Re: if you have a virginal win column, Boston's your date.

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

I have to say that I was really frustrated by this loss also.  Truly
the bench lost the game for us this time, but at the same time, it
wasn't like Pitino could have played the starters any more than he did
(40 minutes for Griffin, 39 for Pierce, 37 for Walker, 33 for Kenny
which was probably more than he should have been playing). I think
that regardless of who else was on the floor, when Kenny was out the
offense was in trouble, so what can Pitino do? The bench is not a good
halfcourt defensive unit; when Antoine is out it means that McCarty is
playing power forward, Barros is undersized at point, we have Williams
who is not a great defender. Definitely Barros is not getting the job
done setting up the offense right now, though it doesn't help that his
bench teammates can't hit a thing either. I mean, I don't expect the
second unit's offense to run that well, but this was ridiculously bad.

I have to say too that Pitino responds by putting the first unit back
quickly too when the bench is failing so its not like he's totally
inflexible here. It's just that at some point the starters need to be
rested, especially when you take into account the 82 game
season. Pitino so far has been rotating in a few at a time, to not
disrupt the play too much - maybe Battie first, then Barros and
McCarty for Kenny and Walker, then Williams for either Pierce or
Griffin. I think that we're seeing how Cheaney could be good for the
bench too, because without him, only Barros is the type that makes a
living jump shooting, and many times that is the best that the bench
gets.  Cheaney is another jump shooter so it is probably better to
have him shooting that baseline jumper than Battie or Williams, and
they'll have another option than Barros off the screen.

Anyways, it's a very disappointing loss but the team has to move on.
There are going to be games that the bench wins for us, just like
there are going to be games that the bench loses like this one.
Having our premier players Walker and Pierce go for only about 
32 minutes like they've been averaging will be an asset over the
82 game season. The first three games, we had big contributions from
some of the culprits today (Williams, McCarty, Battie); if any of 
them could have done anything similar the Celtics come away with a 
win. Fortson's return should strengthen the bench also (I mean, I
think he starts but it'll work out that the bench can play less
minutes or share more time with the starter-quality players). 

Alex

> For a guy with Ricky's coaching credentials, his ability to shoot himself in 
> the foot is amazing. It typically goes like this:
> 
> The starters are kicking the other guys'  butts, so Ricky decides to make 
> a game out of it and makes an en masse substitution. The "Bomb(ed) squad" 
> receives instructions to run around like beheaded chicken and tire 
> themselves out, while pretending to play defense and giving up 
> uncontested layups. Being true Pitino disciples, they dutifully do just 
> that and soon are so tired that they couldn't make a shot if the basket 
> was as big as one of those backyard trampolines. (That is, if they could 
> get a decent shot, which they can't because Barros is their "point guard". ) 
> By that point, the crowd is in the game, and Ricky's feeling
> like he's back at Kentucky and screaming "good shot"  whenever one of the
> Wildca.., er, Celtics takes a three-pointer while they're in the midst of a
> 4-on-1 break. 

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