It's the rebounding, stupid

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Throughout the good start, the Celtics outrebounded opponents. They did it
through hard work, gang rebounding and yeoman's work by Antoine. All of
those things have slacked off and the Celts now actually are minus-1.7 on
the boards per game for the season.

There have been wins to disguise this-the New York win comes to mind. The
team actually outrebounded the Knicks, but anyone who watched the game knows
the Celts couldn't keep Camby and Thomas off the glass.

We all believed this was a flaw with this team. I believed it was a fatal
flaw. That they've been able to play as well as they have while so
undersized is remarkable. But it's starting to take its toll. If you can't
rebound, you can't run. Good defense is crucial, but it's only half of it.
You can play great defense and force a missed shot, but if you don't get the
rebound, it's all for naught.

There's no magical solution. If the Celtics want to rebound the way they
were earlier in the season and continue their winning ways, they're going to
have to re-focus on doing it as a team and Antoine, probably unfairly, is
going to have to become a double-double machine again. He's been slipping a
little since mid-December or so.

Tonight is a tall order, but really sort of a microcosm of the task facing
the Celts. The Spurs are the best of the bunch when it comes to hitting the
glass hard with size. Their personnel up front outclass the Celtics' by a
wide margin. But that's going to be true most of the time. The Celts have to
make up for it with rebounding from the 1, 2 and 3 spots, just as they did
earlier in the season.

I still fret over the offense and its outside-in design, but the key to the
remainder of the season is rebounding.

Mark