First game

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

As usual, we've all overanalyzed this team coming into the season. We can
talk about Baker and the point guards and everything else, but as last night
showed, if they don't play tough defense and rebound, they won't win. That's
the only thing that really matters about this team. They didn't win because
of any kind of offensive mastery last year. They won because they played
defense and, when they really needed it, they held their own on the boards.
They were an incredibly tough-minded team.

Does that mean they aren't this year? Not necessarily. They weren't last
night, that's for sure. They tried to win pretty, and this team can't do
that. They had some beautiful moments offensively when guys were making the
extra pass leading to easy shots, but they didn't maintain that. The only
constant last night was lousy effort on the defensive end and on the boards.

As for Antoine, it's games like last night that illustrate that being the de
facto point guard isn't the same as being a point guard. A true point guard
would have found ways to get a red-hot Tony Delk more shots instead of
hoisting up 23 shots on a night when 18 of them are bricks. Like I've said
before, Antoine is a point guard in the same way Iverson or Marbury are
point guards-they have all the skills, but they aren't really point guards
because they think their shot first. But that's the way this team is built,
so we have to live with it.

Tonight's game will show a lot. Last year's team, after a loss like this,
would almost always come back and play tough and win the next game. It got
to be predictable-to the point that I don't think anyone who followed them
was the least bit worried when they lost Game 1 against Detroit in the
playoffs. You just knew they'd come out tougher and sharper the next game.
Washington is an improved team that will be smarting from its own
opening-night loss. Jordan will be eager to put a lousy game last night
behind him. It will be a tough test. Last year, the Celtics would have come
out in a game like this and played tough, hustling defense and scrapped
their way to a win. If the defensive effort isn't drastically better
tonight, then I'll be a little concerned. 

Finally, I don't buy the "it takes some time to come together" excuse. Hell,
Shira was ready to give them 30 games or so this morning. Every team has new
faces. Did the Bulls somehow get more practice time? Besides, the Celts
return 4/5ths of their starting lineup and the other 1/5th was Kenny
Anderson-hardly irreplaceable. There are plenty of teams that experienced
more turnover than the Celts.

Let's hope for better tonight.

Mark

P.S. I'm going to try to avoid comments about Baker. For crying out loud,
when they traded for him they said he could return to all-star form in the
Eastern Conference. Yesterday, a writer said he at least could provide what
Luc Longley gave the Bulls. If this is all part of some master plan to lower
expectations, it's working.

Oh, and one more thing... Jerry Krause takes a lot of heat in Chicago, and
he deserves every bit of it for breaking up the Jordan Bulls. But he has
done a hell of a job acquiring talent the last couple of years. Chandler,
Curry, Rose, Jay Williams, Crawford, Eddie Robinson, Donyell Marshall...
pretty darn good. I have to think there's a bright future there.