Re: A Disturbing Game: Somewhere Pete Shepherd Is Laughing

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think I would like Vin Baker if I met him. Seems like a nice, thoughtful,
sincere guy. But I'm pretty sure-and this isn't based just on last night's
game-that he's going to drive me to drink this season. I can't stand guys
who bring it one night and don't the next. Everyone is going to have bad
games. But inconsistent effort has dogged Vin for years now, and I have no
reason to believe that's going to change now. 

Too bad about Kedrick, but this team has been charmed in terms of injuries.
If this is the worst that happens, they're still in great shape. Sounds like
his performance last night was a little better.

Looking at the box score, looks like Pierce, Walker, Delk and Sundov did
most of the damage. The most disturbing thing sounds like the defense, but
let's face it... the Celts can't seem to motivate themselves to play defense
against the Bulls in the regular season, why should we expect them to now?
You have to assume the defense will be OK when it matters.

As for Battie... if you're asking him to guard Eddy Curry, there's a
problem. Battie just isn't strong enough. But Battie was valuable last year
in the Celtics' scheme because he defended the pick-and-roll the way they
wanted. He has the lateral quickness to jump out on the dribbler and execute
an effective trap. Not many big men can do that as well as Battie. So teams
that initiated their offense with a high pick-and-roll with Battie's man as
the screener had problems. If you're looking for him to body-up to Curry or
the like, you'll be disappointed. That's what Baker is for, although it
doesn't seem he did an especially good job of it last night.

Mark

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