Re: those bastards

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

Bruce Allen wrote:

> My biggest fear right now is that the team doesn't get down after these
> losses and have there psyche destroyed.
>
> This IS a good team, better than last year. We've got the Wizards and Hawks
> this week, so hopefully we'll be back to .500 by weeks end.

Boston "comeback kids" got derailed by 2 points in three of the past four games,
in part because they had two pg's on IR and signed Brunson straight off of
street clothes playing 30+ minutes every night.

If this were the dawn of the Pitino era, I'd predict 45 wins once everyone was
healthy. I'm a critic of Poultrino's mad cow system because familiarity breeds
contempt, but the Celtics are playing great defense (.427) and have a
spectacular steals and turnover differential (+4 in both cases) this year, which
is exactly the sort of results you'd expect from that style of play so I'd be
foolish to complain.

Having said that, I'm a bit perplexed about a minor situation, namely that
Pitino gave Chicken Kiev the start and the majority of minutes against Camby and
Ratliff. It made sense to play VP against Ilgauskus and Willis last week (and in
fact Battleship Potapenko scored double figures off the bench in both of those
games) but you would think Batbrain+Blount would be the logical choices to
neutralize Camby and Ratliff's above-the-rim athleticism in the past two games.
Those guys weight 50 pounds less than Potapenko and have a lot more speed. I
don't think situational substitutions are a big part of Pitino's philosophy.

Anyway, the Celtics are a fun team and you can count on them to fight back into
games, which is a spirit I hope they don't lose as the season wears on. The
Celts need to put together the first serious winning streak of the Pitino era
over the coming weeks. I honestly believe they can, but they are at a fork in
the road right now. The question is will they keep believing better team play
and shot selection will eventually lead to wins, if the defense holds up? I
believe they will. I don't think our captains are that stupid. They will do
anything for a win right now.

There is no way our headless chicken offense is going to continue shooting .388
from the field. It is going to head up over the coming weeks. Chris
Herren,Walker and Pierce have to start passing the rock like "Sacramento East",
which I believe they have the talent and inclination to do. One problem is there
is a burden on Walker to get rebounds on both ends, because no backup power
forward has emerged as hoped for and we are getting spanked on the boards (-5
differential) like no Celtics team in memory. If Batgirl or Mo can fill some of
those in-the-paint and defensive rebounding minutes, we'd get a lot more offense
with Pierce moving back for shooting guard minutes and Walker running the wings
and playing some point forward in the open court. Compare that to the
passing/scoring value added of Eric Williams at small forward and Stith/Griffin
at shooting guard and you get the picture. One or two more role players step it
up this week, and I believe we'll go on a nice winning streak through to the end
of the month.

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