updated 3:43 p.m. ET Feb. 18, 2008

BOSTON - The Boston Garden crowd rose to cheer for the newest Celtics All-Star, and Ray Allen didn't even look up.

After all, Boston's lead over the New York Knicks was withering away and the most important thing on his mind was, still, winning.

"I was focused on what we were doing," said Allen, who was informed of his addition to the All-Star team at halftime of the Knicks game, Boston's last before the break. "We wanted to win the game. It's hard to look past what we were talking about in the huddle."

Fifty games after one of the most dramatic overhauls in the history of professional sports, the Celtics are putting together a run reminiscent of their glory days. Thrown-together stars Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce have shown they can share the ball and share the attitude that winning is the only thing that matters.

And winning might get a lot easier for the Celtics on Tuesday night, if Garnett makes his return to the lineup after sitting out nine regular season games and the All-Star Game with an abdominal strain.

Garnett told The Boston Globe that he still has abdominal stiffness but not intense pain. "The past four days have been my strongest days," Garnett said. "A couple weeks ago I could only do limited things, and I'm back to doing stuff again."

Rivers will make the final call on when Garnett is ready for game action.

"I think everybody has decided to give up any of their individual stuff and try to do it for the team," coach Doc Rivers said. "Without that, I don't think we can win. Actually, I think that with any team that wins."

Rivers earned a trip to the All-Star game himself as the Eastern Conference coach thanks to the Celtics' best-in-basketball first-half record of 41-9.

Rivers came away looking good, with the East beating the West 134-128 on Sunday night in New Orleans. Allen was a star among stars, scoring 28 points, including three straight 3-pointers in the final 3:15.

Interactive NBA’s midseason report Breaking down every team midway through the season. NBCSports.com contributor

"Clearly, if Ray was on another team, he could throw up numbers that would look All-Star worthy and not have wins," Rivers said. "But he would rather have the wins, and I'm glad the league recognized that."

The Celtics have won an NBA-record 16 titles, but their two-decade drought since their last in 1986 is twice as long as they've ever had to wait before. Last year, for the second time, the season slid away amid big hopes of landing a franchise player in the draft.

Much like in 1997, when the Celtics raced to the bottom in pursuit of Tim Duncan, they failed to get Greg Oden or Kevin Durant in the lottery this year. And it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.

With the No. 5 overall pick — the worst-case scenario heading into the lottery — and some promising but still-developing young players like Al Jefferson and Gerald Green, the Celtics landed Allen and Garnett over the summer.

Rivers might have worried he would spend all season keeping his new big three happy. But he soon learned he had acquired coachable players who, despite their accomplishments, wanted more.

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