Re: [Celtics' Stuff the win

[JB <jbmetzea@yahoo.com>]

           Joe; I saw only the first and fourth quarters, so I'm only a half
less in the dark than you.
   What I did see, was a poor effort coming out of the gate and Eric
Williams coming in at about the 6 minute mark of an 11-4 deficit and score
six points with two assists and a rebound, in a few minutes, to get us up by
19-13. He played the game hard and unselfishly. He must have been some
inspiration, because the announcer noted that we had 20 fast break points,
at one point in the 4th Q.
   I heard the first few minutes on the radio and there must have been a
tape loop, because all I heard, over and over, was the announcer saying:
"Anderson pushes the ball." Needless to say, there was no one running with
him.
   Walker and Pierce are both out of control. They are going to get their
shots. They want to win, but they were  going to take their  shots. Pierce
had more turnovers (7) than rebounds and  assists combined.
   We won that game because Miami sucked. We played "Alphonse and Gaston"
for the last six minutes. Pierce made the big shot, a great play, to bail
out Anderson's foul, but any good team would have won going away. We had a
series of horrible, one-on -one, possessions, throughout the last half of
the quarter.
   With 20 seconds on the clock, a one point lead and Miami in bounding the
ball, I wondered why O'Brien had Anderson out there. A perfect time for
Palacio and his defense. A huge mistake on O'Bie's part. Anderson fouled and
Pierce bailed coach also, but it wasn't smart.
   1. This team will struggle until it becomes a team.
   2. An offense without the leadership of a true point guard, will stagnate
unless Walker returns to being the passing forward. This aspect of his game
has totally disappeared.
   Whoever discounted the impact of the All Star talk, may like to reassess
after this game. Walker and Pierce are gunning. It's ugly.
   On the bright side; they did hunker down on defense, although the only
player they needed to stop was Eddie Jones. Vitaly made things difficult for
the Heat inside. Erick Strickland and Eric Williams are players.
   As the season progresses, I'd like to see a shortened rotation. Eric,
Erick and V. off the bench and that's it. Bring Battie out to spell Walker
here and there, to go big and let Forte and Brown in, as the situations
allow. Perhaps they can spark a running unit, as Jessen has suggested. I'm
hoping Walter McCarty has the most severe toe injury in history.
   We are getting Orlando at the right time, but they are not nearly as bad
as the Heat and I expect, we will get blown out, unless we see more team
play.
                 

              JB
                   
     
                   

                           Unchain My Heart!







on 11/28/01 6:49 AM, j.hironaka at j.hironaka@unesco.org wrote:

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.

****


Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT

To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
Celticsstuffgroup-subscribe@yahoogroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .