<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The Celtics have won 60 games for the first time since the hallowed season of 1985-86. Cool. Their 92-77 victory last night against the Indiana Pacers also pulled them into a tie with the 1997-98 Spurs for greatest turnaround in NBA history at 36 games. Nice. But if Greenhearts want true encouragement, they can find it in one undeniable fact: Their team is profoundly unimpressed. “Everything we are doing is all great and dandy - the records, the turnaround - but this team is tremendously focused,” Paul Pierce said. “We wouldn’t even know about these things unless you brought it up in here. It’s all fun. It’s good for the media guide. It’s good for the papers and the fans, but our focus is much narrower than that. We are looking straight ahead with a common goal. “It’s all good, but we’ve got a bigger picture in mind.” That goal is to win the last game they play this season. And considering the Celtics seemingly clinched a playoff berth around Thanksgiving, that would mean a championship. Against the Pacers, the C’s took care of their business and did so without ever trailing. In fact, they never led by fewer than 10 points during the last 31 minutes. But their commitment to winning even against a team barely in the postseason hunt was evident when Danny Granger pulled up and drilled a trey with 6:51 left in the last quarter. The bucket cut the lead to 15, and Kevin Garnett ripped off his warmup pants. He and Paul Pierce went back in shortly thereafter, and the Celts rolled on in to port. Garnett finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Ray Allen scored 15, Leon Powe 14 and Pierce 13. The Pacers shot just 35.6 percent and needed a late rush to do even that. The Celts, meanwhile, won despite shooting 44.3 percent and committing 19 turnovers. More importantly, the Green’s magic number for clinching the best overall record in the NBA and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs dropped to one.</div> Boston Herald
