Thanks Dad

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

The SI print edition reported last week that Boston is 
the only NBA team, thanks to Gaston, that does not employ 
an advance scout on the payroll this season, not even 
part time. All other teams have two such scouts. The 
blurb is no doubt somewhere on the SI Website too, but I 
haven't looked for it. 

Also, one of the Milwaukee papers reported last week that 
Paul Pierce is the third player to publicly say (via the 
Shira Springer article) that he won't participate in the 
USA program if George Karl is the coach. 

The others were Shaq and Baron Davis. Obviously, Shaq is 
the guy that matters. It doesn't look good for Karl.

Karl, who no doubt earned the "worst coaching job of the 
year" tag with the Bucks and Team USA, seemed hellbent on 
stopping Pierce on Saturday. 

He only gave Michael Redd, a 16+ppg scorer this year, 
just 20 minutes of PT (no foul trouble either) because he 
couldn't trust him to guard Pierce. The book on Redd (a 
GREAT Final Four player at Ohio State) is that he lacks 
the lateral speed or athleticism to guard anyone. But he 
cashed in well for a non-draft pick, and is playing like 
a 6th Man of the Year according to all accounts.

Pierce basically stopped himself again. I'm not sure he 
made more than one shot longer than 8 feet from the rim. 
He's still no where near where he needs to be. As for his 
shooting slump, nothing's changed in my mind despite the 
boxscore (10-23 shooting).

Walker has been playing better positional defense than 
I've ever seen him play. I think he did a fantastic 
crunchtime job on Kevin Garnett too (take that Mychal 
Thompson!), which I consider to be a major mismatch. 

Walker seems more alert, in general, on team defense. And 
he's using his body and hands to create tough shots for 
opponents. 

But when it comes to making actual defensive plays, 
Pierce is still one of the team leaders. I actually trust 
him as the Celtics most capable of making a big stop one-
on-one when needed. But Walker's intensity seems higher, 
and better than before. I don't know how these guys can 
do it on both ends for 40 minutes.

Sam Cassell was the best two-way player on either team on 
Saturday, I thought. He had our pointguards for breakfast 
(Delk) and lunch (Shammond). They had no unchallenged 
shots on their way to 2-14 shooting and just 5 points in 
51 minutes. To their credit, this was their first bad 
game this year. Cassell stepped up and owned them.

The Milwaukee game reminded me of past Obie seasons, when 
Celtics players 3-12 couldn't hit the side of a barn and 
you needed at least 60 points from Paul and Antoine to 
eke out a road win.

The entire team deserves to stew on this loss for four 
days ahead of the Nets game. The time off is welcome for 
that reason. 

And, hey, at least our Gaston AC will have time to 
advance scout a damn opponent. I think this is another 
significant competive disadvantage brought onto our team 
by Gaston petty, miserliness. This is not a "cap" issue. 
Its about being petty and nickle-and-dime greedy.

Joe H.








 

 


















-------------------
L'e-mail gratuit pas comme les autres.
NOMADE.FR, pourquoi chercher ailleurs ?