a few thoughts

[mberry@journalink.com (Mark Berry)]

Thoroughly enjoyed my first chance to see the Celts this season (I'm relegated 
to national broadcasts because my wife doesn't want to become a basketball 
widow). Had a few thoughts:

One thing I haven't seen anyone on the list mention is Antoine's comment after 
Tuesday's game, when he said he was worrying too much about his shooting 
percentage in the first few games. I thought this was a great point. Although we 
all want him to shoot a higher percentage, I think we'd all agree we want it to 
happen naturally. The one thing we don't want is our best player second-guessing 
himself or worrying about missing shots. A coach once said to me "basketball is 
a game of risks, and winners take them." I believe that's true, the key is 
taking calculated risks. Anyway, it seemed to me that the more aggressive 
Antoine just seemed to loosen the entire team up.

On Pierce: I knew he was good, but was still shocked to see this guy last night. 
I watched him a few times in college and once saw him single-handedly beat my 
Ohio State Buckeyes in a tournament out in Hawaii. When the draft rolled around, 
I thought Olowokandi would be our dream pickup, with Pierce right behind, simply 
because they addressed our two most glaring needs. Now we have just one glaring 
need.

Anderson was shooting a little too quickly for my liking last night, but I think 
we'll see less of that when Mercer returns. With Ron out, we're woefully short 
on offensive options. When Pierce left early with foul trouble, we needed 
someone else to step up and make shots. Anderson will be fine. He's a strength, 
not a weakness to this team.

The center-by-committee will work as long as Andrew is a part of it. He did all 
the little things. Riley is a project, but can provide some minutes. Battie will 
be a marginal player at best until he gets stronger. We still need to get better 
here, but I don't know exactly how to do it.

Popeye didn't play his best game, but he did play a solid game. He's a great 
pickup.

A healthy McCarty will really help. He's the key player when we turn up the 
press.

Anyway, I'm really excited about this team because I think Pitino will put this 
break in the schedule to good use. I expect a fresh, relatively healthy team to 
head west, with a lot of the rough edges smoothed out. With the injuries to the 
Knicks and Heat, I think we can be a factor. We'll have to play well, because 
the other teams we're competing with for final playoff spots: Milwaukee, Detroit 
and Philly, all are playing well.

Sorry so long.

Mark