One Q after a great victory

["Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net>]

Last night was a fun and FANtastic game to watch. Joe is right on, we need
to put a little swagger in our troops and hopefully last night's victory
will do just that. I'm looking forward to them stomping all over the media
darlings from exit 16W on Friday. It was also refreshing to see that
Pitino's ego didn't prevent him from adjusting his substitution patterns.
Heinsohn also deserves praise for his comments regarding those substitution
patterns both earlier in Chicago (I almost fell out of my chair!) and last
night. Is this possibly the Cooz's influence? ;)

I think another key was the return to a more reasonable expenditure of
energy on the part of the players. I've been under the impression ever
since the Charlotte game that the Cs have been simply too exhausted by the
end of the game to properly execute or even move on offense due to the toll
taken by the manic combination of fast-break offense and a trapping,
pressing defense. I thought that this was evident in the cliffhanger 4th
quarters against the Bugs, Knicks and terri-Bulls as well as the implosion
against Detroit. Even though the "first team" does not full court press
like the "second team" it seemed that the high octane offense in
combination with constant trapping and occasional pressing was enough to
wear it out - despite liberal substitutions - by the 4th. I was glad to see
the return to a more moderate yet still effective defensive scheme against
the Cavs reminiscent of the first two games of the year and I think that
more than anything was responsible for the Cs ability to put it into a
higher gear in the 4th.

And then I read the following quote in the game summary on ESPN:

"This is one of my favorite victories as the Celtics coach because we
really did not play well," Rick Pitino said. "Last year at this time, we
would have lost this game by 25 or 30. **Our press gave us a big lift in
the second half** and we executed some outstanding passes in the second
half. We had to come and play with great tenacity in the second half and we
did."

http://www.espn.go.com/nba/2000/991117/recap/clebos.html

I was under the impression that the Celtics were able to rise to the
occasion in the 4th quarter precisely because they HAD NOT pressed much at
all in the second half (other than when McCarty was brutalizing us at the
end of the 3rd). Am I mistaken? Please, and I don't mean this just
rhetorically, help me out here and let me know what you guys saw - was it
the press that got us back in the 2nd half or smart defense coupled with
better offensive execution (thereby limiting the Cavs break)? 

Go Celts Go!!  Tom Murphy