Return to the basics

NBA. Doc Rivers watched his team from the bench during the Celtics’ Game 5 victory at the Garden on Wednesday night, and he must have felt like he won the lottery.

After all, the Celtics were passing the ball once again, setting up open shots and dunks, and the offense looked like the team that breezed through the regular season.

“I was thrilled,” Rivers said. “At some point, you just knew that they were going to start trusting each other again, and honest to gosh, I didn’t know when. All you can do is keep saying it and keep talking about it.”

The Celtics had series highs of 25 assists, 37 field goals and 96 points. It was the most assists they’ve had since dishing out 25 in Game 6 of the first round against the Hawks.

When the Celtics struggled offensively in the series against Cleveland — and there were plenty of those moments — they were too individualistic. Forget making the extra pass, the C’s hardly made the first pass, especially in their two losses.

The Celtics had 18 assists in Game 3 and 16 in Game 4, their two lowest totals of the postseason.

“You have to get away from the natural instinct of trying to feel like you have to get yourself going instead of making the right play,” Rivers said. “But the right play is in front of you. Just make the right play. We’ve been very good at that all year. I think we’ve been in and out of it in the playoffs.”