What the hell happened?

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

I leave work yesterday with the C's trailing by a bucket late in the third.
Antoine had hit 50% of his shots, according to ESPN.com and NBA.com.

I get home and CNN says we lost by 18!! 

Bill C. tells me the Pistons started the fourth with a 14-6 run, followed by a
12-2 run. Bentz noted that the team "gave up in the 4th Quarter (36-18), at home."

This is not good. The season is much too early for lack of effort ... or by
continued 30% shooting nights from Walker. (Joe, he must have heard you on the
rebounding part ... why didn't you berate his shot selection?) I left work
thinking, 'Well, I don't really care if the C's lose this game as long as
Walker plays well and the team gives good effort." The worst scenario, I
thought, would be getting blown out and having a bad shooting performance by
Walker. Prophetic, or what?

Doubtless, the team missed Kenny. From Bill's summary, someone needs to do
some headhunting on Grant Hill the next time we play Detroit, because it
sounds like he pulled some dirty plays. Probably frustrated we held him to 16
points (Griffin's work?), though he did get 10 boards and 7 assists. (Notice,
Antoine, what an All-Star focuses on when the baskets aren't dropping.)

For the first time this season, we also didn't have anybody besides Antoine
and Pierce stepping up. If they can't get a double-figure scoring night from a
Williams, Battie, etc., the Celtics will have a tough time beating the
talented teams. 

But Kenny and the rest aside, it burns me up to hear of the team "quitting"
and seeing Walker's FG %.