Celtics arrive in Philly for Game 6 against the Sixers

PHILADELPHIA (WHDH) -- Doc Rivers was all smiles when he arrived for Wednesday morning’s shoot around in Philadelphia, knowing his team is one win away from the Eastern Conference finals.

He also knows he has a veteran leader who is capable of calling out his starters if they start to slip again. That player: Keyon Dooling.

“It’s one thing for the coach to say it. It’s a whole different ball game when somebody in the locker room says it,” Rivers said. “It’s tough for starters to say it to each other because it was them. You need a guy to do it with credibility, and Keyon has that.”

What the Celtics backup point guard did was call out the starters with the Celtics trailing at halftime of Game 5, and they responded with a blowout win.

“Sometimes things can’t go without being said. We got to challenge each other. We got to push each other and sometimes we’ve got to, you know, chastise each other in order to bring the best out of each other. So, that was just a timely conversation that I had,” Dooling said.

“There’s a level of accountability that has to be had on this team of guys starting the game and the guys on the bench. Whether Keyon plays major minutes or none at all, he’s still talking a good talk,” Ray Allen said.