Kevin Garnett has a long memory – at least long enough to remember what Doc Rivers said about his team after the 95-83 loss on Nov. 28 to the Brooklyn Nets.

“If I’m Brooklyn and the league, you’ve got to think we’re pretty soft the way we’re playing,” Rivers said after that game. “We’re a soft team right now; we have no toughness.”

Ouch.

The Celtics seemed to have righted their ship and eventually improved to 20-17. They followed that with a six-game losing streak. They have lost Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullinger for the season in the space of five days. But they have won three straight and have proven toughness even without two star players.

Something Garnett, with 14 points and 10 rebounds, pointed out after the 97-84 win over the Magic Friday night at TD Garden.

“I told you all when Rondo went down, obviously we were going have to pick up the load, and now with Jared, even more,” he said. “He’s a great rebounder for us, great facilitator. Guys now getting opportunities are going to have to come in, like I said with Rondo, it’s going to have to fall on the backs of everybody.”

Then Garnett, asked what the team has learned about itself, brought back Rivers’ comments from late November.

“We have a lot of fight in us,” Garnett said. “I know Doc made his bulls**t comments about us being soft, we’re a team that will fight and we are a team that is very competitive and is very prideful. We’re learning that when you pieces, you learn to fight through with each other and follow that. More than anything, we’re just being competitive out here and sharing the basketball and playing.”

For more, visit the Celtics team page at weei.com/celtics.