Ugly ugly ugly 4th quarter

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

The fourth quarter was just one of those atrocious segments
where everything went wrong at once. The Celtics just couldn't
stop the Pistons at the defensive end and that meant that they
couldn't run on offense either. So their offense didn't score
much, and the Pistons could run... it was one of those dismal
cycles.

I actually thought that Antoine played better than a 5-14 night
would suggest. Yes, we don't like to see 1-6 on threes, but he
wasn't taken crazy ones; the ones I saw were open three pointers
created from other people's offense. He had hit 47% from downtown
to that point so an open 3 from Antoine is a shot that works in
the offense. Other than that, he actually got to the line by
taking it to the hole, and he was really working at his rebounding
for the first time this year, looking like the player who has a
9.3 career rpg average. He was really battling to get those
rebounds. It might be that he was too fatigued before with four
games in five nights. Jerome Williams had a big night but only
four of his rebounds were on the offensive end and I think two of
those came after the game was decided.

There was really just no offensive flow with Anderson getting
injured and Griffin having an uncharacteristically bad night.
Even on fast breaks the Celtics would end up settling for a 
midrange jumper while on the other end the Pistons were going
to the hole for free throws, dunks, and three point plays.
The thing is that even when Griffin has a bad game, he still
keeps working to contribute. He would still get his hands on
the ball to steal rebounds, it just wouldn't bounce the right
way. He had a tough time on defense tonight but under the new
rules, it's tough to do anything against Stackhouse and Hill.
I don't think the teams that beat the Pistons this year have
really stopped them and we could have beaten them without
stopping those two; it was giving up so many points to their
other players and turning the ball over so much for fast break
defense, as well as generally having a horrific fourth quarter
offensively.

Stackhouse is really hard to figure out. Sometimes he'll nail
a 3 pointer like it's nothing and other times the defense will
play five feet off him and give him as long as he wants to 
measure the 18 footer, which he'll brick horribly. Hill also
seems to not have the consistent jumper either. But both are
pretty fantastic on the break so the uptempo offense seems
to help them. The Celtics trapped both of them but their passing
skills took advantage, getting some easy points for Hunter and
Jerome Williams.

When I watch Laettner, I just get the feeling that he's capable
of a lot more if he just tries harder. If you combined his 
abilities with the activity and motivation of Jerome Williams, 
you'd have an incredible player.

I actually liked what I saw from Overton despite his 8 points,
0 assists line. He was definitely robbed on a charging call.
The thing was that he would barrel down the court and the
other Celtics would be set up at the perimeter, so he would take
it to the hole. He was also passed the ball while in the halfcourt
offense and on the fast break in awkward situations, and ended
up taking the shot; I got the feeling that when he and the other
Celtics get more experience together, this sort of thing won't
happen anymore. He looked like he was doing what Wayne Turner
did in terms of pushing the pace on offense at full speed, but
with better shooting and more polished point guard skills.

Alex