Re: My 2 cents

[JB <jimmetz@xxxxxxx>]

> After reading some of the newspaper articles and the posts on various 
> boards
> I expected to see a game where there was no passing and the captains 
> totally
> hogged the ball.  That's not what I saw at all.
> What I saw was a game in which every single player struggled to make 
> even the
> easiest of shots, simply hold on to the ball, or make the right plays 
> at the
> right time.
	TAM

***********************************
	Even though coach O'Brien saw the need, to mention, the need to pass 
more effectively, to the press and Eric Williams even went so far as to 
lament, in the  same Herald article, the departure of local hero, Kenny 
Anderson?

{C's sale nearly final

by Steve Bulpett
Friday, December 27, 2002

.................Beyond the obvious defensive issues, the Celts focused 
(during practice) mainly on sharing the basketball better. They had 
just two assists in the first half in Jersey and but 11 for the game.

Eric Williams raised the name of dealt-away point guard Kenny Anderson, 
saying that the offense needs more focus this season.

``On offense right now we're still not as fresh as we were last year,'' 
he said. ``I mean, we've got better scorers and all these things, but 
at the same time we ain't got guys that know how to make plays. Antoine 
(Walker) knows how to make plays, but the other guys aren't used to 
setting people up.

``Not to say we don't have good players, but we don't have the set-up 
guy we did last year so we have to work harder on that. Kenny at times 
got us into our offense because he was a pure and natural point guard 
who knew how to take control of the game at 
times.''.................................}

	Well, statistics bear you out. ;>)
	I've just completed an analysis of the captains shot totals,  as a % 
of the teams shots, in wins vs losses and there seems to be no trend at 
all. If anything the team does a bit better when Antoine and Paul take 
a slightly higher % of the shots.
	There is a growing difference in the assists totals of Paul and 
Antoine when we win, as opposed to lose, but if they are taking 
approximately the same % of the shots, it would seem that your 
impression is correct.
	Since I don't get to see many of the games, I've done these 
worksheets, (assists, as well as shots)to try and understand, 
admittedly at a disadvantage, just what is going on.
	As Eric Williams pointed out, we may need a true point guard (got to 
get that in) to get this offense back in gear, but it would appear that 
it is not selfishness that is the problem,
	I know I can't pass the worksheets through to this board as 
attachments and Excel files will not post cleanly, but they are 
available on the Celtics Stuff home 
page:{http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Celticsstuffgroup/files/?}, or, if 
you E-mail me privately, I will be happy to forward both to you.
	Happy New Year to all!
	JB

	Unchain My Heart !


On Friday, December 27, 2002, at 07:54  PM, Tammo29@AOL.com wrote:

>   Because of Holiday obligations I just now was able to watch my tape 
> of the
> Nets game.  Yes, even knowing it was going to be an ugly affair I still
> wanted to see the game.  My husband thinks I'm crazy.  Maybe, but I 
> prefer to
> be called a fanatic.
> After reading some of the newspaper articles and the posts on various 
> boards
> I expected to see a game where there was no passing and the captains 
> totally
> hogged the ball.  That's not what I saw at all.
> What I saw was a game in which every single player struggled to make 
> even the
> easiest of shots, simply hold on to the ball, or make the right plays 
> at the
> right time.
> When the entire team is off it's game at the same time what you get is 
> 35
> point blow outs like this Christmas catastrophe.
> There was passing that would on any normal evening lead to assists,
> particularly in the first half,  but instead led to missed shots, 
> turnovers
> or trips to the free throw line.  It stands to reason that there will 
> not be
> many assists handed out in a game where your team is shooting around 
> 25-30%.
> On the other hand the Nets were about as hot as they could be.  They 
> started
> by hitting their outside shots and then moved into the paint scoring 
> with
> ease.  The Celtics were definitely not playing hard on the defensive 
> end
> until about halfway through the 2nd quarter.  But by then the Nets 
> already
> had everything going for them.  Even if the Celtics could have turned 
> their
> offense around, which they never did for any protracted period of 
> time,  it
> would have been too little too late.
> I will resist the urge to point any fingers defensively, but it was 
> clear to
> me that there were three players in particular that didn't seem to be 
> giving
> it their all.
> With the Celtics defense that just can't happen.  They need all five 
> players
> on the court playing hard nosed defense to the best of their ability 
> or the
> system totally brakes down.
>
> I don't think anyone who has followed this team could possibly be 
> surprised
> about the outcome of the Nets game.  Disappointed? Yes.  Surprised?  
> No.
> We all know they are very capable of these sort of stinker games, 
> especially
> against teams like the Nets who have scoring options at every single
> position.
>
> I'm looking forward to a very hard fought game this evening.  I'd like 
> to see
> the Celtics come out with fire in their eyes.  Forget the Nets game, 
> we owe
> Miami a loss on their home court and I'll be very disappointed if the 
> Celtics
> don't deliver.
>
>
> TAM