MIAMI – Coach Doc Rivers had specific instructions Wednesday for the Boston Celtics. Go golfing. Avoid hanging out with each other. Most importantly, no basketball.

Think of it as a Doc’s prescription for mental health.

Physical health may be of greater concern for the Celtics, who are limping into big trouble against the Miami Heat. And if there’s an upside to being down 2-0 to the Miami Heat in these Eastern Conference semifinals, it’s that the schedule allows Boston some time to heal.

Game 3 isn’t until Saturday in Boston.

“We’ll be ready,” Rivers said. “I can tell you that. Guarantee you that. In this case the rest is good. It’s very good for us, because we are a little banged up.”

Or a lot banged up.

Paul Pierce (foot), Rajon Rondo (back) and Ray Allen (chest) are dealing with various maladies for Boston, and the Celtics are still without center Shaquille O’Neal, who has played in one game — briefly at that — since Feb. 1 because of calf problems.

“Rest is always good but I don’t think we really want four days off,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. “I think it probably helps Boston more than it helps us, for them guys to really get a lot of rest. We’ll have one day off and then (get) back at it again. We’re going to take it. We’re going to learn from the things we did well and also the things we didn’t do so well.”

At this rate, there isn’t much to complain about from the Heat perspective.

Miami used a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter Tuesday night to fuel a 101-92 victory in Game 2 behind 35 points from LeBron James and 28 from Wade. So far in the series they’ve combined for 123 points, nine more than the total from Ray Allen, Pierce, Rondo and Kevin Garnett.

The Celtics are getting beat up and banged up at about the same rate.

Pierce began noticeably limping midway through the first quarter of Game 2. Rondo didn’t warm up at halftime, keeping a heating pad on his aching back instead until play resumed, then needed some fourth-quarter stretching on the Celts’ sideline.

And when Rondo and Allen tried challenging James in the open floor, they paid big prices.

James spun around Rondo for a two-handed dunk; Rondo was knocked into a backward somersault on the play. And minutes later, James and Allen collided on another Heat breakout. James caught a forearm from Allen in the face and was briefly shaken up, but Allen got the worst of it, having to leave briefly with a bruised chest.

“Something you deal with,” Allen shrugged.

Say this much for the Celtics: They may be bruised but far from beaten.

O’Neal insists he’ll play in Game 3, and in a crestfallen postgame locker room, Garnett and Glen Davis used the same phrase to emphasize the importance of the next game.

“Do or die,” they said in separate interviews.

If the Heat had their way, Game 3 probably would have been played already. A franchise that couldn’t beat the Celtics for the better part of the last four years — Miami dropped 18 of 20 games to Boston — has won three straight in the series, including the April 10 regular-season matchup.

Find a way to win two more, and the Heat are heading to the Eastern Conference finals.

“We did what we wanted to do, protect home court,” James said. “Now the series starts in a very, very hostile environment on Saturday. Looking forward to the challenge.”

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