BOSTON -- Kendrick Perkins has been playing with six technical fouls since Game Five of the Eastern Conference finals.

He knows that if he gets one more, he'll be suspended for a game. So he is doing everything in his power to calm himself whenever he gets upset in games.

That's how he's been able to avoid picking up his seventh technical foul.

"Anytime I'm thinking I'm about to go overboard I catch myself," Perkins said before Game Five. "It's just self-discipline. I really haven't been worrying about it. I've just been going out there and playing aggressive. Things have been working out well."

Perkins said that he hasn't changed the way he plays the game, just his attitude. He said that Celtic fans might see a calmer Perkins next year.

"It's a learning process," Perkins said. "...Sometimes I know what I'm doing out there [when I get technical fouls] so it's cool."

As far as winning out in Los Angeles, Perkins said that the key will be: "Just sticking together with who you've got. We are 15 strong. The organization and your teammates are all you've got and you just stick together whether things go good or bad. If you stick together during bad things they'll turn around for you. You just keep playing hard."

The Celtics were a better road team during the regular season than at home, so they have that going for them when the series shifts back to Los Angeles Perkins said.