RE: The loss

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

This is the kind of post I like to see.

Josh Ozersky	
Marketing Communications Specialist 
Corning Museum of Glass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Hironaka [SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
> Sent:	Tuesday, April 10, 2001 7:45 AM
> To:	Celtics@igtc.com
> Subject:	The loss
> 
> The Sixers game hints that even making the '01 playoffs and meeting
> Philly in round one could prove to be as much a demoralizing experience
> as a useful rite of passage. Do you remember all the first and second
> round opponents Boston faced back in the 80s, where a sweep was not
> merely a sure thing but the average point differential was usually +14
> or something? What good did it do for the development of most of that
> first round fodder to get crushed by Boston in a round one sweep? The
> Celtics need some work to do in the draft before we try to become a
> fixture in the playoff party every year
> .
> The 22-rebound differential really hurt last night, and represents the
> story of the season as a whole. Granted it would have been nice to make
> the "sweet sixteen" and have a second season to look forward to for
> once. It would have been fun for the list. The Celtics are still capable
> of winning all of their remaining four games, something I'm hoping for
> even though it probably won't make a difference. It depends on the
> tiebreakers. Indiana's veterans have gotten that team back on track.
> 
> Bear in mind that Boston was on pace for a fraction less than 29 wins
> the day Pitino left, and probably would have tanked even worse because
> the hardest part of the schedule hadn't even begun.
> 
> Another thing. Let's assume that Obie is just an "average" NBA coach in
> terms of talent and experience. Despite this, his team (without Battie
> or Kenny) showed the ability to play solid basketball against a mostly
> playoff-caliber second half schedule. Yes we won a lot more close games
> and road games than before, but we also lost a lot of close games that
> we normally would have been blown out of. In other words, we were
> genuinely competitive.
> 
> The Celtics currently own the rights to the 10th, 11th and 18th picks,
> but it is in a draft which is maybe 1.5 times deeper than Pitino's 1997
> draft or the Olowokandi and Kenyon Martin drafts. This year's 10th and
> 11th picks are likely to be much better than what Orlando had available
> in terms of talent with nearly similar picks back in 1998. Several guys
> with a Pierce/Walker development potential will definitely be available
> with the tenth pick, whether or not we are smart enough to pick him.
> 
> FWIW, Boston also owns 11 ping pong balls out of 1000 in the top-three
> sweepstakes for YaoMing/EddyCurry (I guess this year's NBA draft slogan
> could be: "are you up for some Curry or Chinese?")
> 
> I wonder how many recent drafts have had a team crash the top-three
> through the lotto? A surprising number I'll bet. For example, the Spurs
> probably had a similar record to Boston's this year, back when they won
> the rights to Tim Duncan in 1997. I hope Red Auerbach attends the lotto.
> 
> When we look back on this season, I really do think we saw some things
> to be proud of as fans. We used to talk about Pierce's All Star
> potential....now we know. And as for Walker, he has gone from being a
> triple-double tease to a guy who averaged a triple double for an entire
> week, has five triple-doubles so far, six additional games with 9 or
> more assists (another six games with 8 assists) and is a workhorse who
> leads the NBA in minutes played and minutes per game.  We are becoming
> the type of young, dynamic team that even non-local fans around the
> world can start looking at this offseason and think to themselves "damn,
> that's a cool team".
> 
> -------
>