Last night

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

I guess the good news (seriously) is that the game was 
closer than expected, considering one of the captains 
shot 5-23. 

Boston's clearly not strong enough to win when Paul or 
Antoine shoot 20% from the field.

Even some of Antoine's makes were high-degree-of-
difficulty type shots. He always pulls this stuff against 
his hometown Bulls. The only nice thing you can say is 
that it makes it extremely unlikely Bulls fans would ever 
want to trade for him or sign him when his contract 
expires, a year ahead of when Vin Baker's contract 
expires. 

The Bulls matchup will get even tougher now, because they 
have long-armed power forwards that tend to give Walker a 
harder time. Walker also has shot erratically in the past 
against teams like the Spurs. He needs to focus on his 
other strengths in games against those teams.

The other good news is the fans were really vocal and 
supportive. Outstanding. In other arenas, fans seem to 
feel awkward chanting things like "Defense" in unison. 
They also play along too, but you sense they feel kind of 
dorky or undignified doing it. We don't, because its 
tradition. We're a bit like English soccer fans in how we 
approach it, minus the hooligans. 

I only watched the first three quarters (at least my YMCA 
team won a game on a last second free throw). So I didn't 
expect Boston would get held to 12 points in the fourth 
quarter at home versus the Bulls. That's inexcusable. It 
should never happen at home against a weak defensive team.

And the 10-rebound differential kind of caught up with 
us. 

The lack of a killer instinct in the 3rd quarter didn't 
bode well either. Those two things allowed the Bulls to 
hang around. 

You can't let younger teams hang around like that, much 
less ever let the referee's whistle get inside your head 
like it seemed to. 

When it comes to defense, I think Boston has some 
remedial learners on the bench. This could actually take 
awhile! We let the Bulls shoot 50% from the field. 
Shammond's obviously someone to watch in that regard, 
based on his turnstile repuation.  

Also, the sooner Kedrick can come back and replace all of 
McCarty's minutes, the better I think. 

Its like you have four serious guys out there, and then 
you throw Jerry Lewis out on the floor. He's 
distractingly idiotic whenever plays like a headless 
rubber chicken. He must be enjoying married life. When 
his heads not in the game, he doesn't deserve an NBA 
contract.  

He's a jack of no trades.  Kedrick isn't exactly Rick 
Barry, but at least he has limited but identifiable 
strengths. Obie had no choice but to give EWill 37 
minutes last night, and that's certainly not a recipe for 
success. 

I don't know how many times already that Vin Baker has 
been "held" to four shot attempts so far. I'm not quite 
sure who's fault this is anymore. 

Baker's post up spins are a thing of beauty and 
positioning. You hardly see that kind of post play 
anymore. But it seems like all parties involved, 
including Vin, want to keep him at the four shot attempts 
per game ceiling.

Also, I hope Antoine will try to perform well (in the 
good sense) tonight against MJ's Wiz. What can you say, 
its actually a big game now. But no way will I post a 
game preview. I should go back into the digest and get 
the accurate numbers, but without exaggeration the 
Celtics record is something like 3 wins and 96 losses 
when I post a game preview (specifically on the day of a 
game). Maybe not even 3 wins. Maybe more than 96 losses. 
Its uncanny. After I click "send", I should already know 
what the outcome will be.

Joe H.








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