BOSTONFollowing Friday night's 87-74 loss to Indiana, the Boston Celtics were in keep-your-head-up mode inside their locker room.
Phrases like "it's still early" and "no need to panic" were tossed around with the same kind of frequency as all of their missed shots.
And head coach Doc Rivers felt the same way.
But when talk turned towards the team's 4-4 record and a player said the C's were better than that, Rivers did not bite his tongue in disagreeing with that opinion.
"We're a 4-4 basketball team," Rivers said. "That's what we are. You are what your record is. Don't make no mistake about that."
Being a .500 team just eight games into the season is not reason to panic.
However, acknowledging who they are - a .500 team - is part of the process in moving forward from that position.
Boston Celtics
"You always have the ability to do something about that," Rivers said. "Right now, Indiana's a 5-2 team and we're a 4-4 team. That's who we are. That's not who we want to be, and that's not who we're going to be hopefully, but right now that's who we are."
Of the Celtics' first eight games, Indiana was clearly one of the tougher challenges even before the tip-off.
Losing to quality opponents like the Pacers or bad teams, doesn't really make much of a difference to Rivers.
"Well, we're 0-fer against quality opponents," Rivers said. "But again, it's eight games into the year, so I'm not going to overdo that."