Notes from the Game Last Night....
Posted: Wed Jan 7, 2009 12:55 pm
I am a daily visitor to this forum, but typically try to keep my mouth shut because I can be very stubborn when it comes to the Celtics so I usually just like to read what others have to say. However, this will be my first post this season because I just need to get a few things off my chest.
I live in Charlotte and was at the game last night unfortunately. By the time the game was over I was telling the people around me that it would have been better if Pierce has missed that shot in regulation, because we didn't need an overtime game on the road front end of a back to back. With that being said, the loss hurt worse to me because it was in ovetime.
Before I saw the stat sheet, let me hash on my initial reaction to the game after seeing it first hand. For every good plan Rondo made, he made 2 or 3 terrible ones. There is one very easy way to beat us and its called the high screen and role. Rondo couldn't fight through or better yet didn't fight through any screens, and KG early in the game wouldn't show on the screen. Big Baby actually did a nice job showing on the screens and I was thoroughly impressed with the way the bench played even though they barely played. Ray came out firing and it looked like he was set for a big night, however Doc thought it necessary to play him 48 minutes so he lost his legs. I never took my eyes off Ray and in the 2nd half, he looked so tired. KG on the other hand makes me pretty much sick to my stomach. He is so soft sometimes. How does he continue to shoot fadeaways with Wallace and Diaw on him continually. Make what Mark Jackson would say "a grown mans move." I also can't quite figure it out, but Paul has been averaging about 25 a game for the last 7 and we have lost 5 of them. We seem to have better results when he is 4-11 for 13 points which makes no sense but it is what it is. I am ok with him taking 30 shots a game though to be quite honest. He is my most favorite player to watch in person seeing how methodical he is. Gerald Wallace is one of the best all around defenders in the league and Pierce had his way on the offensive end. My big issue with that is we ran zero sets for Paul in the overtime. The guy puts us on his shoulders in regulation and we go away from him in crunch time, makes sense to me.
The most frustrating thing about this current slump to me however boils down to 2 fundamental differences from last season. We somehow let bums from bad teams score on us (Turiaf, Belinelli, Blake, Wilson Chandler, Morrison, and Augustin). Lets be honest NBA players make tough shots, but what Morrison did last night in limited action was just disgusting. Our defensive efforts should be the same on everyone.
With everything being said, I am most frustrated with our execution in these loses. Not so much on the offensive end, but the defensive end. We could very easily have won all 7 of these games if we had executed in small stretches of the 4th quarters. This team never had a problem with this last year and that is what I am most bothered by. Doc needs to play the bench more and we need to get Marbury no matter what anyone says. I would love to see Pruitt play, I thought our team was great with him in there last night with Eddie at the off guard. Obviously our window is closing, but the big three, especially Ray and KG should not be playing more than 35 mins a game.
I would call tonight a must win, because if we don't, we are likely looking at potentially 4 loses in a row and 7 out of 9. If we do win though, I think we will beat the CAVS. Without Ilgauskas, they will struggle against us in my initial opinion. Either way this stretch is going to test the mental toughness of our team the rest of the season. I trust Danny will make a couple moves and I see Pierce putting the team on his shoulders in the next 10 to 20 game stretch. Look on the bright side, we are a half game out in the East and in the League and the Lakers have played 7 more home games than away games. We should be fine in the end, and believe me if I didn't think this was true I wouldn't say it, but it is obvious we are getting every teams best effort and we are very capable of putting together another double digit win streak.
GO CELTS! Doc play Gabe and Eddie together and limit the starters minutes a little bit and maybe Rondo won't turn the ball over 9 times tonight.
I live in Charlotte and was at the game last night unfortunately. By the time the game was over I was telling the people around me that it would have been better if Pierce has missed that shot in regulation, because we didn't need an overtime game on the road front end of a back to back. With that being said, the loss hurt worse to me because it was in ovetime.
Before I saw the stat sheet, let me hash on my initial reaction to the game after seeing it first hand. For every good plan Rondo made, he made 2 or 3 terrible ones. There is one very easy way to beat us and its called the high screen and role. Rondo couldn't fight through or better yet didn't fight through any screens, and KG early in the game wouldn't show on the screen. Big Baby actually did a nice job showing on the screens and I was thoroughly impressed with the way the bench played even though they barely played. Ray came out firing and it looked like he was set for a big night, however Doc thought it necessary to play him 48 minutes so he lost his legs. I never took my eyes off Ray and in the 2nd half, he looked so tired. KG on the other hand makes me pretty much sick to my stomach. He is so soft sometimes. How does he continue to shoot fadeaways with Wallace and Diaw on him continually. Make what Mark Jackson would say "a grown mans move." I also can't quite figure it out, but Paul has been averaging about 25 a game for the last 7 and we have lost 5 of them. We seem to have better results when he is 4-11 for 13 points which makes no sense but it is what it is. I am ok with him taking 30 shots a game though to be quite honest. He is my most favorite player to watch in person seeing how methodical he is. Gerald Wallace is one of the best all around defenders in the league and Pierce had his way on the offensive end. My big issue with that is we ran zero sets for Paul in the overtime. The guy puts us on his shoulders in regulation and we go away from him in crunch time, makes sense to me.
The most frustrating thing about this current slump to me however boils down to 2 fundamental differences from last season. We somehow let bums from bad teams score on us (Turiaf, Belinelli, Blake, Wilson Chandler, Morrison, and Augustin). Lets be honest NBA players make tough shots, but what Morrison did last night in limited action was just disgusting. Our defensive efforts should be the same on everyone.
With everything being said, I am most frustrated with our execution in these loses. Not so much on the offensive end, but the defensive end. We could very easily have won all 7 of these games if we had executed in small stretches of the 4th quarters. This team never had a problem with this last year and that is what I am most bothered by. Doc needs to play the bench more and we need to get Marbury no matter what anyone says. I would love to see Pruitt play, I thought our team was great with him in there last night with Eddie at the off guard. Obviously our window is closing, but the big three, especially Ray and KG should not be playing more than 35 mins a game.
I would call tonight a must win, because if we don't, we are likely looking at potentially 4 loses in a row and 7 out of 9. If we do win though, I think we will beat the CAVS. Without Ilgauskas, they will struggle against us in my initial opinion. Either way this stretch is going to test the mental toughness of our team the rest of the season. I trust Danny will make a couple moves and I see Pierce putting the team on his shoulders in the next 10 to 20 game stretch. Look on the bright side, we are a half game out in the East and in the League and the Lakers have played 7 more home games than away games. We should be fine in the end, and believe me if I didn't think this was true I wouldn't say it, but it is obvious we are getting every teams best effort and we are very capable of putting together another double digit win streak.
GO CELTS! Doc play Gabe and Eddie together and limit the starters minutes a little bit and maybe Rondo won't turn the ball over 9 times tonight.
