Re: Isn't it ironic?...

[kevin <bostonceltics17@yahoo.com>]

"Robert Chin" <bobchin@shore.net> wrote:

>...we've been saying "attack the hoop, attack the hoop" and they won the
>game by...ATTACKING THE HOOP!  A game they almost threw away with bad shot
>selection from the 4:00 minute mark on.
>
>This game was certainly harder than it had to be, but they won.
>
>Thank God.  This is a game that I figured they could win.  They did.  But
>this offense has still got to go.

you're right, they made it harder than it had to be. Trailing 77-78
and with the ball, in transition, antione threw up a 3 miss, with a
lot on the shot clock. this is bad. why can't they go to the hole,
much like the sixers, get high percentage shots and a foul? a miss
means Heat can go up further. This OB "a open 3 is a good shot" thing
is killing me.

Tonite, I would say the Cs are lucky to get a W (but a W is a W). The
Heat are SUPER soft inside. Mourning is hurting, Phonz fouls out,
Gatling was knocked out earlier. yet we continue to NOT attack the
hole!! I think we went to the FT line just 6 or 8 times, if I heard
the radio correctly!!! That's stupid.

I am just hoping this "tough" win will get us on a "friendly" roll,
with Orlando next.



Mike Fine was writing about acquiring the Oak. It looks good on paper,
but knowing Oak, he'd probably will go off on OB his 3 point
philosophy thing (and I am on Oak's side)

http://ledger.southofboston.com/display/inn_sports/sports01.txt

SPORTS
PRO HOOPS: Oakley in Celtic green seems like a fine idea


Charles Oakley  

By MIKE FINE
The Patriot Ledger

Charles Oakley is unhappy in Chicago. He wants to be moved. Oakley is
a veteran forward who speaks his mind but is a great locker room
influence, someone youngsters look up to. He can rebound some, and he
can shoot from 20 feet in. Given the right situation, such as his
previous stops in New York and Toronto, he can be a big help.

Oakley makes $7,526,750 this season. Then he's a free agent, and the
team that he walks away from at the end of this season will be that
much richer.

Walter McCarty is a waste on the Celtics bench. McCarty can play
defense. He's still young and healthy. He's a good guy who'll make no
waves, and can be a good complementary player. There's no place for
him here in Boston.

McCarty makes $3,125,000 this season, the last of his current deal.

Vitaly Potapenko is not a stud, but he's strong and can push people
around. Given minutes, he'll come down with some rebounds, and he has
a deadly jumper from 12 feet in.

Potapenko makes $4,762,500 this season. He's got a sweetheart of a
deal, with three more seasons valued at $17,145,000.

Eric Williams is in the same ballpark, salary-wise, this season, and
comes about $6 million cheaper with only two more seasons remaining on
his current contract.

Potapenko's 2001-02 salary, combined with McCarty's, comes to
$7,887,500, or within 15 percent of Oakley.

Why bring it up? Because it continues to be as plain as the hair on
your head that the Celtics continue to be lacking a veteran influence,
someone to calm them down on the court, to remind them when they're
going bad and pump them up when they're going right. And, heaven
knows, they've been going real bad of late.

After all these years of saying that Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce
are the rocks around which to build, they're simply not. It's Walker
and Pierce who need a veteran - not a five- or six-year player, and
not a Randy Brown who barely plays anymore - to lead them. These are
virtual kids who have no winning experience, no basis of knowledge to
draw upon. They have these notions of how to play the game, and coach
Jim O'Brien might as well try to get his message through to a stone
slab.

So, who knows if the Celtics have ever considered such a deal, or if
they would, but they could use it. (OK, why would the Bulls want
Potapenko and that contract? But humor me.) You look at some of the
tougher teams in the league, and you see these veterans. The Lakers
with Rick Fox and Brian Shaw, the Sixers with Dikembe Mutombo, the
Spurs with David Robinson and the Kings with Vlade Divac. They're not
all great players, but they exert a certain influence.

As they head into Miami tonight, the Celtics are floundering in the
face of four straight losses in which they've lost their way. What's
alarming is that while the season began with the promise of a running
game and ball movement, the Celtics have reverted to their old,
pre-O'Brien style of run-and-gun offense. No longer are they attacking
the basket with regularity, but they are now pulling up for
ill-advised 3-pointers with alarming frequency.

In their first seven games, while compiling a 5-2 record, the Celtics
averaged 22.6 3-pointers per game - a lot, but still manageable. In
their last four games, all losses, they're averaging 29.0. In those
first seven games, they were averaging 24.1 free throw attempts. Last
four: 19.5.

The Celtics are averaging 24.9 3s per game, more than five ahead of
the second most prolific team, the Milwaukee Bucks (19.5). The Celts
are averaging 22.5 free throws - 23rd (through Sunday) in the league.

Do you sense a pattern here? They've stopped running. They're standing
around in a halfcourt mode, which is the kiss of death for a team that
doesn't have a center to attract defensive attention. They're relying
on unreliable shots.

What we're seeing is the old Celtics. What's changed? After three
early impressive performances, Kenny Anderson is back to being a
non-factor, Walker continues to hoist them up, Pierce is getting
double-teamed and having problems dealing with it, there's still no
production from the center spot, they don't run, they don't rebound,
they stagnate, they stage late, futile charges or blow late leads.

They're continuing to make other teams look good. They blew a 15-point
lead to Atlanta last Wednesday and fell behind by 15 at Washington.
The Hawks broke a 21-game road losing streak. The Wizards broke an
eight-game losing streak.

This is not to say that the Celtics haven't made strides this season.
To their credit, they are a marginally better team than last season,
and have lost only one game by more than 10 points. They have shown
themselves to be able to play the game correctly at times. They seem
to have developed some more depth. Rookie Joe Johnson started out
strong, and even little-used rookie Kedrick Brown displayed some
defensive acuity at Washington. Milt Palacio has improved his shooting
range and Erick Strickland appears to be a fine all-around big guard.

Yet, they continue to fall into those morasses, keeping them from
making the kind of strides they need to get into the playoffs. Good
teams just don't do that.

There seems to be one glaring need: lack of a veteran, a true veteran
who's been through the wars, who knows what it's like to be playoff
tough and convey that feeling to younger players. Miami once had them
in Tim Hardaway, Dan Majerle and Anthony Mason. Look at the Heat now.

OK, perhaps Oakley is not someone Celtics management might have in
mind, but for one year, to get these kids on track, could it hurt?
Turning to Walker and Pierce for leadership is like turning to a lab
assistant to mastermind the mapping of the human genome. In that
respect, a guy like Oakley is a relative genius.

Mike Fine may be reached at mikefine@ledger.com.

Copyright 2001 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted November 27, 2001