Preseason opener thoughts

[Jon Mc <jamminon@yahoo.com>]

I'm now subscribed from my new email address (jamminon instead of jmc), so 
you'll be seeing my emails from here from now on, but I'm the same Jon Mc.

My thoughts on last night's preseason opener: 

Well, obviously the Celtics didn't play well last night, but I'd 
hardly call them the Celtics.  New guys who are competing for the 
last spots (or "injury" spots) on the roster got a lot of minutes, 
as Pitino said before the game that he'll look at new players the 
first 4 games, and try to win the last 4.  

By then he'll have Stith, Herren, Brown, Pierce and Moiso, who were 
all unavailable last night for various legal or health reasons but 
will all be playing with the team within a week. 

Carr, Eliot & Jordan did not impress me at all.  Of course they all 
seemed lost trying to fit in to a new system, but they didn't show me 
any redeeming qualities to make up for it.  Maybe it was the fact that
they were competing with each other to impress, so they didn't play
great team ball.  Their effort on team passing or team defense was
confused or lacking.

Walker was clearly attempting to pass the ball more, especially early 
in the game, but only a few passes actually worked out. 

It was good to see Kenny Anderson suddenly get energized & detemined as
he was embarassed by the drubbing the C's were taking, but all that
meant was he scrapped for a couple steals... he didn't really move the
ball to create opportunities for others.  Of course, some of the
problem was that others weren't moving with him.

In fact, there were several times when I yelled at the screen for a 
Celtics player to "MOVE!"... because they'd have just pushed the ball 
upcourt then pulled back to switch into a halfcourt offense, but then 
they all seemed to pause for 2 or 3 seconds before anyone started moving...

this allowed Milwaukee's defense to get organized, removing the few 
openings the Celtics had created by pushing the ball up.  
The Celtics didn't seem to be thinking about how to confuse the 
defense and get them out of position.  They'd either force the ball
in & get stripped or do some pick & roll plays to try to get one man open 
for a jumper.  The only real passing was around the perimeter. 

The Bucks have a core of returning quality players who've been playing 
together for a while, and they showed it.  Their defense was swarming 
any Celtic player to enter the paint, which forced a lot of turnovers. 
Celtics players seemed to have a case of the "butterfingers", just losing 
control of the ball on their own, especially Griffin and Potapenko, and 
that led to more turnovers.  Milwaukee controlled the ball much better.  

A lot of Milwaukees points were on turnovers. 

The Bucks made a decisive run about halfway through the 2nd quarter,
when the Celtics defense broke down, with the main culprits being Mike
Jordan, Antoine Walker, Eric Williams and Adrian Griffin.  These guys
all looked slow or unsure on defense, so guys like Allen and Alston
were just running right by, and either too few players would rotate to
cut them off, or too many.  The Celtics weren't synchronized on D, but
what did you expect with so many new players?  Eliot and Carr didn't
help the defense when they were in, either.  

I'm hopeful that Griffin will get back in the swing of things soon, because

last night he didn't look his usual self.  Pitino had him play point gaurd 
for a few minutes, and he struggled just to bring the ball upcourt against 
aggressive Buck defenders.

Seeing Blount play was the only encouraging sign of the night.  He didn't 
get many minutes, but his presence seemed to force the Bucks to the
outside for their scoring.  He was moving very quickly and was very
agile for a man his size.  He blocked a couple shots and forced some
others to be changed.  He also looks a lot stronger and than Battie,
and more confident banging bodies underneath.  His quickness, size and
strength allowed him to muscle his way in to the offensive boards for a
couple of tipins/putbacks.

On Milwaukee's side, their rookie (9th pick) Pryzbilla played a lot, and 
made a lot of rookie mistakes, including a couple of goaltendings on shots 
that probably wouldn't have dropped.  At least he was active out there, 
although he was quite lost compared to the others.  Milwaukee as a whole 
had 4 or 5 illegal defenses called on them, which may have been why the 
Celtics had trouble penetrating, as the Bucks seemed to cheat toward the 
lane all night. 

Jon Mc


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