Problems pop up in fits and starts

Doc Rivers is unhappy with the Celtics [team stats] starters, too. A day after general manager Danny Ainge spanked the unit with pointed comments, the coach concurred.

“What Danny said was very true,” Rivers said yesterday - even before his regulars went out and made him and his boss look smart with a hideous 104-96 loss to the New Jersey Nets at the Garden. “I think it comes to our starting five. Our starting five is a group that’s been here. They’re the group that’s going to have to lead the way. They’re the group that must set the example. They’re the group that knows every rotation every single night.”

Ainge opened the door to potentially serious changes this offseason if the Celtics don’t play better.

Rivers isn’t paying attention to that aspect.

“Honestly I’m coaching this year, you know what I mean?” Rivers said. “So that stuff I could care less about. I could care less about anything past this season, because as a coach you have to coach this year. I’ll let Danny, Wyc (Grousbeck, the C’s co-owner) and all those other guys worry about the future. But this team is built for right now. . . . After that we’ll see. But I believe this team’s good enough to win a world championship. This team. I don’t think we’ve proven that. I think we still have to prove that. And we can talk about it all day, but at some point we have to show it - and I don’t think we’ve shown it. But I still believe that.”

As for any potential benefit from Ainge supporting concepts the coach already has offered the team, Rivers said, “I don’t think that matters. I think at the end of the day it’s in the locker room, and it’s going to have to come out of the locker room. I can talk about it. Danny, Wyc, you know, whoever, Bill Walton . . . it doesn’t matter. At some point it’s going to have to come out of the locker room. And it will, and I believe that. But it hasn’t consistently yet. It has in stretches, but nothing consistently yet. We haven’t been able to sustain a game.

“Even in some of our good wins we haven’t been able to sustain 48 minutes yet. So that has to come from in the locker room.”

Ainge noted that it’s difficult to judge the Celts because they’re getting big leads against good teams before losing them.

“We’re both,” Rivers said. “I’m not confused at all. I’m actually positive we’re both. At some point we’re going to have to be one or the other, and I’ll take the one that gets the lead.”