Talk show over for C's

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Talk show over for C's: Time for action vs. Pacers

The NBA/by Steve Bulpett
Saturday, April 19, 2003







INDIANAPOLIS - The Celtics have said all season that no one should worry about
them.




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When bad things happened, they said everything would be fine.

``Bad performance tonight,'' Antoine Walker said after the Celtics lost by a
franchise-worst 45 points in Washington on Oct. 31.

``It ain't really that big of a deal,'' Walker said after the Celtics lost by
a new franchise-worst 52 to the Pistons in Boston in January. ``I mean, it's a
basketball game. It don't matter if you lose by one or 50, man. It's a loss.''

The Celtics said they were fine as long as they were on track to get homecourt
advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and then they said, what the
heck, they weren't afraid of the road when it was clear they wouldn't get
homecourt.

Now the playoffs are upon them, and the Celtics are saying they will buckle
down and be fine. They are saying this is a new life for them. They say if
they just do the things they know they are supposed to, everything will be all
right.

``The East is wide open,'' Walker said this week.

``The East is wide open,'' Paul Pierce said this week.

The Celtics say they can beat Indiana in the first-round series that begins
here today, and they say they can gather momentum and make a strong playoff
run. What they say is true, but at some point, ``do'' is going to have to
enter the picture.

The Celtics are eminently capable of rising from the sixth seed in the Eastern
Conference and dusting off the third-seeded Pacers, but it's going to take the
kind of attention to detail and lust for the game's dirty work that the C's
have simply not shown consistently this season.

Why did the Celtics stumble down the stretch this year? Because they took bad
shots, didn't crash the boards with true aggressiveness and didn't get back
well on defense.

Jim O'Brien talks often about playing tough-minded defense, and that's just
where the Celtic toughness has been for much of the season. In their minds.

The coach himself rarely calls any of his lads out, but he delivered a blanket
blast after a 21-point home loss to Philadelphia last week.

``They were very aggressive driving the basketball, and I don't think we did a
very good job of stepping up,'' O'Brien said. ``And as many times as they
drove the basketball for layups, I think if you're going to compete at a
playoff level, some of those people have to hit the floor.''

Certainly injuries to Tony Battie and Tony Delk have not helped things, but
even when both were there, it seemed the Celtic whole was less than the sum of
its parts.

In the Pacers, the Celtics find a team that is as fragile as it is talented.
If Indiana's young guns - and its old one, Reggie Miller - play to the level
of their skill, they will take this series.

But if the Celtics recall this time last year when they looked upon themselves
as hungry searchers for respect, they can succeed.

If they look at themselves as reigning Eastern Conference finalists and play
with any sort of superiority complex, they can win.

Out here, the matchup that scares the locals is Isiah Thomas vs. Jim O'Brien.
Hoosier types wonder whether Isiah can match basketball wits as well as he did
when he played. They wonder if he will be in employment trouble if the Pacers
lose the series. Celtics fans are just wondering whether their team can walk
its talk.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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