Re: C's Aren't Inspiring A Lot Of Confidence With Their Preseason Performance

[snoopy1@pig.net]

At 12:26 PM 10/20/01 -0400, Way Of The Ray wrote:
>- If Charlotte and Dallas had taken their games with the Celtics
>at all seriously, the C's would be 0 - 6 this pre-season.


Conversely, had the Celtics played even slightly better defense we'd be 
looking at a 4-2 record.


>- The C's have been very lucky in their schedule. Every team
>except San Antonio was missing their first or second best player:
>  Charlotte (1) Mashburn; Dallas: Finley; Charlotte (2) Mashburn,
>and toss in Campbell; Cleveland: Ilgauskas; Milwakee:
>Robinson, and toss in their starting and back-up center too.

Lucky unless you figure in those back to back road games hampered by 
weather problems keeping them from the kind of practice they really 
needed.  Personally, I'd be in favor of dumping most of the exhibition 
games and just do one or two "tune-up" games  before the start of the season.


>- The rookies have all but disappeared.  Not exactly a Bonfire
>of the Vanities type of pre-season for them. RAW and wait
>for a few years comes to mind when describing their
>perceived contributions.

That's what we have veterans for.  They contribute now, while the rookies 
are brought up to speed.  And frankly, there were significant stretches 
where the rooks played better then the starters, and a number of times when 
the only guys running consistently were the new guys.


>And yet, the C's will probably get off to a good start this season,
>because they have a pretty easy opening schedule.
>Ray

The schedule means nothing if you don't capitalize on it.  I'm glad 
Obie-Wan let off some steam this week.  Sometimes he's a little too quiet 
in his effort to focus on the team instead of the coach.  The fact is, the 
team, as a whole, did not execute what they were taught in training 
camp.  Thus, they stank up the place a few times.  It was obvious that when 
they ran consistently their offense worked much more effectively and helped 
stanch the bleeding defense.  Obvious as it sounds, it really is 
simple--play better defense and run the whole game.  Without a big man, 
they can't afford to play around with a halfcourt game.

poof...
Snoopy the Celtics Beagle