Cousy: C's in middle of pack

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cousy: C's in middle of pack: Legend doesn't see repeat of last season's
playoff run

by Steve Bulpett
Tuesday, April 15, 2003







MIAMI - The Cooz is giving the Celtics a puncher's chance at best as they
prepare to open the playoffs.




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Looking even further ahead, Bob Cousy sees the C's in that vast NBA middle
earth from which escape is lengthy and perilous.

``They're in the middle of the pack like a lot of teams,'' said the legendary
point guard, who worked the Celts' weekend games in Florida for FSNE.
``Everything has to go right. They have to be healthy. The chemistry has to be
right - somewhat like what happened last year.

``So far I don't see that happening. If I'm going to look for a reason to be
optimistic, it's that I think if they play their best they can probably beat
any one of the teams ahead of them. I know New Jersey's handled them very
easily, but that doesn't always mean everything.

``Having said that, it's unrealistic to think the way they're playing now
they're going to have much of a chance against a good team,'' Cousy added of
the Celts, who were locked into the playoff's sixth seed with Orlando's loss
to Atlanta last night. ``If they come together like they did last year I think
they could get by the first round, but I watched the Sacramento game and we
played one quarter. I watched the Washington game, we were flat. And I watched
the Philadelphia game and we were flat.

``The point is that hopefully once the playoffs begin they'll dig in again.
What we've got to hope for is what happened last year. No one expected them to
come together the way they did, and they played some very good basketball.

``If they do get it together as a team, I mean, (Paul) Pierce is an
outstanding player who rises to the occasions. (Antoine Walker), it seems to
me, is struggling at the moment, but he can get it going,'' Cousy said.

How far the Celtics ultimately can advance if they get it going is open to
debate. There will be an interesting discussion when the franchise takes stock
of itself this offseason, but in regard to the club's proximity to the better
teams in the league, equality is a distant dream.

``The worst place to be, in a sense, is where the Celtics are, which is in the
middle,'' Cousy said. ``You're not getting the goodies of what is accrued by
finishing at the top, and you're not getting the best draft picks and the
benefits of finishing close to the bottom. And you can stay in the middle for
a long time.

``There's a lot of teams in the Celtics' position and I wouldn't know where to
tell them to go. I used to feel building through the draft made more sense
than free agency, but I don't know how valid that point is anymore because
there's nobody left in the damn draft half the time.

``And free agency for the Celtics is somewhat unrealistic because they're not
going to get a high-profile guy to come even if they give him the money, it
seems to me,'' he added. ``Most of the high-profile guys want to go with
potential champions. They don't want to be saviors, especially if they're
after the midpoint in their career. They'd be thinking, `Oh, man, if I go in
there everybody's going to be expecting me to do these wonderful things, and I
know in my heart I can't carry it.'

``So we've got what a lot of teams have, a couple of potential All-Stars and a
lot of role players. It's a difficult position to be in.''

Cousy sees a lot of similarity in the conference.

``There's nobody in the East that I think has any chance at all of beating the
Lakers, Sacramento, San Antonio or Dallas,'' he said. ``There's just a big
difference there. I think Los Angeles will win it again frankly.''

As the Celtics stagger to the finish line, Cousy pondered a question with both
short- and long-term ramifications.

``I don't know if they're satisfied with where they are, making the
playoffs,'' he said. ``Last year that was a goal and we did a good job. But I
mean, are we happy that we're in the playoffs and playing the way we are?''

Celtics notes

General manager Chris Wallace is getting out of town today, taking the first
of two scouting trips to Europe in the next month.

He will see several draft prospects and will check out last year's pick,
Darius Songaila, in a Euro Cup game in Croatia tomorrow. Wallace also will
visit France, Greece, Germany and Barcelona, Spain, in his 11-day jaunt before
returning to Europe in May.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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