Re: Antoine's game vs. Minnesota

["Cecil Wright" <cecil@hfx.eastlink.ca>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sampath, Venkatesh"
>
> Bird, Jordan, Magic Johnson, etc., were successful on a regular basis
because they:
> 1) Had the drive, the hunger, the need, to win
> 2) Were sufficiently intelligent to realise when one facet of their game
wasn't working, to do something else and recoup that facet by the fourth
quarter.
>

Overlooked entirely is that each of those players had capable teammates who
could be depended upong to pick up the slack when the stars were having an
off night.


Russell had Cousy, Heinsohn, Sam and KC.  Havlicek had JoJo, Chaney, Silas
and Cowens.  Bird had McHale, Chief, DJ, Tiny and Ainge.  Jordan had Pippen,
Rodman and assorted snipers on the bench.  Magic had Kareem, Worthy, Scott,
and Michael Whatshisname who completely shut Bird down.  Erving had Malone
or Dawkins, Toney, Jones, Collins, Cheeks.  Isaiah had Aguirre, the
Microwave, Rodman, McFilthy and McNasty.

Toine and Pierce have each other, basically.  If you look closely at the
preceding paragraph, the only team who did not have a capable center was the
Bulls, and though he was long in the tooth at that point, Cartwright was no
pushover.  We got no center folks.

Cecil






> I would say that Walker and Pierce are beginning to acquire the hunger
(hell, when you're 20 years old and a millionaire with an iron-clad
contract, where is the drive going to come from) and perhaps the
intelligence to work other facets of their game when their shooting isn't
working. Maturity can only come with time (lots of it in their case, looks
like!).
>
> venkat
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hironaka [mailto:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
> Sent: 16 January 2001 11:29
> To: Sampath, Venkatesh; celtics@igtc.com
> Subject: Re: Antoine's game vs. Minnesota
>
>
> "Sampath, Venkatesh" wrote:
>
> > Certainly hope so. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see him fade away
a little over the next couple of games - specially against Sacramento.
>
> It could go either way, but at least Walker seems to acknowledge that his
game is off. In today's Herald, he tells Bulpett:
>
> ``The two days off really hurt me,'' Walker said. ``I had a lot of balls
go in and out. I didn't have the bounce in my legs that I've been having.
Hopefully with a good practice (today), I'll get my legs back and won't
shoot this bad against Sacramento (tomorrow).''
>
> It is worth noting that while Antoine is hardly a 2001 All Star or has
much trade value, he does rank all alone in second place in triple doubles
with three, which among other things is more than Garnett, Odom and Webber
combined (two). He's also done it against non-pushover opponents in
Charlotte, Indy and Minnesota. Last night was his second 12 assist game this
season.
>
> On the other hand, while I can recall bad shooting nights for Larry Bird I
can't remember any 6-26 games where he follows a 1-11 first half by actually
going out and taking even more attempts (15) in the second. This didn't even
happen when Bird was the same age as Walker as a rookie.
>
> I love Walker still but I'm confounded by how his obvious intelligence
still leaves such room for gaping flaws and fugliness in his game. Doesn't
he know when to quit when he's 1-8 on three pointers? Can't he think of a
new approach to driving at the basket, after repeatedly getting his shot
slammed back in the face before it even leaves his fingertips? This is one
area where I just don't see any light at the end of the tunnel, despite his
young age.
>
> ------------
>
> Jim O'Brien's first four opponents have very quietly been contained to
.431 shooting (128-297) since the hollering stopped on the sidelines and the
chicken outbreak got simplified. Although O'Brien is in a hopeless situation
with the worst part of the schedule lying ahead, the exciting thing so far
is that the past four opponents are all above .500. In fact they were a
combined 27 games over .500 and feature marquee, unstoppable players like
Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace
> etc. while the Celts have had two starters out and a very thin bench. Next
up, Sacramento. Yikes! Pierce and Walker could each pitch a perfect game and
we still might end up losing. That's basically what happened once against
Indiana I think when Pierce had 29 and Walker had a triple.
>
>
>