The Reason We Lost Game 2

[return2glory]

The offense was very good this game. We shot 48.6% from the field. KG, Pierce, and Ray all had very good games, combining for 75 of the 97 points we scored. I'm especially happy for Ray. He finally had a very good break out game.

With all that said, the one and only reason we lost this game was because of DEFENSE, or lack thereof.

The Pistons shot 49.3% from the filed. Game over. They scored 103 points. That is 24 points more than we had been allowing at home in the playoffs. You have to give some credit to the Pistons, they made a lot of shots.

It's just too bad that Ray Allen finally had a great game but we couldn't win.

[Tricky Ricky]

Id also add in Rebounds, we missed a lot of key ones down the stretch

[DorfonCeltics]

I'd like to correct the OP. We lost this game because the Pistons were better. The Celtics played pretty intense defense other than a few lulls. The Pistons were on fire the whole second half. Best game of basketball I've seen them play in years. Stucky was off the hook.

[MyInsatiableOne]

^^Actually our defense was awful in the 4th quarter.

Also, Stuckey had an aberration game, as did Chicken McDyess. We committed a lot of dumb fouls. And the Pistons got away with some dirty tricks, like Billups ball-kick of House (what were the refs calling, that Eddie testicled Billups in the foot?) and Hamilton's cheap swinging the ball at Ray's face to draw contact.

But we did lose, plain and simple and I am not going to blame this solely on refs or anything...we didn't make stops in the 4th. If we made stops and didn't trade baskets like we did, we win this by 8 easy.

[sam_I_am]

We lost the game despite the fact that our team was their equal yesterday. That was my concern after game 1 when we completely outplayed them and Detroit stayed in the game anyway.


The only way we can win this series with guys like Perk and a coaching staff that waits until a series is half over to make an obvious adjustment is by outplaying Detroit 25-50% over the next 5 games.


An example of our poor coaching is the backup PG position. It was obvious against Cleveland that Sam Cassell was killing us by not moving the ball around yet Eddie House does not see time until game 6. It was equally obvious in game 1 that Eddie House is a big liability in this series due to his poor ball handling. Yet I would guess we will not see Cassell until game 5 or so. Last night with Rondo and House struggling would have been the perfect time to give him 10 minutes.

[return2glory]

I'd like to correct the OP. We lost this game because the Pistons were better. The Celtics played pretty intense defense other than a few lulls. The Pistons were on fire the whole second half. Best game of basketball I've seen them play in years. Stucky was off the hook.

Detroit played the better game, no doubt about that. And I have them credit for that. But our defense could have been better. We gave up to many open shots and no one was able to stay with Stuckey.

Detroit is the better team. That is why before going into the series, I stated IMO that we have a less than 20% chance of winning the series. So far in the playoffs, Detroit has a 9-4 record vs out 9-7 record.

[Ortho Stice]

At some points we would play nice defense but then we'd allow them to get the offensive rebound. We also made tons of dumb, low BBIQ moves , namely the pointless fouls in the backcourt when we were in the penalty, basically handing them free points over and over again. We have to make them work for their points, we can't just give them away. Even so, we had a chance to win this game but Detroit just made huge shots. Some were "lucky" shots that they made, but others were wide open shots, for instance Chauncey's layup with no one around him when it mattered the most.

[Datruth345]

our defense is clearly to blame for the loss, pretty evident
the inbounds play where billups got that easiest basket of the game at a crucial point is a perfect microcosm of the breakdowns and lapses we experienced tonight