Re: Suns Layup Drill

[jmc@ptc.com (Jonathan McIntyre)]

Dan said:
> To sum it up, Sun's offensive rebounding and their guards killed us!!

That was definitely the case!  One of the announcers, I think on the 
radio, said the Suns get a large number of rebounds in general for their 
size.  At the same time, I think the Celtics were much more sloppy than
usual.  They really didn't take care of the ball after forcing
turnovers, or when they had position for a rebound.  They just fumbled
it away too much.

One play that was typical was after a missed fast break layup by Phoenix, 
There were 3 Celtics and 0 Suns under the basket for the rebound.  Mercer 
was closest to the basket, and the ball went over his head, and was dropping 
right in front of his teammates behind him.  The problem was that he didn't 
know that it was only his teammates behind him, so he jumped off balance 
backwards after the ball, tipped it with his fingertips and knocked it out 
of bounds.  If they're communicating and paying more attention to where 
everyone is on the court, the Celtics get that rebound easily.  

I also remember a play where the Celtics nicely boxed out the Suns, but 
the two Celtics fumbled the ball between their feet and the Suns got the 
ball.  It was just a painfully sloppy game to watch.  

Kidd and Nash did do an excellent job avoiding the trap before the Celtics 
could close in on them... they just kept moving quickly with their head up 
and easily dribbled into the frontcourt with a numbers advantage when they 
saw the trap coming.  Eventually they got a bit tired and turned the
ball over a few times, but overall got lots more easy layups for their
teammates for their efforts.  Dribbling with your head up and looking around 
while under defensive pressure is not an easy skill to master.  I think
Billups needs work there, and has to master that skill before he can
take the next step in becoming a true point gaurd.

It was an exciting game... lots of action back and forth, lots of movement. 

The Celtics are passing better and getting more inside scoring opportunities. 
They just didn't get the rebounds, and still need to improve their trapping 
to deal with the really good point gaurds.  I think that will come with time, 
and the Celtics weren't far off from winning the game, so I think the 
current Celtics roster will be able to beat Phoenix consistently in the near 
future.  

It's teams like San Antonio that the C's will never beat consistently with the 
current roster.  However, I was encouraged that late in the game Roy Rogers 
came in and was able to prevent easy layups for Phoenix after the press was 
beaten, so maybe the Celtics are only one scoring 7-footer away from having a 
roster that will eventually be able to beat anybody. 

Jon Mc