But at least the Celtics have a new starting point.

And, with a healthy Kevin Garnett, it will look a lot like the old starting point.

``Of course, you would like to see what kind of run we could have made with a healthy group, but unfortunately that's the way the NBA goes,'' Paul Pierce said. ``Throughout the year you have injuries.

``It's just unfortunate we had very key injuries, but this team showed a lot of heart and we still felt like this was a team that could of went to the championship and still won regardless of who we had out there.''

This is now part of the problem.

The Celtics have been relegated to thinking in the ``could have'' tense.

And, as in the case of its close cousin the ``what if'' mode, there is no resolution.

That's why, as maddening as the waiting game was for Garnett during the last two months of the season and the first week of the playoffs, it represents the only promise this team has now.

``We have to get our core healthy and then move on from there,'' Pierce said.

The window is also growing perilously short.

In hindsight, management's decision not to retain free agent James Posey - the four-year deal he signed with New Orleans last offseason was one year more than the Celtics were willing to offer - looms large. Posey gave the Celtics bench an identity last season that this reserve unit never quite developed during the past seven months.

By the time Orlando buried the Celtics in a 19-point Game 7 loss on Sunday, the Celtics weren't anywhere near the defensive team they were the previous season. Garnett, of course, changes everything. But Posey was part of the solution on defense.

He also could have been part of the plan to preserve that window - with Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen all approaching twilight - for as long as possible.

Management now has to find other means, with frontline help a priority. That will be a challenge, considering that the salary cap is expected to drop from $72 million to about $69 million for next season.

It makes preserving that core a little more difficult.

But the ``Aging Three'' is going to need more support. The development of Glen Davis, Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins was a bonus this season, but it won't be enough.

``We fell into a bad mode,'' Allen said. ``We won 62 games during the regular season, and you can ask anyone in the locker room. It felt like we won maybe 52.

``We were four games off the pace from last year and mentally I think sometimes we didn't think we were as good, so we fought even harder. That's what it taught me. When you're good you're not that far from being bad, but when you think you're bad you're not that far from being that good.

``There are many nights, many games that we lost during the regular season that we definitely could have won. We look at the first round and there a couple games that we gave away, and even this series two games that we probably should have won, so it was a learning experience.

``People ask what is going to happen when you guys face some adversity. We don't have to answer that question anymore because we had a lot of guys fight through some trying times.''

Then again, perhaps the trying times have only begun.

- mrmurphy@bostonherald.com