By Gary Dzen, Boston.com Staff

Celtics coach Doc Rivers was unhappy with his team's performance in Game 6 Thursday night, particularly on offense.

"We never really established what we wanted to do offensively," said Rivers. "I thought they played with more force for most of the game. We missed a lot of open shots. But I really did think that was fools' gold. I really didn't think that was the shots we wanted."

The Celtics made 43 percent of their shots from the field and just 1 of 14 3-pointers.

"We didn't play like us. Each guy wanted to win the game for us, which is a good trait, but the bad trait is there was no ball movement. The ball just stuck for most of the game."

Paul Pierce was particularly egregious in that area, hitting 4 of 18 shots from the field. Rivers said he expects Pierce to bounce back in Game 7.

"Paul is a big-game player," said Rivers. "Game 7s are the biggest game you can possibly have. What I saw tonight, I thought he was ready for the game. He just didn't have a great game tonight.

"He was down. Kevin [Garnett] was down. But also you could see their resolve in the locker room. They're not just going to pack for Sunday. They're going to bring suits for Tuesday, and they're going to bring suits for Thursday. And that's the way we're going to plan to do it."

-- Rivers took a moment in his press conference to praise LeBron James, who had 45 points.

"I hope now you guys can stop talking about LeBron and that he doesn't play in big games. He played pretty well tonight. I hope that's to bed. Now we can go ahead and play Game 7."