Waltham, Mass. ? The Boston Celtics played hard all season for home-court advantage in the playoffs.

They just didn’t expect to need it this soon.

The Celtics are back in Boston and hoping to finish off the pesky Atlanta Hawks today in Game 7.

It’s the last first-round series still going – a bit of a shock considering that the Celtics were the best team in the NBA during the regular season and the Hawks the worst of the 16 to reach the postseason.

“Clearly, we’d have loved to have won in four games. We’d have loved to have won it in five, (or) six,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said after a walkthrough at the team’s practice facility on Saturday. “But we have to do it in seven. We earned the right to do it at home.”

Paul Pierce did not participate in Saturday’s walkthrough because of a right hip bruise sustained in a collision with Hawks forward Marvin Williams in the fourth quarter of Game 6.

Pierce was not available for comment after Friday’s game or at Saturday’s practice, but he is expected to play today.

The Hawks aren’t so sure about Williams, who led the team with 18 points in Game 6 but left the game with a sprained left knee after knocking into Pierce.

Williams took part in Saturday’s walkthrough, but his knee was iced and heavily taped, and he didn’t try to bend it.

“It’s pretty sore right now,” he said.