RE: .449 not bad

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Joe, I hadn't looked at the numbers, but that's interesting. Of course, a
lot of it has to do with facing players who aren't going to be legit NBA
players. And the Celts were playing a lot of those guys in the early
preseason games as well.

I'll say this, though. Before you mentioned any percentages or anything, I
believed the Celts were playing better defense. Now, I didn't see the first
half last night, which sounded pretty bad, but the games I have seen have
convinced me that the defense is improving. 

Of course, if your idea of good defense is the Heat-Knicks kind of defense,
then you'll be disappointed. The Celts don't play that style, nor should
they. They pressure the ball, sometimes full-court and sometimes half-court.
Yes, they give up some easy baskets, but they also force the tempo they want
to play, make the game a scramble (that can look ugly) and very often
accomplish what they want to accomplish--either forcing a turnover or
forcing a bad shot by a player who isn't used to taking that shot. The Celts
really had the Magic scrambling in the second half last night as they turned
up the defensive intensity. It took the ball out of Darrell Armstrong's
hands and put into the hands of guys like Monty Williams and Mike Miller.
That's exactly what Pitino wants. Yes, Orlando occasionally took advantage
of the scramble to score easy baskets, but they also rushed some ill-advised
shots.

The Pitino system isn't beautiful basketball. It wasn't at Kentucky, either.
It's about creating chaos with the hope that your players understand and
function in it better than the opponent. Watching the second half last
night, I felt the Celts were accomplishing what they wanted to defensively.

Again, this isn't Miami Heat defense. It reminds me more of the Showtime
Lakers, who played defense with the idea of forcing turnovers and turning
those into fast breaks. Those Laker teams gave up a lot of points, but they
accomplished what they wanted because they scored a lot of easy baskets off
of turnovers. The Celts are taking the same approach to defense. If they
tried to play D like the Heat, they'd give up fewer points but score a lot
less themselves. They need a full-court game to really shine offensively.

Of course, improvement is relative. They were so terrible the last few
years, they had nowhere to go but up. Still, it's nice to see improvement.

Mark