It's the rebounding

[Tammo29@xxxxxxx]

In all of the discussions of the last game I haven't seen anyone who touched 
on the real problem once again, rebounds.
It probably was overlooked because the Celtics won the rebounding battle.  
But we should have killed them on the boards.  We should have killed Memphis on 
the boards.  These are two of the worst rebounding teams in the league.
We allowed Chris Bosh to get five offensive rebounds.
We allowed Baxter four offensive rebounds in 18 minutes.
There are only a handful of teams allowing more offensive rebounds then the 
Celtics and all of those teams lack size. 
 We don't.  We have a 7 footer, Mark Blount, on the floor for 40 minutes and 
all he can come up with are 4 defensive rebounds (5 total)?  Mike James had 5 
in ten less minutes.  Marcus Banks had 3 in 18 minutes.  Welsch had 3 in 26 
minutes.
This is a recurring theme with this team.  I know O'Brien wants to shift the 
blame to the guards, but they are rebounding.  Mark Blount is usually the 
biggest guy on the court.  He doesn't box out and he doesn't go after the ball.  
You can't rebound without doing at least one of these things consistantly.  
Blount stands 39th in rebounding amongst centers.  Per 48 minutes he's 47th.  
Only the Collins twins and Sean Rooks are worse.
You can talk about the three pointers all you want, Chris Bosh made our big 
men look lazy in this game.  I don't know why O'Brien is reluctant to call out 
Blount, but it's obvious to me he isn't pulling his weight on the boards.  
Baker has had some decent rebounding games, but he's never going to be a beast on 
the boards.  Mark Blount could be if he would put his mind to it.

On the subject of the three pointers, I've heard a number of people complain 
about giving up wide open three's, not this board in particular.  Problem is 
folks, that's our defense.  You don't like it, then talk to Dick Harter and Jim 
O'Brien. I pointed out the weaknesses in this defense over two years ago in 
detail.  I can't believe the number of people who still don't understand it, or 
want to blame the perimeter defenders for the open shots. All I can say is 
there must be a lot of people ball watching and not looking at the big picture.  
Our perimeter people were doing what they had to do, what they are coached to 
do.  They were guarding the open men closest to the basket, in some instances 
right under the basket.  If they didn't it would be a dunkfest.  Teams that 
are patient and reverse the ball are going to get open threes, plain and simple 
fact. O'Brien has stated in the past that he would like 45% of three's to be 
challenged, so he sees 55% open three's acceptable.  I would say the Celtics 
were pretty close to this mark against the Raptors.
 This defense is predicated on the fact that most teams won't hit 71% of 
their threes no matter how open.  The Raptors did.
We've benefited from some hot shooting nights ourselves in the past, winning 
games we probably should have lost.  What goes around comes around.


TAM