RE: Losing streak

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

Yes, but what caused these losses?  Are teams just figuring out how to play
the new Celts, or are we wavering in our commitment to defense and
rebounding?  Or is it just Kenny's fault?

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Hironaka [SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
	Sent:	Wednesday, February 21, 2001 10:07 AM
	To:	celtics@igtc.com
	Subject:	Losing streak

	    Boston are on their first 2-game losing streak since the
beginning
	of the Obie era, having rebounded from a loss on five straight "gut
	check" occasions. In both the Utah and Houston games we were down
double
	digits at the end of the first period and at halftime, and that is
	something Obie needs to try to address and figure out what's going
on.

	    I actually "predicted" the Portland win, but it is beyond my
	imagination that we can win at San Antonio (Walker has been eaten
alive
	by Duncan in the past).  Dallas (33-21) is playing just .500 ball
lately
	(9-8) and may offer an upset opportunity, but they've already opened
a
	can of whupass on us once this season (shooting .514 from the field
with
	26 assists and just 12 turnovers, behind Sprockets Nowitzki's hot
	shooting).

	    A 2-7 trip would drop us back to 8 games under .500, and that's
a
	tough hole to dig out of given how hard the March and April schedule
is.
	The important thing is to not panic. The Celts are doing as well as
	expected on this trip at 2-3, and who in the world anticipated that
our
	only two beatable opponents Houston (6 of their last 7) and
Vancouver (a
	5 game winning streak) would be smack in the middle of their hottest
	winning streaks of the year? Obie needs to refocus the troops after
	these two straight blowouts.

	    I don't want to lose all three games in Dubya country, that's
for
	sure, but this trip has always been a killer for the Boston Celtics.
I
	remember when we got off to a 4-0 start in Bird's rookie year, they
went
	to Texas (or maybe it was a home and away) and got whupped twice in
a
	row (to Houston and San Antonio I believe). But rather than revert
to
	the previous year's form, they went on to have one of the best
records
	by the All Star break and Cowens and Tiny made All Star along with
the
	Bird.

	    Personally I link this losing streak to bad karma from the
unwanted
	return of Michael Holley to the Celtics beat. I felt that Shira
Springer
	had improved really dramatically in her daily Celts coverage game by
	game, and I thought it was ironic and fitting that all these
overrated,
	self-absorbed old dooshes would abandon the Celts to her just before
the
	team started this turnaround. But now Springer has seemingly been
	demoted and Holley has jumped right back on the Celtics bandwagon. I
	must say I really didn't miss reading him, although I'll give him
	another chance. I'm telling you though, Springer was getting really
good
	recently at presenting useful information about our Celtics (she was
a
	basket case last year, though). I hope she's just on holiday and
Holley
	is only temping because maybe he has relatives/friends in Texas or
	something.

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