Thoughts on the Obie Method

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

The Miami Heat will try to break an 8-game losing streak, but our Celtics 
were able to fix Atlanta and Washington's long losing streaks in a hurry. 
The Celtics had better not play like doormats against the Greasy One. 
Beating Riley's team is always great fun, but I'm starting to worry along 
with the rest of you about the "Obie method".

The Celtics have been held to 85, 89 and 84 points in the past three games, 
while failing to break 40% in team shooting even once. In fact they went 
.365% from the field (99/375) while jacking up more than 26 three-point 
attempts per game (24% success rate). When you're hitting at 24%, there's 
got to be a "plan B".

In the face of all this, I suppose in some sense it is commendable that Jim 
"not now honey I've got a headache" O'Brien still keeps focusing on our 
defense and rebounding (hey Boston was outrebounded by a grand total of one 
board in the three games, and they did hold all three opponents to under 
43% shooting). Those are the fundamentals, and that's what he'll need to 
hang his hat on to stay employed (unless Harter steals credit).

But at some point Obie is going to have to reach for the ibuprofen and 
start asking himself hard questions about how his team could shut down 
Vince Carter and MJ during crunch time and much of the game and yet still 
fail to run basic offensive plays down the stretch to close out either game.

Losing this pair of close games was tough, and I hope we don't lose the 
lesson. Its not enough to talk about running more or about how the 
three-point shots will eventually fall. It seems like something fundamental 
needs to be addressed by Advil Boy and his assistants. You know things are 
off when Antoine (.397 for the week) is outshooting his team by over 30 
basis points. The past week has been as close to as bad as its ever been. 
Even Pitino would have said something about the offense, other than about 
how teaching it gives him a headache.

Meanwhile El Greasy One sees us coming in shooting .365. Its obvious he's 
going to make Obie and the Celtics pay if we're not ready. Boston needs to 
go out and whup the Heat. Its a message game. This is one of those road 
games I wrote off as a likely loss before the season, but we have a real 
shot to win it and get right back on track.

Win this game and I'd like our chances of catching .500 Orlando (7-7) by 
surprise and then getting some revenge factor in on the Nets. We can get 
right back in this thing.

At worst, a win over Miami would be a bridge between a pair of potential 
four-game losing streaks (Denver and Phoenix are next up, followed by the 
Bulls). To me the Celtics have sufficient talent to be slightly favored, 
but Obie has to show fans he won't be outcoached. If Walker again shoots 
under 40% and still does better than the rest of the team, something is 
probably wrong.

Its easy to kick a team that's down, but a couple of big dubya's this week 
could really turn things around. All these teams are bunched together and 
struggling...we shouldn't feel sorry for ourselves or jump off any bridges. 
And these will be winnable and watchable games against some of the great 
talents in the game (McGrady, Hill, Kidd and Mourning). I think Boston can 
play all these teams competitively and possibly even win one or two. 
There's no question the defense seems to be improving a bit (Johnson and 
Strickland are better than what we had last year). And its great BTW to 
hear adjectives like "hellacious" and "tremendous" used by Obie to describe 
Kedrick Brown's defense. But it seems doubtful he or Forte will play 
another minute now that Eric Williams is back. It should be an interesting 
week. Hang in there Celts.

Joe H.

p.s. Did you guys read that article on 6-2 Dajuan Wagner (last year's HS 
player of the year) in the NYT Sunday Magazine? Its off-the-topic, but 
quite interesting. For some reason, that magazine runs a fair number of 
basketball stories (the one about the Knicks and Charlie Ward was 
priceless) generally showing how shallow and sub-literate certain athletes are.

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