10 things (1000th post edition)

[Gant]

1) Seeds Of Springtime

Beyond the sweet sensation of Piston pummeling, the result of last night's contest put the teams on new paths. Had Detroit won, the rest of the season would have been a steel cage Hillary/Obama fight to the end; but that didn't happen. With only 23 Celtic games left the Pistons are now 5 back in the loss column and also lose the head to head tiebreaker.

The race is not over but the big lead will surely change philosophies for both clubs the rest of the way: Detroit won't kill themselves on the now longshot cause of gaining the top seed. They will prepare their squad for the playoffs, continue to play their bench and make certain their starters are healthy even if it costs them a few games. This allows Boston to do the same.


2) Furthermore

Other than that homecourt advantage in the conference finals, there's no reason for Detroit to attempt a late season sprint. Looking ahead to potential playoff matchups, I don't think the Celtics have all that much preference about who they play in the second round, whereas the Pistons probably do: They want to avoid Cleveland. The Cavs beat them last year and wore them down the year before. Detroit can out-poise Toronto or Orlando, but they have no magic wand to use on the Cavaliers. So they're probably just as happy to sit in the #2 spot and deal with the Magic, rather than fight like hell when the reward is a rematch with LeBron James.


3) As For Boston

I mentioned before on RealGm that the Cavs recent trade helps Boston in a potential showdown. Specifically Drew Gooden could go outside defensively against KG and take him outside on the other end. Ben Wallace is still too short and now too slow to deal with Garnett.

You can't discount LeBron. He can beat anyone himself, but Cleveland is a little less scary to Boston now.

There's a long way to go before the playoffs but odds are in the second round Detroit will take on Orlando and the Celtics will face the survivor of Toronto/Cleveland.


4) Bob

Bob came over and watched the game last night. This is not new. For decades Bob's come over and watched Celtic games. You know what was really nice? Bob and I haven't seen a game in March that had any sort of remote championship implications for two decades. Of course we're not alone. None of the great green nation has. But last night me and old Bob sat there and thoroughly enjoyed the Celtics putting a headlock on the league's best record. We talked about bygone days and watched Rondo slam it through. We remembered Bird and Hondo as Perkins grabbed his 20th board. While KG racked up his Celtic high in points we gleefully speculated about May and June.

May and June. They play basketball in May and June

[UGA Hayes]

If Detroit is smart they will learn from the NFL and last years Dallas team that its not really a great idea to coast at this point in the season.

[Dogen]

I'd put a star next to #9. The ownership of this team has been phenomenal in their vision of what it takes to build a contender. Absolute calss act to compliment Danny and Doc.

[Tricky Ricky]

7) Doc

I keep bringing up Doc. He's coaching. I mean REALLY coaching. He's managing all these powerful personalities, adding another in Cassell, and the team just keeps getting stronger. The young guys are all markedly better players than they were four months ago. Everyone's on the same page. This team is beautiful to watch, and Doc deserves as much credit now as he got blame the last few seasons.

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What powerful personalitites???? Docs doing a good job but we could have a blind horse coaching and with these players it would have a similiar record to Doc this season. The person who really deserves credit is Ainge for constructing this team.

[sully00]

Fine work Gant.

I think you hit on a key point that I noticed the other night. The Pistons are a terrible match for the Cavs, because they lack star power. While Boston is best suited to match up with the LeBrons because on any given night they have 3 guys who can go off and more importantly they have the one guy in the conference that can stand toe to toe with him. Not that Pierce is as good as LeBron but he makes him work on both ends.

DET wins a lot of games because they know their stuff cold and they can run their sets and on most nights basically make fewer mistakes than their opponents, and while either of their 3 star offensive guys can get hot they mostly do it for stretches not for games. I think father time has also started to catch up with them as whole. Not that they aren't still a very dangerous team, just that by the time the post season comes they may not be the favorite some are portraying them to be, I think their window has closed.

[sully00]

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What powerful personalitites???? Docs doing a good job but we could have a blind horse coaching and with these players it would have a similiar record to Doc this season. The person who really deserves credit is Ainge for constructing this team.

You do realize that posts like that say more about your skills of observation than the point your trying to make?

All around the league Ainge's players, the ones that he gave Doc to coach when you made up your mind he couldn't, are making up some of the worst rosters in the league. Flat out whatever their talent level some are completely ineffective, heartless or just plain terrible defensively.

There are plenty of teams in this league that have comparable talent to what is in Boston overall, some much deaper, but they don't get a 32 year old All Star SG to become defensive stoppers, or a 30 year old scorer to think pass first, a 31 year old PF to forget leading by just example and lead. This isn't the same Ray Allen that was in SEA, or the same Pierce that was in Boston, or the same KG that was in MINN last season. Cry all you want about how Doc uses the 14th or 13th guy on the bench, it doesn't matter and if anybody could do this then why aren't there 8 teams with Boston's record? While nobody can make a bad team good not just anybody can make a good team great.

[P2]

7) Doc

I keep bringing up Doc. He's coaching. I mean REALLY coaching. He's managing all these powerful personalities, adding another in Cassell, and the team just keeps getting stronger. The young guys are all markedly better players than they were four months ago. Everyone's on the same page. This team is beautiful to watch, and Doc deserves as much credit now as he got blame the last few seasons.

But Doc tries to be a moron and think we can wait with playing Sam and P.J. But we have that Texas trip coming up, and they need that one week to play and get themselves acclimated.

Also, Brown has had more than a week to get back into form, we could at least use him for 5 minutes the first game. Sam hasn't been playing for two weeks, and it' about time he does.

[floyd]

Pierce has improved his game every years since Doc's been here. I thought Paul was gone for draft picks just a couple years ago - he was being such an ahole on the court. Now Paul certainly deserves credit for improving his disposition, but do you really think that would have happened if George Karl or Pat Riley were coaching this team? No they would've ripped him in person and in the media and he'd be long gone after a trade demand.

Nice post Gant, and yes, I'm happy as a school girl.

[LongTimeFan]

It can not be said enough that the Celtics still draft and develope and this will give DA future chips to deal.

Powe and Baby are both 2nd round picks. Rondo is a mid first. Tony is too. We're extremely good, we're getting better and DA's hand is getting replenished.

Slowly but surely, the dynasty is being rebuilt.

[Tricky Ricky]

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All around the league Ainge's players, the ones that he gave Doc to coach when you made up your mind he couldn't, are making up some of the worst rosters in the league. Flat out whatever their talent level some are completely ineffective, heartless or just plain terrible defensively.

There are plenty of teams in this league that have comparable talent to what is in Boston overall, some much deaper, but they don't get a 32 year old All Star SG to become defensive stoppers, or a 30 year old scorer to think pass first, a 31 year old PF to forget leading by just example and lead. This isn't the same Ray Allen that was in SEA, or the same Pierce that was in Boston, or the same KG that was in MINN last season. Cry all you want about how Doc uses the 14th or 13th guy on the bench, it doesn't matter and if anybody could do this then why aren't there 8 teams with Boston's record? While nobody can make a bad team good not just anybody can make a good team great.

Ya theyre making up some of the worst rosters because theyre on teams that are rebuilding. The team Doc broght to the playoffs shouldve made it out of the first round if it wasnt for Docs awful rotations.

Its not the same Kg and PP? Your right theyre actually playing better this season imo.

And ya the 8 other teams arent doing this because they all play in the west, and to tell you the truth the only team with a comparable roster is the Gasol Lakers and they are doing the same thing as the C's

[sully00]

Exactly Mark Blount, Raef LaFrentz, Antoine Walker, Ricky Davis, and Marcus Banks, and Gary Payton. Why couldn't Doc win with those guys, they are obviously some of the most coachable and receptive guys in the Association.

Doc Rives has gotten 3 alpha dog All Stars to mesh at the same time he has built a bench from scratch. He has survived a 9 game stretch without Garnett. But your right Doc has nothing to do with it hand this team over to anyone and you get the same results.

This team is 16 and 2 against the West. They beat Dallas and SA without Garnett but how could they possible do it without Sam and PJ.

[SeizeCoup]

I too am happy that the owners have been willing to spend money while bringing this team back to prominence, but it's not like they're making an empty investment.

Since it's such a better product now, there's gotta be an increased desire from advertisers. Also, there's the money generated via post-season appearance.

Speaking of the playoffs, I just got my ticket info. Prices jacked up! Just a small taste of what's to come these upcoming seasons... dolla dolla bills y'all.

[Tricky Ricky]

Exactly Mark Blount, Raef LaFrentz, Antoine Walker, Ricky Davis, and Marcus Banks, and Gary Payton. Why couldn't Doc win with those guys, they are obviously some of the most coachable and receptive guys in the Association.

Doc Rives has gotten 3 alpha dog All Stars to mesh at the same time he has built a bench from scratch. He has survived a 9 game stretch without Garnett. But your right Doc has nothing to do with it hand this team over to anyone and you get the same results.
This team is 16 and 2 against the West. They beat Dallas and SA without Garnett but how could they possible do it without Sam and PJ.

Yes any other coach could do it how many more times do I have to say it? And not to take anything away from the Dal or SA games but they were both at home and SA didnt have Parker, both very impressive though.

[ParticleMan]

LMAO, I knew #7 would bring out the Doc haters.

These guys are friggin brilliant. Sure, every player on our team goes out of their way to credit Doc and the atmosphere he's built. The C's announcers and beat writers talk about what a great job Doc has done at meshing personalities and getting guys to fully buy into a system at personal sacrifice (see Allen, Ray). But those guys are all rodsucking morons. Any truly intelligent person knows that Doc is an idiot.

Sure, his team has the best record in basketball with a brand new team meshing 3 superstars that everyone thought would have ego problems. Sure, he's managed to do it with no true backup PG and essentially no backup C over 6-8. Sure, he's managed to turn a young bench unit from what was thought to be a huge liability into an actual asset. Sure, he's overseen the improvement of one Rajon Rondo, who was probably the most critical player to the C's success this season. But anyone who watches games know that Doc is a complete moron.

Anyone can coach a team with this much talent to this record. The real hallmark of a great coach is how well he manages the minutes of the 12th man in the rotation. And how closely he takes timeouts to the exact time when Doc Haters, in their infinite armchair wisdom, would have taken them. After all, it's obvious that the Doc Haters could easily coach this team to a better record. It's really just shocking that nobody has asked them to do so.

[floyd]

People just don't like to admit they were wrong even with all evidence to the contrary. Look at Bill Simmons. It's ridiculous.
I was a little down on Doc last year, but a 24 win season will do that. And a 60 + win season should make you reconsider.

[Tricky Ricky]

People just don't like to admit they were wrong even with all evidence to the contrary. Look at Bill Simmons. It's ridiculous.
I was a little down on Doc last year, but a 24 win season will do that. And a 60 + win season should make you reconsider.

Im not saying hes not doing a good job, Im just saying any coach with this talent could do the same job Docs doing now. Garnett/Allen/Pierce have never had attitude problems so I dont see why you guys keep bringing up the "meshing together" argument, I think more of it has to do with coach KG than coach Rivers. Just my opinion no need to cry and tell me how much u guys love Doc, I just hope he doesnt make u and I cry during the playoffs

[Tricky Ricky]

LMAO, I knew #7 would bring out the Doc haters.

These guys are friggin brilliant. Sure, every player on our team goes out of their way to credit Doc and the atmosphere he's built. The C's announcers and beat writers talk about what a great job Doc has done at meshing personalities and getting guys to fully buy into a system at personal sacrifice (see Allen, Ray). But those guys are all rodsucking morons. Any truly intelligent person knows that Doc is an idiot.

Sure, his team has the best record in basketball with a brand new team meshing 3 superstars that everyone thought would have ego problems. Sure, he's managed to do it with no true backup PG and essentially no backup C over 6-8. Sure, he's managed to turn a young bench unit from what was thought to be a huge liability into an actual asset. Sure, he's overseen the improvement of one Rajon Rondo, who was probably the most critical player to the C's success this season. But anyone who watches games know that Doc is a complete moron.

Anyone can coach a team with this much talent to this record. The real hallmark of a great coach is how well he manages the minutes of the 12th man in the rotation. And how closely he takes timeouts to the exact time when Doc Haters, in their infinite armchair wisdom, would have taken them. After all, it's obvious that the Doc Haters could easily coach this team to a better record. It's really just shocking that nobody has asked them to do so.

Who ever thought these three would have ego problems? Three of the biggest class acts in the league would have ego problems lololololol you love the media

[floyd]

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Im not saying hes not doing a good job, Im just saying any coach with this talent could do the same job Docs doing now. Garnett/Allen/Pierce have never had attitude problems so I dont see why you guys keep bringing up the "meshing together" argument, I think more of it has to do with coach KG than coach Rivers. Just my opinion no need to cry and tell me how much u guys love Doc, I just hope he doesnt make u and I cry during the playoffs

How is this not saying he's not doing a good job? If anyone with a pulse could do my job as well as me than I wouldn't be all that great at it, would I (as I whistle past the graveyard)?
And no one said anyone wanted to make nasty with Glen, but I'm pretty happy and appreciative of this amazing season. Came out of nowhere. If coaches don't matter than why have them?

[Jammer]

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What powerful personalitites???? Docs doing a good job but we could have a blind horse coaching and with these players it would have a similiar record to Doc this season. The person who really deserves credit is Ainge for constructing this team.

Come on Tricky, you're more sophisticated than that.

It's the old "it's not what you say, it's how you say it."

Doc has a lot of egos to manage.

Tony Allen and his agent may want more PT.

Eddie House and his agent may not want to share time with a 38 year old point guard.
Eddie has welcomed Sam, as has Rondo. That was managed by Doc and Danny.

Leon Powe and his mouthpiece (err, I meant agent) may not have wanted to lose time to rookie Glen Davis at the start of the season. Leon and his agents silence at the start of the season is likely something that was managed by Doc and Danny.

Doc has been masterful.

Ray Allen gave up 6.6 FGA per game from last season, despite leading the team in mpg.

Paul Pierce is second on the team in assists, behind Rajon Rondo.

And the Captain gave up 3.3 shots per game from last season.

Kevin Garnett takes 3.7 less shots per game than last season.

And, if you haven't figured out what he's doing, it's because of the flexibility that Doc has maintained.

Doc doesn't have a set rotation.

Doc has a starting lineup, a 6th man (James Posey),

and then Doc decides who's gonna play day by day.

That's right, day by day, moment by moment.

Need perimeter D or pressure on the ball? Tony Allen.

Need outside shooting? Eddie House.

Need to protect the ball with a mid-range game and passing? Sam Cassell.

Need rebounds? Leon Powe or PJ Brown.

Need post defense? Glen Davis or PJ Brown.

Need fast hands on the interior? Glen Davis.

That sure as hell looks like coaching to me.

Actually, Doc Rivers looks to me to be the Coach of the Year.

For the second time, at that.

[UGA Hayes]

Forget the personality stuff, I actually think Doc's coaching overall, and I mean specific things that I had complaints about, has improved immensely. Yes there are times he make a move or two that I don't like, but overall I'm happy.

I think he has been especially good in allocating minutes this year. Its more subtle, but Doc has been pretty good about knowing when Posey or House have it or not, about how to work Powe and Baby into the rotation, working Scal out of it, etc, end of game situations has improved as the year has progressed, we are pretty good out of timeouts,etc.

The only guy I don't love the way we handle is Ray, but I don't think that is such an easy situation, esp b/c I think of all the guys likely to cause chemistry issues Ray might be the one to keep an eye on.

I think this independent of our record.