Obie notes in the Herald

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

copyright Boston Herald:

Coming off losses on consecutive nights in Utah and Houston, Jim O'Brien
kept things relatively light for the Celtics yesterday. The main item on
the agenda was a video session at the team hotel.

``You toss and turn all night thinking about the two-hour practice
you're going to have to send a message that defeat is not going to be
accepted,'' the coach said. ``But the fact of the matter is that would
be unproductive because there's certain people who couldn't practice for
two hours today and then give the type of effort that is needed to beat
a team like Dallas. So then you have to go to the video.''

As for the tapes, O'Brien said, ``They were not rated very highly. But I
thought it was a very productive film session from the standpoint that,
you know, if you're ugly and somebody takes a picture of you, the box
only takes what it sees. Well, that's just what happened in there. I
mean, you can't hide from it when you put it in slow motion and
somebody's not getting their job done.''

Though the club has gotten waxed pretty well in the last two, O'Brien
did have some positive things to say, adding, ``To just go in there on a
Dennis Miller rant and say that everything is bad would be unproductive
- because everything is not bad.''

The Celts' energy level goes in the bad column, however, as transition
defense and rebounding have been particular woes of late.

``Frankly, I told the guys maybe I'm doing a bad job of rotation,
because if they can't sprint in transition or sprint on our fast break,
then they shouldn't be in the basketball game,'' he said. ``And maybe
I'm playing certain guys too many minutes and I have to adjust our
rotations. Maybe I have to sub quicker and let certain guys play four
minutes instead of seven minutes before I give them a rest and then get
them back in the game.''