BOSTONWinning can be quite intoxicating if you're not careful; to the point where you get punch drunk and stumble against a team that you should beat.
The Celtics faced such a foe - Houston - on Friday night.
But instead of getting tripped up, the Celtics managed to high-step their way towards a 103-91 victory over the Rockets.
And with Friday's win, the Celtics (19-17) extended their season-long winning streak to five in a row which has the C's confidence about as high as it has been all season.
"Wins help. It makes you confident," Rivers said. "Losing makes you the other way. We're winning games, it helps."
And they're doing it with stingy defense, strong bench play and a starting unit that seems to be at the top of its game when it counts most - the fourth quarter.
Here are some other keys to Friday's win outlined prior to tip-off, and how they actually played out.
Boston Celtics
WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The Rockets will look to get out and run and run and ... did I mention they like to run? The NBA's youngest team is also its highest scoring club, with Houston averaging a league-high 106 points per game.
WHAT WE SAW: The Celtics' defense delivered yet another gem of a performance, limiting the high-octane offense of Houston to just 91 points. Houston is now 4-10 this season when scoring less than 100 points.
MATCHUP TO WATCH: Paul Pierce vs Chandler Parsons: This is a matchup that on paper you would think is lopsidedly in favor of the Celtics. But Pierce has to go at Parsons as if he's Quentin Richardson from a couple years back to avoid a repeat of Houston's win over Boston in November in which Parsons had a near triple-double of 15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
WHAT WE SAW: Parsons finished with a pretty good line - 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting - but this matchup went to the veteran, Pierce. In addition to scoring a team-high 23 points, Pierce came up with a couple of big shots in the pivotal fourth quarter to help the Celtics secure the victory.
PLAYER TO WATCH: Jared Sullinger is starting to make a name for himself, which means teams will start to pay a lot more attention to the 6-foot-9 rookie. He's been a significant part of the C's current winning streak, and he'll look to keep it going tonight as both a rebounder and scorer around the basket.
WHAT WE SAW: Sullinger continues to make a strong push to be included in next month's all-rookie game. Several players stepped up on Friday, but Sullinger's play was special as he scored 14 points to go with 11 rebounds off the bench for his first career double-double.
STAT TO TRACK: Boston has been among the NBA's better teams at forcing turnovers, which has been a major weakness of the Rockets all season. They come into tonight's game averaging a league-high 16.6 turnovers per game while the C's are forcing teams to commit 15.7 turnovers which ranks fourth in the league.
WHAT WE SAW: Houston was below their season average in turnovers, but the 14 turnovers they did commit led to 20 points for the Celtics