Fabulous Victory!!

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

That was a GREAT win for the Cs last night! My wife and I were high-fiving
after those threes by Cheaney and Pierce!! I'm sure it will be wonderful
boost for the team's morale, one they surely deserve given how hard they
work.

Not to take anything away from the win (after all we still had to make the
shots, rebound the ball, play the D etc.) but probably the most important
factor in the comeback was Toronto coach Butch Carter's misguided strategy
of trying to milk the clock during the last 4 minutes (I've never been a
fan of this strategy - a classic Lute Olsen faux pas - and I feel this is a
good example of how a purely theoretical analysis of the "Xs and Os" may
not always reflect what is appropriate for a given team or situation). 

The Raptor attempt to milk the shot clock, in combination with the
judicious use of pressure D (as noted by Bill Cooper), really caused the
Raptor offense to grind to a complete halt (though I'm willing to bet that
the Raptors have strong opinions about the refs too). Instead of doing what
had got them their lead - taking the good shot opportunities that presented
themselves early in the shot clock (particularly off the Celtic press) -
the Raptors deliberately ate up time and then tried to get instant offense
out of one-on-one basketball. This left them with very little time to take
advantage of double-teams and resulted in a lot of forced jumpers late in
the shot clock. 

See, Pitino is not the only NBA coach who is sometimes too smart for his
own good!

Go Celts Go! - Tom Murphy

PS: there's an interesting new BSG article on the Cs at
http://home.digitalcity.com/boston/sportsguy/main.dci?page=4celts00