The laugh factory

Celtics show their comedic side away from the court

NBA. It doesn’t take much more than an abacus to figure out the Celtics have more wins than any team in the league.

And, though a scientific instrument can’t be used to calculate personality, the C’s probably lead the NBA in that category, too.

Postgame press conferences featuring Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce closer resemble some of Boston’s improv clubs than dissections of the game. Rarely does one pass by without one of the Celtics’ stars buckling the room
over in laughter.

Whether they’re joking about bowel movements, lobbying for shoe sales — Garnett is with Adidas; Pierce is signed by rival Nike — or just jawing at one another about that night’s rebound totals, it often seems like a scene from an Abbott and Costello skit.

After the Celtics steamrolled the Knicks by 45 points on Nov. 29, a laugher in its own right, Garnett was asked if he could remember ever having that much rest in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t even remember,” Garnett responded before stopping to think.

“When we blew y’all out two years ago,” Pierce interjected, drawing a laugh in the process.

“Get your ass out,” Garnett said. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

The laughs seem to start at the top with Head Coach Doc Rivers, who has the ability of a late-show host to drop a one-liner.

But the C’s comedy cast also stars the quirky Scot Pollard, a riot tandem of Eddie House and Tony Allen, and rookie Glen Davis, who Rivers referred to as “a different bird in a good way.”

Davis has publicized his comedic stylings with an inane message on the Garden video boards that urges the fans to get pumped for the fourth quarter, and it’s drawn laughs from players and referees alike.

The room is even hit with unintentional humor, like Ray Allen’s stories of driving — unsuccessfully — in Boston traffic, or Kendrick Perkins’s red-faced affair that involved dropping his bed on his right foot, which caused him to miss a game in December.

“It’s fun,” Garnett said of his first season in Boston. “Every day has a new challenge, and it stays interesting, as you see. It’s fun. I’m enjoying it. Obviously, winning makes it a lot better.”