Rivers praises Westbrook, Thunder

Celtics coach Doc Rivers praised Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook and his Thunder teammates for being solid basketball players, not just athletes.

“He’s key,” Rivers said of Westbrook. “He’s the guy with the ball. Someone has to give it to [Kevin] Durant, and someone has to score when they take that away from Durant.

“They’ve done a nice job building this team. Not a lot of potential players on this team … they’ve drafted guys that can shoot and dribble.”

In addition to Westbrook, one player Rivers really likes is Thunder rookie James Harden.

“He’s a skilled — I call him mini-Paul. I think he plays the most similar to Paul Pierce as a young player that I’ve seen.”

Pierce will be in the Celtics starting lineup, while Kendrick Perkins is back in the starting lineup tonight vs.Oklahoma City. Perkins missed two games with a knee injury.

“It means our bench should be better,” said Rivers. “Now Rasheed [Wallace] is back to the bench and we have a post player. Our starting lineup’s record is pretty good when it’s in tact, so we like it when we have it.”