No big parties for birthday-boy Hollins

BOSTON — Nets coach Lionel Hollins turned 62 years old on Monday. How did he mark the occasion? “I laid around my hotel room all day, getting ready for the game tonight,” Hollins said with a smile before the Nets lost to the Celtics 111105 at TD Garden.

“What is there to do? We have a game tonight.”

When it was suggested to Hollins he could have gone out to have a nice meal, he made it clear where lunch ranks in his eating hierarchy.

“I wouldn’t consider lunch a nice meal,” he said. “You’re not going to Smith and Wollensky’s or P.J. Clarke’s or any place like that.” Hollins had hoped to see Ron

dae HollisJefferson play heavy minutes Monday. But six minutes into the game, HollisJefferson checked himself out and went to the locker room, with the team later announcing he was out for the game with an upper respiratory issue.

“My asthma was acting up,” HollisJefferson said. “My chest was tight, and I wanted to get it under control before the regular season starts.”

Meanwhile, Markel Brown said he was hoping to return to noncontact portions of practice Wednesday. The secondyear guard has been out since the opening week of training camp with a strained left oblique.

After leaving four starters – Jarrett Jack, Joe Johnson, Thad

deus Young and Brook Lopez — at home, Hollins was hoping to get a strong performance from some of the players who haven’t gotten much of a chance to shine this preseason.

And after the Nets played the Celtics even for most of the game, he said he was happy with what he saw.

“I expected them to [play hard],” Hollins said. “It’s just part of trying to make a team, or trying to get noticed. You have no choice … you have to come out and play, and they did.

“They competed very well, and we had our chances.”

Hollins praised Dahntay Jones, who played 38 minutes — particularly for being able to hold up at power forward, given the Nets had foul trouble among the three healthy bigs ( Thomas Robinson, Justin Harper and Chris Daniels) on the trip. Hollins also was happy with

Donald Sloan, who finished with nine points, six assists and three steals — though he did shoot 1for7 from the floor — in 33 minutes.