by By STEVE BULPETT , The Boston Herald

Bird reasons that Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen have avoided major injury, while he (back, Achilles' tendons) and Kevin McHale (broken foot) had trouble late. (Robert Parish weathered the storm well.)

The Celtics legend added that the relative lack of team success for Pierce, Garnett and Allen earlier in their careers could actually benefit them now.

``Well, they've stayed pretty healthy,'' said Bird, the Pacers president of Basketball operations. ``We got to the Finals five times in a short period of time, and I always said that was a curse really because we never had time to recover. We'd go right back into the season. I played two years of playoff Basketball, and I knew that was going to catch up sooner or later.

``When I came out of college, I was warned about playing on the outdoor courts and running on the streets, and they were right,'' Bird said. ``It caught up. But that's the way I felt I had to get in shape and I had to do things different. I knew I was going to have a short career, but I didn't want to do anything that was going to stop me early. Later on in my career, I had the ankles and then the back but, you know, it was worth every day.''

Overall, Bird likes these Celtics .

``Picking up (Rasheed) Wallace is going to help them, and we know Marquis Daniels,'' he said. ``He's going to be a major plus for them if he stays healthy down the stretch. I talked to Danny (Ainge) about Marquis, and I said `If you can get him, you'd better get him.' He'll make another bench player that can get a lot of things done for them. But overall they're very talented, and they're going to win a lot of games.''

Money move

The reason Daniels was in a green uniform last night instead of playing for the Pacers was purely financial. Indiana declined to pick up his option of some $7.4 million for this season.

``It was too much money for our budget,'' said Pacers coach (and former Celtics coach) Jim O'Brien. ``We loved him and we would have loved to have him back, but the numbers were just too rich for us.

``We certainly understood him wanting to play for an organization like the Celtics , who are challengers.''

Daniels knew the score.

``Obviously they were losing money for the past couple of years with how things were going with the economy being bad and everything,'' he said. ``I had a lot of good times there, but things just didn't work out.''

Perk appeal

C's center Kendrick Perkins said last night he will appeal the technical he picked up against Atlanta Friday.

After scoring a hoop, Perkins was locked up with Hawk Maurice Evans, and he tried to pull away. He was called for a taunting tech.

``I was just trying to break loose,'' he said. ``I didn't throw an elbow, and I didn't say anything. That's why I'm going to appeal it. Hopefully they overturn it.''

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