The real problem with 3's

[Georgek27@AOL.com]

The real problem with the Celtics shooting so many threes is that the only 
guy on the team who even resembles a pure shooter is Pierce and even he is 
more of a "scorer" than a "shooter" except for when he catches fire. It seems 
like every time we leave an opponent wide open in 3pt land he sinks the 3 (I 
know they miss some but it sure seems like they make most of them), yet we 
seem to brick an awful lot of open threes. Granted we have several guys -- 
other than Pierce -- who can hit a few in a row starting with Walker, Delk, 
Rogers, Strickland, even McCarty but more often than not they don't. 
Basketball needs to be a mixed bag with some threes blended in with more 
midrange shots and as many layups as you can get (of course we probably have 
the worst FG% on layups in NBA history). At least if you are going to shoot 
threes and deep twos it helps to get players in position to rebound. 
Sometimes it seems like they are wearing those "invisible fence" dog collars 
and can't go inside the three point line or they'll get a shock.

I don't travel much anymore since bone marrow cancer (now in remission) 
seriously damaged my back but I made the 250 mile trip (much of it through 
some nasty driving conditions) from my Long Island home to the Fleet on 
Wednesday to get my Pierce Bobblehead and see my beloved Celtics. As an added 
bonus I got a long sleeved Celtics t-shirt for filling out a credit card 
application. It was a shame that the weather kept many locals away with the 
attendance listed at less than 14,000 and that was even skewed by the 
entrepreneurs who bought multiple tickets so they could get multiple dolls 
and sell them on Ebay. The game itself was pretty ugly for the most part and 
Tony Delk kept us in it in the first half. Until they finally started to put 
some offense together late in the third I thought I was going to go home 
disappointed. The defense was good throughout except we had no answer for 
Wesley Person who seemed to make every shot he took and like Delk he kept his 
team in the game in the first half. We seem to make an awful lot of careless 
or ill advised passes in bunches at a time. Couple that with a few three 
point bricks and sometimes we go empty for six straight possessions or 9 of 
11, etc. At least when we play good D it keeps us in the game until our shots 
begin to fall.

Tonight's game was disappointing but it could have been worse. Philly won the 
battle but probably lost the war with Iverson out 4-6 weeks with a broken 
knuckle. Orlando also is holding their breath as T-Mac was carried off on a 
stretcher with what is now being called "back spasms" after getting run over 
by a Tractor Traylor and he'll have an MRI tomorrow. Vince Carter is done for 
the season but the Craptors have been done for some time now and he wasn't 
doing much to turn things around.

Go Celtics!

George

PS - It was disappointing to hear Celtic fans waiting on line for the gates 
to open discussing their plans to sell their Pierce bobble heads on Ebay. I 
know that not every fan cares about such things but I'm pretty sure that 
every fan knows a fan who does.