The Celtics are short on big men and center Shaquille O'Neal is playing through knee soreness, according to The Boston Globe.

The soreness is in the same knee that caused O'Neal to miss five games last month. Boston had just 11 active players on Sunday, so the veteran gutted through the injury.

"[Shaq] told me before the game that he probably wouldn't go, but we didn't have enough players," Rivers said.

"He said, 'If you just play me three or four minutes in a row, see how long I can go through halftime,' and he was great. We needed that. We needed those minutes."