RE: [Celtics' Stuff RE: The real problem with 3's

["Ravi Singh" <kelticsfan@attbi.com>]

I have to agree with Kestas here JB.  While I don't believe the coach
wants such poor decisionmaking on offense, I'll say this.  You wouldn't
see that poor decisionmaking with a Pat Riley, Phil Jackson or even Nate
McMillan as the head coach.  If you did, the guilty parties would be
sitting beside the coach on the bench, getting an earful. 


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-celtics@igtc.com [mailto:owner-celtics@igtc.com] On Behalf
Of Kestas
Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2002 6:34 AM
To: celtics@igtc.com
Subject: Re: [Celtics' Stuff RE: The real problem with 3's


At 07:22 3/23/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>        ************
>   I am as aghast as you at the disintegration of the C's last night, 
>Ravi, but I don't think it's fair to blame the coach. Do you really 
>think that O'Brien was happy with Delk's missed bomb, with about a 
>minute left and the C's down four?

Well, he's just reaping what he has sown. He publicly implores his
players to take the first trey that shows - so they do. Whether he's
stupid enough to actually believe that this is the best strategy for
this team, or simply covering up for his stars who love to shoot it,
doesn't even matter. It takes a player of great discipline to not be
seduced into chucking up a three and instead expend energy to get a
better shot. Most of our players aren't mature enough to resist the
Siren call of the three-shot. And, like Chuck Barkley keeps reiterating
on TNT, "that's why the Celtics are going home early in the playoffs.
That team shoots entirely too many threes." 

When the coach encourages the players to succumb to their worst
tendencies, that just makes the problem so much worse. It results in an
offense where everyone's stationed around the three-point-line, nobody's
moving without the ball, and nobody's rebounding. I'd be curious to see
what the correlation between the number of 3s taken, and the rebounding
differential is. When the players play with a sense of urgency,
searching out the best shot, moving without the ball, playing tough D -
as they did in the first quarter last night, in the second half against
the Cavs, and usually do against the best teams - they can roll over
Eastern Conference teams, and stay in the game with or occassionally
beat the best Western teams. But once Iverson was out, it was Obie
offense - three-point-city, baby, which gives rise to all kinds of other
problems. Pierce summed it up best:

''We didn't play with a sense of urgency [when Iverson was not in the
game],'' said Paul Pierce (26 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists). ''We
didn't have a war mentality in the second half. We must have thought we
could just cakewalk with Iverson not playing the second half. We just
sat back and let them dictate the tempo and dictate the game for some
reason. Why, I don't know.''

Kestas