Re: Charlotte

[opi@unesco.org]

Dan Forant Sr wrote:

> Like I was saying, Charlotte took Indy apart piece by piece. After watching
> the game I don't blame Bird for taking the Exit door at the end of the
> season. Charlotte is up there for Conference honors. Wesley and Davis are
> fueling that team. We'll have a better chance against Indy this week for
> another win.

Big Dan:

In our two pre-season losses to the Charlotte Brontes, their big frontline
slammed us for an average of 60 rebounds (this includes team rebounds). In the
first game, the gritty Celts behind Fortson actually won the rebounding war
(+1), but in the second game we were outrebounded badly (-18). With Fortson, we
contained Charlotte to 9 offensive boards. Without him, they climbed back up to
15 offensive rebounds.

The Celtics can't rely on Walker, Pierce and Griffin's hustle alone to make up
for Fortson's rebounding. Pitino has to find a means to get Tony Battie (2 ppg,
2rpg) jumpstarted in the direction of the 9ppg 8rpg his new contract is worth,
or he could fall into a Yogi Stewart type of rut (esp after his old Denver
nemesis and torturer Danny Fortson returns). I'd rather that the 6-6 Pierce and
6-5 Griffin were out there playing all the time to maintain this great Celts
chemistry we have, but we'll need some really athletic height out there against
Charlotte and Indiana's A-team this weekend or we're going to get badly mauled.

It seems like everytime I've "badmouthed" a player this week, they go out and
play awesome. Actually, I've always believed I had this special power (the
power of negative thinking). I think it's a New England thing. :-)  For
example, I claimed Griffin hasn't shown he deserves to start over
Walter/Battie/Williams judging by any of his preseason starts. Wrong! Then I
said that Griffin's great play in the opener was making the 6 million dollar
Eric Williams look redundant (but that Williams will also have some big games
for us down the road). In my face, disgrace!!

So strictly in the superstitious interest of making the slumping Tony Battie
prove me totally wrong once again, I'll say for the record that he is still a
woefully inconsistent player, a slightly over-rated career 7 ppg tease, a guy
who demonstrates the least heart & intensity among our key frontcourtmen
(Walker, Pierce, Vitaly, Fortson, Walter, Williams), and he hasn't proven to
anyone he has the leg/hip strength to guard even fellow power forwards, much
less any opposing center I can possibly think of.

I'm not saying this to start a debate. Battie's (in our case, irreplaceable)
strengths outweigh his weaknesses. If necessary, I'll even post verbatim the
very glowing posts I've made early and often about Battie, saying among other
things that he was a more important Summer re-sign than Mercer, a more
dominantly athletic and offensively polished player than Camby in their
head-to-head encounters, and that it would have been lunacy to trade him for
Rodney Rogers.

Back to the Charlotte game, Paul Pierce needs to show tonight that he already
is or can one day be the eqaul of Eddie Jones, an intelligent All Star on
offense and an All NBA on defense. He is fighting with Eddie Jones, Richmond
and Vince Carter to be an All Star reserve, so this will be another great
challenge for him (and Griffin).

BTW, I think the Indiana game is on the road. Yes I think we could beat the
proud old Bird (it would be a major milestone, though). Detroit and New York
will be tough, but this year we match up pretty well with all the New York
swingmen (with or without Ewing, whom Vitaly has shut down a few times).

I shouldn't get too optimistic. We do have a head start (22 preseason games)
over the other teams, having sent a bunch of ringers to the two summer leagues.
Some veteran teams will catch up, but at least we've established a team
chemisty that is very positive.  Even a .500 record through the remainder of
1999 could translate into 50 wins this year, the way I see the schedule. This
month ends with a grueling stretch against at Miami, Indiana, San Antonio,
Milwaukee, at Atlanta, Miami again, at Philly, mighty Denver (whew), and then
Houston. Next month also ends with a brutal holiday schedule against Utah, San
Antonio, Houston, the Flakers (easy win) and then three more road games out
West. Once the Times Square ball drops, the schedule suddenly looks easy (two
games against Portland, but that's about it), even though there are A LOT more
road games we have to win in the second half.

Joe

****