A Win?

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

I'm usually very happy after a win, especially a close, emotional game 
like tonight's.  I'm still happy, and I'll take a W each and every time, 
but the team didn't play well, and hasn't for at least five games 
(obviously).  The team *still* went out and "trapped" or challenged the 
guy with the ball on the pick and roll -- is this wise?  I mean it 
requires the defensive player playing near the basket to leave that area 
and go rotate to the wing or corner to defend that guy who set the pick.  
This, of course, leaves the middle free of Celtic defenders.  Plus, that 
defensive player who is supposed to rotate often doesn't get there fast 
enough -- all this while one defender (usually Walker, but I saw Potapenko 
do this too) is out beyond where any offensive player is (i.e. way the 
hell out of the play for a brief while -- brief enough for putzs like 
Laettner or whoever was hitting them for Miami tonight to can an 
uncontested jumper.)

Even more, the offense is a matter of Pierce and Walker taking their man 
one-on-one (or, one-on-two) most of the time.  When it's not, it's swing 
around for a three-pointer, or even fast break for a three-pointer, which 
isn't so bad if you've got a few guys underneath for a rebound -- which, 
for a three point shot, is more often than not.  I've no problem with 
"open threes" if it's part of a balanced diet, but the team is turning 
guys like JJ and Strickland into bombers.  These guys ought to slash to 
the bucket more.  Plus, why do the C's throw the ball to one of the 
centers (the worst passers on the team) to initiate the offense at the top 
of the key.  Yeah, I know this is a classic Wooden tactic (I even played 
this offense in high school -- was one of those passers, even!), but none 
of these guys are Bill Walton or Kareem.  It's not so bad when Walker is 
doing this, he's a good passer, but when one of the Troika is out there, 
looking for guys to pass to, possibly even *dribbling* the ball, I get 
nervous.  Very nervous.

This is not about attaching blame.  I don't really care if Obie is the 
prime culprit or the players are.  I care about the effectiveness of these 
tactics.  Now, maybe this is only the way things will be for a little 
while, when others can take up the scoring slack that our veterans (like 
Eric Williams) can't seem to do consistently, but then, of course, I worry 
about how this is affecting impressionable rookies like JJ, Brown and 
Forte.

The Celtics did seem to want to push the ball and run more consistently 
tonight, and for that I was glad.  There was good defense, especially in 
the passing lanes, except for the aforementioned rotation that I just do 
not get.  The C's, though, settled for the jumpshot too often.  I can 
understand when Zo was in (Palacio tried a few times and just got rejected)
, but Sean Marks?  Chris Gatling?  Please.  Take it to the hole.  I haven'
t looked at the boxscore yet, but wasn't our third top scorer Williams, 
with like 6 points?  Pierce explodes for 33, Walker gets 28 or so, then it'
s a couple of guys with 5 or 6 points.  I fear some teams will actually 
succeed in shutting down one of these scoring machines and maybe the other 
guy will have an off-night all too often.  And the Miami broadcast team 
(featuring the voice stylings of the lovely Ed Pickney) mentioned sometime 
late in the fourth that Walker had 3 rebounds and Pierce two.  Yikes.

All this sounds bad (well, bad for me, not bad for the List -- you'd think 
the team was on a four-game losing streak or something) but a win is a win,
  and at least we finally connected on a last-second play.  Haven't seen 
that in a while.  That was good.  I was pretty sure the Celtics weren't 
going to be able to do that (Kestas mentioned that he was 90% sure -- I 
was more like 95-99%), but Pierce took it strong and never seemed to waver 
in his pursuit of the basket.  At least they didn't settle for the 
jumpshot when it really came down to it.  Geez, though, Miami was 2-10 
coming in to this one and we barely squeeked by.  It doesn't actually fill 
me over with a whole lot of confidence, but I guess I'll take what I can 
get.

(The Celtic "Tird")

P.S. Took a look at the boxscore and it's kind to the team.  V and Battie 
got the bulk of the minutes at center (and had 13 rebounds between them).  
Williams "only" got 21 minutes (less than I thought he'd get).  Walker was 
efficient (for him) going 10-23 and 6-11. Kenny had 6 rebs, to go with 4 
assists and an almost-tied-for-third 5 points.  The team shot 43% (that's 
not all that good, when that's one of the "good" things).   Some bad stuff:
  Pierce's 7 turnovers, and the team's 18.  Joe Johnson only got 13 minutes,
  but still had 4 rebounds.  Ah, well.