Michael Gee Puts The Kibosh On Instant Gratification

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Boston Herald - 3/6/99
C's level: sea level
by Michael Gee 

Saturday, March 6, 1999



The Celtics are carrying a dreadful burden. All too many 
people have anointed them The Greatest .500 Team in History. 

By far the most remarkable fact about the Celtics' 102-94 win 
over the scattered remnants of the Denver Nuggets last night 
at the FleetCenter was that they were expected to win easily.

That it sometimes looked as if they could was a sign of how 
much progress the team has made. That they could not was a 
sign that expectations have gotten a few laps ahead of 
reality in this town.

There's a difference between having talent and being a good, 
let alone contending, pro basketball team. There's a huge 
difference between being able to score at will and win at will. 
And there's an infinite difference between a team that should 
inspire hope and one that inspires genuine confidence.


Yet the fans at the FleetCenter sat quietly throughout the 
contest with the smug air of the crowds that came to watch 
the '80s Celtics, a genuinely great outfit, dispatch 
NBA cripples. They were there to watch a big win, the 
defining moment of the kill when the Celts created a 
blowout. When it didn't happen, they left the arena 
pleased, but very, very quiet.


The worst thing Celtics followers can do to their team is go 
around thinking it's good. The team isn't ready for such 
demanding support. It still needs TLC from the paying 
customers. And should the players ever inhale the notion, 
it would be a disaster.

A quality NBA team would've indeed vaporized the Nuggets. 
Denver, which after all was the worst team in the league 
last season, was minus three starters, including rookie 
center Raef LaFrentz, due to injury. It was coming off a 
mugging from the Heat. Denver might be the only team 
against whom the Celts have a decided height advantage.

Denver had no defense except for the occasional block. 
It had no one who could stop Ron Mercer from scoring 
35 nearly unchallenged points. It couldn't handle the 
ball (24 turnovers), nor, with the exception of guard 
Cory Alexander, shoot.

But the Celtics still couldn't put them away. They 
frittered away double-digit lead after double-digit 
lead, most notably allowing a 100-86 margin with 
3:02 to play shrink to 100-94 in less than two minutes. 
That's the sort of performance that makes gamblers cynical.

The Celtics aren't going to put many teams away, win or 
lose, and they are going to lose some games they ought 
to win, like last Monday night against the Nets, for 
the simplest of reasons. They can't prevent enough 
scores. Defense creates blowouts.

If basketball had a two-platoon system like the NFL, 
the Celtics might go undefeated. Between Mercer, 
Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, Boston has three 
legitimate first options on offense, guys who all 
can go off for 30 in a game, or six in two minutes.

The Celtics' second unit, which can't score so well, 
is proficient at Rick Pitino's pressing defense. In 
fact, it was the bench that put Denver in a terminal 
hole at the start of the fourth quarter, running the 
Nuggets ragged.

In the SEC, Kentucky coach Pitino could afford unlimited 
substitution. In the NBA, Celtic coach Pitino cannot. 
There's a limit to how far a team can go in pro ball 
if the starters have to leave the floor when it really, 
really, needs a stop.

Against Denver, the C's offensive prowess actually 
worked against them. Once they discovered they could 
score at will, the young and impressionable Celtics 
eased off a bit, making them vulnerable. Turning it 
on and off is luxury only the best teams can afford.

The Celtics are entertaining. That sure beats dull. 
They are at .500, which sure beats the 15-67 mark of 
two years back. They have a promising future, always 
preferable to hopelessness.

But they are still far closer to the start of their 
journey than to the destination they seek, nearer the 
lottery than the second round of the playoffs, let alone 
the Finals. The Celtics need time, and psychic space as well.

Before they're labeled the next great team in town, give 
the Celtics time to adjust to being average, like all the 
other .500 teams.