the win

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

First off, its terrific to beat the Heat regardless of the circumstances. 
At least the Heat had Zo out there for 35 minutes....his missing games 
being without question the main reason for their poor record. Its fun 
watching Toine and Pierce celebrate in the video highlights. Paul was 
really focused and turned on the jets for that lefty layup. Perfect read on 
the play.

But what a strange boxscore. Walker and Pierce scored exactly 75% of the 
team's points, which is already a bit uncommon. They had only 4 assists for 
this game (10 turnovers).

The rest of the Celts shot 8-27 (.296) despite not being double-teamed. Is 
our roster really that bad? Last night, Boston's centers scored 4 points in 
48 minutes. Not good. Our pointguards got just 5 points in 48 minutes and 
our starting shooting guard gets 2 points.

Outside of maybe highschool, you'd typically expect to lose games with that 
kind of production deficit at so many positions.

Opie's offense is averaging 85.5 butt-ugly points per game the last four 
games. With just the radio broadcasts to rely on, I really can't have a 
clue what's going on.

But I don't think this is just a team-wide shooting slump that will 
eventually end (in fact, we shot a higher % on threes than twos last 
night). And Boston seems to be holding our own on the defensive boards and 
containing teams to a much lower FG% than we typically do, so a few 
opportunities for fastbreaks and easier baskets ought to be there.

As you know I don't have much to go on compared to faithful game watchers, 
but I wonder if we shouldn't start games by feeding Battie down low a bit 
more to keep defenses honest. Do you guys remember how the Celts and Bulls 
would often start games by getting Parish and Cartwright involved in the 
offense? This won't work with Walker because he'll be doubled anyway (and 
he's not a high percentage back-to-the-basket guy even on his best days).

Give Bat Girl the ball. Or Potapenko, who can muscle a bit to his right for 
the jump hook once (if) he has a grip on the ball. It would be nice if our 
big men could pass, but beggars can't be choosers. Besides, who in the 
world is going to double-team these guys anyway (Pitino would have, but 
that's another story)?

What do you guys think? Also, the other three guys on the floor besides the 
captains shouldn't get into the mindset that they are spot up shooters. 
They should maintain just as aggressive and creative an approach as if they 
weren't the bit players that they are in the Opie system. You could find 
maybe 100 players in Europe better suited to being spot up shooters than 
Boston's two Erics, Kenny and company.

I remember last year it took Orlando's Mike Miller until midseason to get 
legitimate playing time. I'm not that concerned with the lack of minutes 
for our rookies so far, but I do think that once they finally get any 
opportunity that they shouldn't try to be three-point wallflowers. If would 
be retarded for Joe Forte to try to play that way. And you know how a big 
dunk from someone like Kedrick could jump start a team's fastbreak. Oh 
well, Eric's back and we won. We can't complain about that.

Now Boston at 6-6 and has some confidence against Orlando (7-8), a team 
that would have been intimidating to face were we bringing a 5-game losing 
streak in. Win or lost the Magic will run and gun all night, averaging 
103.5 points per game. But with Jud Buechler replacing Bo Outlaw and Grant 
Hill hurting pretty bad, we might have a chance to beat a team that's 
universally regarded as superior to us. I hope Tim Duncan will be watching 
Paul and Toine try to neutralize McGrady in this game.

****