``He would have been a great guy to lean on,'' Rivers said before last night's game against the Bobcats. ``He's overqualified - that's why I would have loved to have him.''

The Celtics eventually ended up with Tom Thibodeau, not a bad consolation prize in retrospect.

``It was very close,'' Rivers said of his brief recruitment of Brown, who the Celtics coach played for during his one season with the Clippers. ``He said yes. But it was a Larry Brown yes, not a sign-on-the-document yes.''

Rivers credits Brown with teaching him the importance of focusing on the details.

``I can remember us going over an out-of-bounds screen angle, and you wanted to pass out because he was going over it so much,'' Rivers said.

``He just loves coaching, which is why he's here. . . . He'd actually rather teach than coach. If he could get another guy to do all the games and he could just do the practices, he would be that guy.''

Not a Dud

Though Jared Dudley missed the Bobcats' overtime win in Indianapolis on Friday night, the former Boston College forward was back on the floor last night, playing three scoreless minutes in the Bobcats' 89-84 loss.

The person most thankful for that was the most important one of all - Dudley's coach.

``He's been terrific,'' Brown said of the 6-foot-7 forward.

``You plug him in where you need him and he responds.''

Promising development

Of all the things Bill Walker and J.R. Giddens did in their NBDL debut for the Utah Flash on Friday night, the Celtics coaching staff was probably proudest of the last play.

Walker assisted on Giddens' game-winning baseline jumper with 0.6 seconds left in overtime.

Giddens finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Walker had a team-high 23 points.

``They should have good games for that team,'' Rivers said. ``They have a huge advantage over other guys in that league because they've been in camp since October.''

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