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It may have been nothing more than a momentary stinger, but Paul Pierce headed to the trainer’s room near the end of today’s practice after bumping knees with Shelden Williams and falling to the floor in significant pain. This, for Pierce, was the same right knee that had to be drained two weeks ago.

Pierce briefly reemerged with a heavy ice pack on the knee before heading back to the locker room once practice ended.

“He got kneed in the exact same spot - it’s just amazing, the luck right now with little things like that,” said Doc Rivers. “That’s why he was so upset. He was like, it was starting to feel good. So we hope that he’s fine.

“I don’t even look any more,” he said. “I’ve seen it too much.”

Rivers was encouraged by the progress of Rasheed Wallace, who is recovering from a sore foot, and even Kevin Garnett, who ran through sets with the first team today.

“Rasheed was great, he went through the whole practice so that’s good, and Kevin actually did skeleton - he went through all of that and he looked great,” said the Celtics coach, who added that this doesn’t mean Garnett will return before next Friday’s game against Portland in the Garden. “He won’t play before Friday, and he may not play Friday, because we have to get him into some active stuff. We may do a little bit (of practice with Garnett) Tuesday, and something on Thursday but not with the team. It will be with five guys and some three-on-three stuff.”