Re: Don't Judge The Celtics via Their Performance Against The Pacers

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

While I'm in agreement that as a coach, Thomas makes a good spectator, I 
take issue with your statement about the benches of each team.  Everyone's 
been going on--and on, and on, and on--about how the Celtics "have no 
depth" while the Pacers are lauded for a bench apparently so deep they 
leave Reggie Miller on it at the end of playoff games.

The bench--coach or no coach--still has to execute on the court, be it 
their coach's play or whatever they come up with that works.  While I am 
often annoyed by the pundit's repeated dismissal of the Celtics, they're on 
the money with the Pacers.  They have a deep, talent-laden team that 
routinely goes .500 each year.  When they had their hot start this season, 
everyone was shocked.  Personally, I think it was that the Pacers were in 
better shape than everyone else in the preseason and kept rolling.

Said bench--and, for that matter, the starters--did not execute against the 
Celtics.  Rather the reverse.  The Pacers did not defend well, and their 
offense was stagnant in the face of the Celtics defense.  The Celtics 
played team ball at both ends, and won big.  In the one game where the 
Pacers made their game plan work, they blitzed the C's early in the first 
and still nearly lost when the C's came back.

So, I WILL judge by their performance.  Coach Thomas said, following the 
last game, that if the Pacers make the shots the missed, it would have been 
a different story.  Well, gee, Isaiah, they DIDN'T make them, and that's 
one of the reasons you LOST.  What a stupid thing to say.  I'm just annoyed 
at the public support Thomas gets.  On the one paw, people are whispering 
that this series may determine if he keeps his job.  Then, when the Celtics 
outplay them, goosegging Reggie in the process, the C's supposedly "got 
lucky" by "stealing a game".  Give me a break.  The C's had a bad slide in 
March that slid them down the playoff seeds, and they're beating a team 
that I expected them to beat.

The Nets get their points by hard transition and Kidd flopping as he makes 
circus shots.  Put them in a halfcourt game, and they are gonzo.

And for those wondering how the Good Guys will do against the Lakers, I'd 
say the Lakers should be concerned about getting past Minnesota.  :>)
At 12:32 PM 4/26/03 -0400, Way Of The Ray wrote:
>Isiah's monumental coaching incompetence skews all the
>results vastly in the Celtics favor. Only Isiah could make it possible
>for the Celtics woeful bench to outplay the
>superior Pacers back-ups.  The true test of where the Celtics stand is
>how they perform against the Nets.  And my guess is the Nets will
>clobber the Celtics as usual.

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website