"We get 18 off days a year,'' he said when asked after his 2 1/3-inning, 7-run gem whether his golf outing the day after missing his last start could lead to a perception problem. "I think we deserve a little time to ourselves."

For Garnett, there is no perception problem. His was defiance as pride, a way to use slights both real and imagined as fuel for his extraordinary and intense performance in the Celtics' Game 6 victory over the Hawks.

"Like this ain't what I do every day and this ain't what I was built for," he continued. "It does come off kind of disrespectful at times. I put a lot of work and time into this, so when I hit the floor there's certain things I expect of myself. Certain levels I expect out of myself.I take this very seriously, so you guys calling me old, that number fueled the fire. You have no idea what y'all even doing when you do that."

For Beckett, it was defiance as petulance, an almost daring refusal to concede that perhaps playing golf wasn't the brightest idea considering the Red Sox are dead-last in the American League East and seem to careen off rock-bottom every other day.

"I spend my off days the way I want to spend them,'' he said. It was surprising he didn't punctuate it with a belch.

Garnett was reminding us not to doubt him. Beckett, yet again, was giving us every reason to just that.