Re: Expectations

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

>From: Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>
>
>I missed the two losses on Friday and Saturday.  For some reason, I'm not 
>really that worried.

I'm sure those two statements are not completely unrelated.  I watched both 
games, and I don't know what to think.  As I watched the Bucks hit, what was 
it 14-18 field goals in the fourth quarter, I was thinking, "well this team 
is just on fire and there's nothing you can do about it".  I mean, the 
Celtics seemed to be playing defense.  Robinson, Allen and Cassell made some 
very difficult shots look easy. Guys were hitting with hands in their faces, 
aside from the usual assortment of layups given up once the pressing starts. 
  The problem was, it seemed, that the Celtic offense simply stalled.  
Completely.  I tried not to worry about it, but I was genuinely depressed.  
I knew it was going to be a tough game the next night.  Anything could 
happen.  They could get blown out.  They might even win, after all, Atlanta 
had played in Detroit the previous night.  "It'll be fine", I thought, "as 
long as they don't do the same thing they did last night".  I don't know, it 
just felt like it was going to happen again.  Especially when they came out 
so strong in the first quarter.  Pierce was hitting everything.  That's a 
bad sign.  When he gets like that he starts thinking anything he throws up 
will go in.  Then he misses a couple and the confidence just evaporates 
before your eyes. Another troubling sign is that Kenny isn't playing as well 
as he was the first couple of weeks.  Early in the season it seems that he 
was going to push the pace, and if the rest of the team didn't keep up, he'd 
just take it in himself.  He's not driving so much (is he listening to Dan 
F. who wants him to take it easy to stay healthy or have the defenses 
adjusted to take away the penetration?), and his outside shot was never 
going to fall that way for the whole season.  I still believe this is an 
above .500 team, which is all I wanted from them, but it seems they may get 
there in a different way than I expected.  They showed more talent early on 
than I thought they'd have, but I expected more consistency.  Thinking about 
it, after 14 games they've only played one really bad team, and they lost 
that game, so .500 is not a bad start.  The question is are you encouraged 
that they seem to have good talent, but lack the ability to put games away, 
or do you see these losses as wasted opportunities that could put them in a 
hole that makes the playoffs a long shot?  I'm still optimistic.  I still 
see a few games over .500 and the playoffs.  But, am I a little bit worried? 
  You bet.

Jim

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