<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Should the Celtics come out tonight against Chicago with more attitude than game - a replay of Wednesday's hideous performance in New York - fans may see their first on-court surgery. Doctors may have to remove Gary Payton's foot from a teammate's tail. Payton nodded and laughed at the suggestion yesterday, but the veteran didn't like the way his club tried to mouth its way to victory against the Knicks. And as one of the NBA's all-time greats in wordy warfare, GP is an MVP when it comes to the art. ``We got a little bit out of hand,'' Payton said after a quick practice following the team's noon return from New York. ``First of all, we weren't ready to play. They went right at us. We've got to be ready. I just think we were on our high horses a little bit. We'd just won 11 out of 12 basketball games. I think we were just outplayed and outsmarted. ``But this is a good learning experience for us. If you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk. And (Wednesday) night we didn't do it.'' The Celtics needed training wheels after the altercations began. Instead of coming together as a team, they engaged in private battles that rendered the playbook moot. ``That's the difference between when I was a trash talker at that time,'' Payton said. ``I used to get the guy out of his game and do to him what they did to us - get the guy out of his game and thinking about me mostly. Then he wants to play against me and his whole focus is me and not for his team. (The Knicks) went to team basketball and we went away from team basketball. ``We all had a discussion. Now you learned a lesson, and the lesson is if you do that you've got to come out and play. Let your game do the talking. It's one of these games that brings you right back down to reality. I don't want to have a reality check where we lose three out of four or something like that. I don't want that.'' </div> Source
