re: It's the rebounding, stupid

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

> From: "Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>
>
> 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.

Good points.  The only thing I could disagree with here is that the C's 
frontcourt will be outclassed "most of the time."  If the frontcourt is 
Pierce, Walker and T/V, then I think they're only "outclassed" by a 
handful of teams.  If it's Walker and T/V, the number of team increases, 
though.  Perhaps no team does so more convincingly than San Antone, though,
  what with Duncan and Robinson (even with whomever is paying small forward 
nowadays).

Anyway, back to rebounding, they need to get back to how they were doing 
it earlier in the season (that and quit waiting for the fourth to attempt 
the run that will put them over the top/make a comeback).  To run you need 
the ball, and there's perhaps nothing so disheartening than playing good, 
solid defense, but not being able to get the defensive rebound and 
allowing even more shots by the opposing team.  NBA teams are going to put 
the ball in the hoop eventually.  The C's also need to give some help on 
the offensive boards to the center.  T and V are usually the only ones 
down in the paint after a Celtic miss.  They're surprisingly effective, 
but another body down there would only help matters,  The obvious body 
would belong to Antoine.  Wouldn't mind seeing him get himself in the 
paint at that point, though two things strike me as complicating that: 1) 
maybe the plan is to have him help stop the other team's break by fading 
back, and 2) he may need to conserve energy, as he is playing 45 minutes a 
game.  I'd still try it, though: give Pierce a bit more of the scoring 
load, and the team needs to step up and stop the break without him.  
Rebounding is probably too key an aspect to the team's overall success to 
ignore.  However, it may be that if everyone playing makes it a priority, 
the team can get back to rebounding well.

Bird