Interesting comment from the Bucks' announcers

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

Sorry if someone else already mentioned this...

I got the game with the Bucks' announcers Saturday night. Overall, they were pretty good. They made one particularly interesting comment. They said there are a lot of different types of coaches in the NBA. Some are more involved than others. Jim O'Brien, they said, calls a play every time down the floor. They mentioned this after Obie yelled out "Lob!" just before the alley-oop to Desmond Mason. Remember the "... now make the free throws" quote attributed to Pitino? I don't know if the story was true or just told for effect, but it claimed Pitino was yelling out everything... "set up the pick... three dribbles... pump fake... " until the player was fouled, when Pitino then said, "Good... now make the free throws." 

Anyway, is it any surprise that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree with O'Brien? 

This kind of over-coaching strangles an offense. You want to know where the running game went? You can't run when you're looking over to the bench to see the next play. 

Just thought it was interesting to hear coming from the opposition's analysts. 

Mark

P.S. One more general thought on the Celts after the long weekend... their defense is tied too closely to their offense. When things are going well, and they're moving and making shots, they play great defense. When things aren't going well offensively - when they stand around and watch Pierce and miss shots - there's a noticeable dropoff in the defense. This isn't uncommon, but the Celtics the last couple of years have been good about separating the two. I think that's one of the reasons they're struggling at the ends of games. 

OK... one more thing: Wasn't that a fun game Saturday night. I was disappointed they lost, but there were some GREAT offensive plays by both teams. The Celtics started settling a little too easily for the Mike James bail-out three (of course, he was on fire), but other than that, really some fun basketball to watch. I'm sure Obie hated it.