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Well we finally won a game on the road.

That doesn't mean we can relax at home again cause we lost their too for the first time and if we are not careful we may lose at home again. (Which would be bad.)

How can a half court trap bother our team so badly?

(Oh, I forgot we are coached by Doc Rivers)

finally puts an end to "we can't win on the road".

doc allowed our team to played tired and that's the reason of our poor finish. he should've shuffled our starters in the 4th. besides, our bench was playing great.

rambo_ortega wrote:doc allowed our team to played tired and that's the reason of our poor finish. he should've shuffled our starters in the 4th. besides, our bench was playing great.

Exactly. Doc is the worst coach left in the playoffs. Our players have to win in spite of this moron.

a REAL Championship team would win the NEXT game on the road--!!

Game 4 is gigantic!

The REAL championship team, will win not only MOTOWN but in Boston as well.

I don't understand why Boston goes away from what's working for them initially. That is to say, in the first half, Boston had success going inside to score and drawing fouls. Okay, why not resume this effort in the second half? Stop reverting back to a jump shooting team. I like when Ray Allen drives to the basket when his outside shooting is failing him. Be aggressive. Attack. Instead, he insist on taking those perimeter shots and missing them. No, go to the rim and draw a foul and build up your confidence. Still, Ray was more of a play maker in game three. Please, do more of this. Do more than score. Do other things that you're capable of doing: passing, rebounding some, converting free throws and defending some.

Apparently a home loss did give them the kick in the ass they needed, lets see if they can keep that momentum and mentality/focus going into Game 4.

The Pistons played desperate basketball in the 4th. The C's got a little complacent. I don't think Doc should have brought in the bench, they would be even more rattled by the pressure. Normally the C's would attack out of the 1-2-2 trap but they were determined to milk the clock. In that situation what happens is that the other team gets closer, but they run out of time. That's exactly what happened. The C's knew they could pull it out if they stayed patient. If they tried to attack off the trap it would have played into the Pistons' hands.

The adjustment we made was to bring KG to the middle of the floor against the trap. That turned the tide. It's easy for fans to say "be aggressive". But the Pistons were really shutting things down and trapping well, and the C's weren't getting any calls.

We did what we had to do to win. Kudos all around. Players, Doc, everyone. That was a huge win.

Great win poor execution down the stretch, hopefully we can learn from our mistakes down the stretch but Great win and thats all that matters tonight

Ed Pinkney wrote:Apparently a home loss did give them the kick in the ass they needed, lets see if they can keep that momentum and mentality/focus going into Game 4.

Yes.

The loss made Boston realize that you as a team can't become complacent and rely only on winning at home even if you do have home court advantage. It's unfortunate it took a loss at home in the conference finals to realize this.

I'm relieved that Boston won game three. But, it's frustrating when Boston plays defense like this seemingly only when their collective backs are against the wall. They'd to win game three to kill Detroit's momentum. If not, it would've been really challenging to win game four. The pressure might have been too much for the Celtics coming off a game three loss. But, they didn't lose game three and now the pressure is placed back on the Pistons.

It is hard to play with nerves. I have been there.

The problem in the fourth quarter was that we stopped being aggressive.

To open the game, we consistently got to the rim.

When we were trapped in the fourth quarter, the paint was wide open for us to cut into. But instead of taking advantage of that and going to the rim again, we tried to dribble out the clock and pass around the perimeter.

It was like watching a football team that uses an agressive attack to go up by two touchdowns, then runs conservative plays when the other team gets aggressive on defense.

We should have taken advantage of the traps by taking the ball aggressively to the rim, and opening our lead back up to 20+ points.

We played "prevent" offense.

its tough keeping that up all game. detroit is tough at the end of games, I think the celtics did a great job the whole game and I have never been more proud of them!!!!!

detroit lulls you through a game only to jump on you in the 4th. they always do that and I think it suprises teams. scary really.

I hope the celtics come out for blood again next game. I figured they would the third game but didnt think they would win the first game. I thought they had a better chance to steal one in the 4th game or 6th.

I am shocked detroit gave away the first game. but I am sure most posters will say they knew all along the celtics would steal that game. you kiddies are such loyal fans!

I love you guys, we won a game on the road for the first time in our playoffs vs. the only team in the east who has been consistent contender after MJ, a very experienced team, we won by 15 and we are talking about this s***t... Bird and Russell are not playing BBall anymore and don't think their PO runs were "easy" just because the won alot... Welcome to the first REAL PO run in 20 years.

The Pistons played desperate basketball in the 4th. The C's got a little complacent. I don't think Doc should have brought in the bench, they would be even more rattled by the pressure. Normally the C's would attack out of the 1-2-2 trap but they were determined to milk the clock. In that situation what happens is that the other team gets closer, but they run out of time. That's exactly what happened. The C's knew they could pull it out if they stayed patient. If they tried to attack off the trap it would have played into the Pistons' hands.

Exactly. I don't know why people fail to recognize this. The trap was designed for the C's to attack the basket quickly, which was exactly what Detroit wanted. The C's wisely chose to keep the game at a slower pace rather than rush shots when they were up by 15 or so. It wasn't like Detroit figured out some new defensive scheme that befuddled the C's, if they play that 1-2-2 trap from the jump in Game 4, the C's would pretty much shred it every time.

After some turnovers and a few quick shots that resulted in nothing, Doc had his team actually pass the ball to break the press and run the clock down, sometime in the middle to late in the 4th quarter. That's how we survived the Stuckey Show late, IMO.

The problem I see is that we really only have one great ballhandler to break the press in Rondo. I cringe watching Cassell bring it up under pressure, and it's not to Ray or Pierce's best strengths to have them do it either. House can do it, but he's not one to actually dribble and then create for another player. Still, I'd rather see House bringing it up while Rondo sits than Cassell. The best way to break the pressure--considering the team's options at the point outside of Rondo--is to do just what we did late, keep the ball moving, break the press with smart passes.

The best way to counter a press is by passing the ball, quickly. The worst way to attack it is by dribbling. Not sure why many, especially in the NBA, see this.

^^ Not sure about that. The 1-2-2 trap is designed to force long crosscourt passes. Those are high risk plays, especially against a small, quick lineup like Det had. The best way to break a trap is to have a great dribbler beat the first double team, and then get the ball into the middle to a big. But you've got to have a great ballhandler to do that. Luckily we've got Rondo.