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Re: the Philly win
Superb post, Joe. Thanks for making it so long, so
calm, and so reasonable.
Josh
--- "hironaka@nomade.fr" <hironaka@nomade.fr> wrote:
> Hi list, as some IGTC posters already have noted,
> last
> night was a type of watershed in the development of
> Obie's team, in one specific sense at least. Even in
> the
> latter stages of last season, how many games would
> Boston
> have won (handily,I might add) against a .667 team,
> with
> Paul Pierce shooting 4-20? Probably none. I actually
>
> think that.
>
> Boston came in at 6 per game in rebounding
> differential.
> Stand that next to Philly (an outstanding rebounding
> team
> this year) at a whopping +6 on the offensive boards
> ALONE. Add in the visceral revenge motivations.
>
> This was a good win. Philly is well-coached and has
> low
> turnovers (13 last night); they also average a ton
> of
> steals (three guys averaging over 2 per game); they
> finally have two guys at over 15 points per game to
> complement Iverson; and also two guys averaging more
>
> boards than Walker at last check. They might not be
> a
> great team, but they had been playing like one.
>
> On top of that, since we last met in the playoffs,
> Larry
> Brown quietly added a power forward that has
> produced 20
> and 10 so far(well, 19.5 and 9.5). On paper, the Van
> Horn
> trade couldn't have worked out better as an upgrade
> over
> a retirement age, non-factor center. I'm no Van Horn
> fan,
> but I actually felt Philly didnt go to him enough
> last
> night. He's hitting low post shots I've never seen
> before.
>
> One more thing. Teams would be crazy not to study
> Larry
> Brown's game-planning to defend Paul Pierce. When
> Boston
> isolated him, the Sixers had three guys facing him,
> with
> no obvious kickout or driving lanes in sight. I
> thought
> it was very effective, but hey, "scoreboard, baby!"
>
> This was a good win.
>
> But the actual point I wish to make in this post is
> this.
>
> By some measures, last night was less an aberration
> than
> a confirmation of a trend.
>
> By that I mean that last night wasn't the first time
> this
> season that Paul or Antoine have shot us into
> probable "one of those nights" losing scenarios.
>
> The amazing thing is that we won not just last
> night, but
> several nights this month with Paul or Antoine, or
> both,
> struggling.
>
> To wit, Paul's season stats show a .389FG%. Antoine
> Walker is still at .373FG%.
>
> Saint Paul has been dribbling into the lane this
> month
> like his arms are IV'd on novocaine.
>
> And despite two straight "good" shooting games,
> Antoine's
> probably two .500 shooting games in a row away from
> getting up to the "Mendoza Line" FG% of .400. He's
> way
> down there.
>
> From this rosy perspective, Boston is winning AND
> the
> captains haven't even gotten on track yet.
>
> Walker and Pierce are almost certain to play much
> better
> this year than they have thus far. Even a career
> average
> statistical year would mean a substantial
> improvement.
>
> In overcoming their less than ideal start, Obie's
> and his
> team deserve a lot of credit. BTW, we are now
> statistically on pace (tongue in cheek, dont worry)
> to
> win over 60 games.
>
> As I predicted, its becoming more commonplace for
> the
> Celtics to make the big plays in the fourth quarter.
>
> Pierce and Walker are in the first year of their
> typical "prime" years in their superstar type
> trajectories. Good talent doesn't win in the fourth
> period. Good veteran talent does.
>
> The difference, last night, is that Pierce and
> Walker
> barely scored in the fourth, as we won handily.
>
> So when fans talk about the possible return of the
> leprechaun to the Fleet Center, my opinion is
> "there's
> your leprechaun right in front of the bench".
>
> I loved that calm smile on Obie's face in the second
>
> quarter of the Minnesota game, when they made that
> horrific run on us (31-12 or whatever). Obie is,
> like, "okay, we can address this just as well
> without any
> histrionics or showboating".
>
> And the bottom line is that under Obie's game
> management,
> we don't blow as many games like that anymore.
>
> Obie was in the right place at the right time to get
> the
> interim coaching title two years ago, but he's
> earned
> everything else ever since IMO.
>
> He has apparent roster holes few coaches would want,
> and
> yet the team's averaging over 102 point per game
> this
> month (6-0) and playing great defense again. The
> team
> also overcame the adversity of a crap start.
>
> And its not like he isn't Joe Blow non-innovator or
> risk
> takerI remember at least one post this month that
> absolutely trashed Obie in the midst of our winning
> streak. What he's done is original to say the least,
> but
> its working.
>
> All that said, this IS a winning streak. Teams play
> well
> in winning streaks. The numbers always come out
> looking
> good. Grunt players look great, but they then tend
> to
> find their level. I don't think we can get too
> excited
> (at heart, I'm a Red Sox fan so I know that early
> winning
> streaks mean zilch).
>
> This mini-6 game run is about the role players.
>
> As others have noted, Eric Williams' career
> rebounding
> average is one board every eight minutes (3.1
> career).
> Not to mention just 1.4 assists per game.
>
> That kind of rebounding at ANY starting position
> these
> days tends to hurt teams.
>
> Last night, as we all saw, Eric Williams had 10
> boards in
> 27 minutes. But what's equally impressive and
> praiseworthy is that he had 8-rebound nights in
> three of
> the last four games coming in as well.
>
> That's four games out of five with 8 or more boards
> for
> Eric. He's totally got his hard hat on. Its amazing
> what
> (relatively) healthy knees will do for you. He's a
> much
> better player this year than anticipated, so far.
>
> But Tony Battie may be replacing EW as the defensive
>
>
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