RealGM

Ray had a couple of great games and daggers against the Bulls.

If we are to beat the Magic (WHICH I AM CONFIDENT WE WILL), we cannot depend only on the Truth carrying us on his shoulders as he did all night tonight, and a couple of improbable but superclutch Js by BBD. The Magic are going to maul Paul as usual for the rest of the series. RAY, YOU ARE A FUTURE HOFER - TIME TO STEP UP OR STEP OUT.

it's a bad matchup for Ray. he doesn't have the quickness anymore to beat Shard, and Shard has the size to bother him. still, i expect a dagger game from ray at some point. remember against CLE last year? he sucked for the first few games and then came up big.

i knew this would happen

ray struggles when teams play real defence against him

but jj redick is his matchup its just sad, ray allen is a fossil at this stage in his career, you cant give him the ball and tell him to get you some points like pierce or rondo to an extent, he needs someone to create for him, or for him to come off screens

ParticleMan wrote:it's a bad matchup for Ray. he doesn't have the quickness anymore to beat Shard, and Shard has the size to bother him. still, i expect a dagger game from ray at some point. remember against CLE last year? he sucked for the first few games and then came up big.

no he sucked the whole clevlenad series and sucked the worst in game 7

At least he played decent defense, albeit against a rookie and a reserve.

I actually thought he played okay today except for missing his 3's.

He was shooting in rhythm, looked smooth, and played decent defense. Granted he didn't take many shots, but he took smart shots.

Ray is being guarded VERY closely...When he finally has an open shot, he's rushing it and missing.

He needs to step up! He has had quite a few open looks he has just not been hitting them. But Ray has always bounced back I am confident he will again...

Here we go again...

Ray if the jumper isn't falling take it to the hole a few times. Then we will see the whole court open up for you. Don't complain because your teammates aren't getting you open looks.

This is a good sign, whenever a thread like this pops up, he has a huge game.

yeah it would be nice to see pierce AND ray get it going at the same time. Ray is trying hard but he isn't getting many open looks and when he is getting them he's missing. He was able to get a couple of ft's and drives to fall but far too often ray goes up soft and Howard eats him up. OUr bigs need to do a better job in the next game of setting screens. the high pick and roll with pierce helped a bit but doc is going to have to come up with some plays that get ray open. I'd go to him earlier in the shot clock. the other thing is Ray rarely gets the opportunity to go one on one. If he's given some space I think he can get his shot off against reddick or lee

Redick is just too much for him. Ray's only problem is he's just slow. He cannot beat anyone one-on-one anymore, especially putting the ball on the floor. He doesn't lose guys on the picks much either. He may be better used setting screens and popping for jumpers.

He looks to be playing well but his shot just seems to be a little off. I think I remember one doing two cycles around the rim before banging out (amidst several other close misses). Looks like he might be primed to have one or two big games to end this series.

armageddon wrote:Redick is just too much for him. Ray's only problem is he's just slow. He cannot beat anyone one-on-one anymore, especially putting the ball on the floor. He doesn't lose guys on the picks much either. He may be better used setting screens and popping for jumpers.

He isn't that slow. Whenever he does put the ball on the floor he usually makes it into a good shot. He doesn't have to get layups eveytime just closer to the basket for a 8-10' shot.

Maybe he's constipated, or misses his wife and kid, or is just bummed that he can't get Chik-Fil-A in Boston. Who knows? I'm not worried. I'm with Zin5. You know Ray: He'll go 0-13 in a big game, and then hit some clutch shots right at the end. As long as he keeps shooting, he'll get his.

Athanacropolis wrote:Maybe he's constipated, or misses his wife and kid, or is just bummed that he can't get Chik-Fil-A in Boston. Who knows? I'm not worried. I'm with Zin5. You know Ray: He'll go 0-13 in a big game, and then hit some clutch shots right at the end. As long as he keeps shooting, he'll get his.

I miss the south...mmmm!

Yeah it seems during the regular season teams dont play as hard as they do in the playoffs and he can get off by catching guys sleeping. In the playoffs it a different beast so he is struggling to get it going. He can still go off at any moment.

Next year is going to be very interesting to see what we do with Ray. I want to keep him on no doubt but I think it would be a dumb move financially that would set us back if we don't trade his expiring contract for a young talent.

3 more games.....there is still time.......

I don't think people realize how much defensive attention Ray really gets. He has a player specifically assigned to him all game. They never stray more than two feet away from him. His game is to come off screens from the Celtics big men. Well, due to the fact that the Celtics are depleted up front Davis and Perkins have been reluctant to throw the kind of screens to really get Ray open, a la the illegal kind. But even when Davis or Perkins throw a good screen for Ray, Howard or Shard hedge out and essentially cut off the passing lane to Ray. Now if it were KG setting the screen, or even Powe, when Howard or Shard hedge out the Celtics would make the Magic pay around 80% of the time and eventually the Magic would adjust their strategy and Ray would have a better chance at getting open looks. However, Davis and Perkins struggle to finish these scenarios off consistently so it makes sense that the Magic continue to use their bigs to hedge on screens.

This is, in a nutshell, why Ray is struggling. By the time he DOES get an open look he's out of rhythm. The only way to truly get Ray going is to go to him early and often but by doing so the Celtics are not being aggressive attacking the paint area, which has been a key to success thus far in the series. So to a certain extent the Celtics have to chalk up an ineffective Ray as somewhat of a loss, IMO, because it doesn't make great sense to force Ray into rhythm. I'd rather Pierce and Rondo attack the basket.

In order for Ray to be effective he needs to score some tough shots early or he needs to get into the paint and to the foul line. If he misses his first few shots I don't think that the Celtics will continue to push his button offensively. They need to be more aggressive vs. settling for contested jumpers, which is all the Magic have really allowed Ray throughout this series.