The Celtics played in a strange arena last night. Their own.

``A couple of guys were saying they had a difficult time finding this place on the ride in,'' said Jim O'Brien before his club's first game in the FleetCenter in three weeks.

Just a week ago, the Celtics were smiling all the way from Los Angeles to Dallas.

They had defeated the two-time defending NBA champion Lakers with a stirring comeback and were 3-2 on their trip through the West with two games remaining on the seven-game journey.

The franchise's first winning post-All Star sojourn since 1990-91 was at hand. The C's talked about the wild and happy flight to Texas, one on which no one rested, choosing instead to go over each detail of the victory in LA.

Since beating the Lakers, 109-108, the Celtics have lost three straight

Rodney Rogers didn't need nine years of NBA experience to figure out playing time behind Antoine Walker would be limited. But in the Celtics' 95-92 loss last night to the Bucks, the newcomer had 16 minutes to make a positive impression; he scored 5 of his 9 points in the fourth quarter. In fact, Rogers and Walker appear to have eerily similar games. Rogers, who saw time at both center and power forward last night, went inside for a layup early in the fourth, then hit a 3-pointer that gave Boston its only lead in the final quarter.

eorge Karl noticed something a little different about his Milwaukee Bucks this year. It wasn't merely the presence of newcomer Anthony Mason or the absence of Lindsey Hunter.

It was, well, an invisible tribute of sorts - and it may help explain why his team is not lapping the field in the Eastern Conference, which many figured to be the case.

''We've got a target on our backs,'' the Bucks' coach said last night upon his team's first visit to the FleetCenter. ''And I don't know if we adjusted to that yet.''

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Celtics followers have come to view the club as fairly dysfunctional over the last several years, with the only postseason trips being those to Secaucus, N.J., for the draft lottery. But things have obviously changed, as evidenced by the fast findings of the team's newest members.

After just their sixth day with the Celts and first full-squad home practice, Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers have formed good impressions. Only part of it has to do with the mid-60s weather in the Hub yesterday.

``The thing that I like about this team is I think everybody enjoys each other,'' said Delk, acquired with Rogers from Phoenix last Wednesday. ``I've been places where guys haven't enjoyed playing with each other, but here it seems like everybody enjoys the team camaraderie.

``I think the guys make the team fun,'' he added when discussing his feel for Boston. ``You go different places, but your teammates make being there really fun. It's not so much the weather where you live at. I think it's the players that you're around that keep you around. It's just like having good friends. You enjoy being around those people, and I can just tell these guys enjoy playing with one another.''

ALTHAM - Jim O'Brien celebrated his 50th birthday at the start of the Celtics' recent tour through the Western Conference. But it wasn't until almost the end of the trip that general manager Chris Wallace found a suitable gift.

There's nothing O'Brien appreciates more than a veteran who can play defense and score, usually in that order. So he couldn't wait to unwrap Tony Delk and try him out in the starting lineup. And it didn't hurt that the package came with a Kentucky bow.

Without question, O'Brien liked what he saw from Delk in 23 minutes as the starting shooting guard in the trip finale against Houston Saturday. Even though the Celtics lost the game, O'Brien came away convinced that with a few practice/cram sessions, Delk will be ready to assume a regular starting role. He will make his second start tonight against Milwaukee.

About the challenge to establish definitive roles as soon as possible for new acquisitions Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers? For Celtics coach Jim O'Brien, it turns out there was no challenge in the process at all.

``Tony Delk is going to start, so much for that challenge,'' O'Brien said after practice yesterday at The Sports Authority Center in Waltham. ``Rodney has to be able to play the (power forward) spot, where there's not going to be a lot of minutes - about 8-10 minutes a game to free up Antoine (Walker) to play 38-40 minutes.

``But (Rogers) has got to learn the (small forward) spot and the (center) spot, so it's more of a challenge for Rodney. Certainly when he learns to play those spots at a high level, not only offensively but defensively, he'll be able to contribute more.''

WALTHAM - It comes down to the 26 remaining regular-season games. The Celtics stand three games back in the loss column from second place in the East and three losses ahead of 10th. Certainly, they want home-court advantage for the first round of the playoffs, but there's little room for error just to make the postseason.

Translation: They cannot afford to squander leads of 20, 18, and 14 points, as they did during their recent seven-game road trip. They must be more aggressive on the glass, and execute, not implode, down the stretch.

HOUSTON - If the Celtics hope to rebound from the agonizing end to their western odyssey, the first thing they're going to have to do is . . . rebound.

It got ugly out here, even while the Bostonians were losing just one game to par on a 3-4 journey. They allowed their opponents more second chances than Terry Glenn, giving up an average of 13.6 offensive rebounds.

While blowing a 14-point lead in Dallas and a 20-pointer here to end the trip, the Celts yielded 13 pieces of offensive glass to the Mavericks and 17 to the Rockets.