. We’re doing something here that’s so much bigger than individuals, every possession, every quarter, everything is so big here. We’re trying to get home court advantage throughout the playoffs, so I can’t get caught up in anything different than that.”The Celtics are trying to repeat as champion, and for a team looking for a lift from their bench, Brian Scalabrine has been just what the doctor ordered.