Re: Ugly ugly ugly 4th quarter

[jmc@ptc.com]

Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu> wrote:
> 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. 

  They looked pretty good in that 3rd quarter, didn't they?  Maybe 
the Dana Barros missed layup in the last second of the 3rd quarter 
that would have given the Celtics the lead for one of the first times
in the game set the tone for the 4th quarter.  Detroit came out 
scrapping and hustling and slapping the ball away and getting to loose 
balls first, while the Celtics just didn't protect the ball well, and 
let Detroit's agressiveness get to them.  

  It made the Celtics rush a lot of their open shots, as alot of the
C's, Antoine and Vitaly in particular, took a lot of "line drive" shots
in the 4th quarter.  There was barely any arc on the shots.  The shots
were clanging off the rim for deep rebounds, which Detroit would hustle
and get far from the basket, allowing them to run the fast break, which
they did well with their quick passing.

  The Celtics are just not experienced at handling the kind of pressure 
that they dish out to other teams.  Hopefully their scrimmages during 
practice will help them in this regard eventually.

  Not having Kenny Anderson in there hurt, as he's usually good at 
avoiding turnovers, and this was one game where the Celtics needed 
that as they were facing a hungry team determined to force a lot of 
turnovers. 

  Ah, well, the way I look at it is that I'll be happy if the Celtics 
can continue their current ratio of 4 well played games for every poorly 
played game. 

  I think the Celtics will be hungry on Friday, and should be able to 
beat up on the Knicks.  If the Celtics lose that one, then I'll start 
to get worried.  A loss to Chicago Saturday would be a disaster.  Let's 
hope our guys are 5-2 after this weekend.  Anything less than that means 
our guys either aren't responding well to losing a couple games in a row 
(Friday's game), or aren't able to get motivated to beat the bad teams 
(Saturday's game). 

Jon Mc