Re: Expectations

[Dan Forant <dforant1@nycap.rr.com>]

Then if you saw those 2 games, you may have noticed how the Celts actually
let these teams back into it. It wasn't strictly the players that under
performed, we need not go there again. We have 4 bonified players to this
point, Walker, Anderson, Pierce, and Griffin, Pot's is iffy but
contributing some. The rest of the team including the coaching staff have
other things on their minds, what, who knows. We still could pull off an
8-6 for Dec., but one or 2 of the losers, and we have 7 of them, have to
step up and play at least above CBA level. Last but not least, we need a
different substitution pattern. After looking again at Forston's stats, we
will only get better when he arrives. He's supposed to do some running this
or next week. 

At 08:06 AM 11/30/99 PST, you wrote:
>>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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