Celts stats

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

I was looking over some Celts stats during lunch, hoping to find any
bright spots.

One somewhat positive thing, as others may have noted, has been Walker.
In March and April (over the past 25 games), Walker has actually led the
Celtics team in assists (5.44) and steals (2.0) as well as rebounds
(8.92).  In April, he is averaging a very promising 6.3 assists per game
over 10 games.

In the past two games, Walker has also shot .491 on two point FG
attempts (.450 FG% overall). After last night's miserable effort from
the line, he'll need to hit 4 for 4 on freethrows in order to reach his
goal of 70FT% shooting for the season. He turns 24 this August, so it is
about time.

Too bad all these improvements haven't had ANY tangible effect on the
won-loss situation. In the end, I feel there is simply no way the Celts
can finish better than 10 games under .500 next season unless we scrap
Pitino and the headless chicken outbreak defense.

When you guys's watch tonight's final game of the season (that went by
fast, didn't it?), I encourage you all to try to focus on an individual
Celtics defender rather than the movement of the ball. It is not
uncommon to see Pierce or Walker (or pick any name) guarding three
different opponents of all shapes and sizes AFTER the ball has crossed
midcourt. It's a "charge of the light brigade" defensive rotation. You
can't blame the players anymore for the wide open jumpers and layups we
are allowing.

It is the system. The system (.472FG% allowed) has failed. Pitino is
hoping that retard fans will continue to blame this on the fact that 28
other teams apparently have a dominant shot blocking, defensive
rebounding center rotation and we don't. Try looking around at the
rosters of other teams before you make that assumption. It is a false
assumption.  Pitino never relied any big shotblockers in college...and
he beat plenty of teams that did at that level (UMass, Wake Forest).
This was never a Pitino excuse before, anymore than the one about
accepting the Boston job only because of Tim Duncan.

Boston's .472FG% is an outrage by contemporary NBA standards. There are
17 NBA clubs this year that shoot just .452 or below from the field,
which I'd guess is probably close to the overall league average for NBA
players. To cite a few examples, the Celts shoot .441 as a team despite
pretty impressive FG% from our big men. Similarly, you see tall, tough
and smart teams like Charlotte (.446) and Toronto (.435) whose FG stats
would be even worse if our Celtics weren't so frequently on their
schedules. In general, any NBA game against Boston is something opposing
players (especially scrubs, in case you haven't noticed) look forward to
in order to pad their shooting stats.

I guarantee you that if Gaston can scoop Rick Carlisle from Indy this
summer then Larry Bird would likely join the Celtics front office after
a year's r&r to help rebuild the team, and perhaps eventually even get
the urge to coach again.

But at the same time I am 90% sure Pitino will be back next year by the
sound of things, unless he fired or gets an amazing college offer. He's
too much of a egotist to believe his defensive system could fail this
obviously. He wants to trade for veterans, aim for 41 wins, and then
leave Boston on a "high note" (along with a long litany of new excuses).
All this "wait til next year" optimist crap wouldn't bother me so much
if --from a tradionalist Celtics fans viewpoint-- Pitino didn't also
force on us the most aesthetically ugly fast break and half court
offensive schemes the town of Boston has ever seen.

The Celtics offense certainly isn't the reason we lose (except maybe in
close games), but it sure is ugly to look at. Even if Boston scored as
many points as the Denver teams of the 1980's, we'd still have that
insurmountable .472FG% allowed handicap to overcome.

Joe

p.s. I unfortunately missed two weeks of the list with Bronchitis and I
am still a bit down and out. I have to go to Senegal (in Western Africa)
all of next week. Knowing me I'll still eventually catch up on the list.
Go Celts! (Crush the Knicks!).

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