As Obie sows, so shall he reap

[Celtic4Hire@xxxxxxx]

<< 'We've got to look at the film and see what we did wrong and how we 
 let that game slip away from us,'' said Walker (22 points, 11 rebounds, 
 8 assists). ''They went zone and it slowed us down a little bit. We 
 weren't really prepared for them to go zone. We were scoring at will. 
 We built a comfortable lead. It was a good adjustment by them. They 
 forced us to stay outside and shoot jump shots.
 
 ''We've got to look at that. More teams may try to do that. It's a 
 learning experience for us. We've got to get a couple more better plays 
 against the zone to where we can get inside and attack the basket.''
  >>

News flash to Walker and Obie. Play a zone against the Celtics is in every 
scouting report. Everyone including Chris Wallace has known that since the 
Nets shut us down using it against us in the ECFs. That is why Wallace 
attempted to get us another option with inside scoring with Baker. Now there 
is no denying that some of Baker's skills have diminished. Yet, there could 
be a time in the game where you could go to that option just like the Pistons 
used to do with  James Edwards. But Obie has tunnel vision on his view on how 
centers are supposed to play. You can really confound the Cs if you play a 
zone and have a big, shotblocking center like Ming or a Bradley...

For some reason, Obie played Kedrick last night, extensively. I do not know 
why this night was any different than any other night. Kedrick did post up 
the Cat one time and scored easily after Walker got him the ball. Then we had 
to watch Kedrick do what the coach wanted and launch the threes again. I was 
slightly disappointed to watch the Cat blow by Kedrick as he tried to poke it 
from behind, EWill's favorite tactic. Kedrick has the speed to cut off the 
drive but has to give up the body in doing so. You don't want Kedrick 
learning bad habits from a player tremendously slower than you. I was always 
instructed to never try that because it means you have already been beat off 
the dribble. Kedrick otherwise looked very active on defense. But what does 
it matter? I'm sure this was just a attempt to keep his interest. Like with 
the centers, an athletic two without three point range doesn't fit Obie's 
mold....

I would also like to point out why we match up so poorly with the Nets. They 
have the motion (Princeton) offense with the backdoor cutting that seems to 
be the antithesis of the Dick Harter defense. They play a effective zone on 
us. They are molded for the fast break and we have poor transition defense. 
As pointed out last night by Tommy, our only offensive option when a team 
puts a zone on us is to shoot the three. If we don't make them, we are 
doomed. We came back against the Nets in the ECFs when PP starting 
penetrating. (That tactic's effectiveness was only reduced by the refs who 
began to reinterpret the charging rule by saying Kidd's fit didn't to be set 
when he was throwing his body in front of PP's drives.) However, we also had 
some penetration by Kenny that produced some baskets. Now, we don't even have 
that. Therefore, you have to conclude that with what Obie is going with right 
now that we don't have the firepower of last year....

I have to admit that the defense looked much more crisp with Blount in there 
instead of Baker. He is much quicker than Baker. Yet, Obie still went with 
Walter at center at the start of the fourth. That tactic has worked before so 
I guess I concurred. However, I thought Obie should have come back with 
Walter instead of EWill at the end of the game to give them more offense 
firepower....

The bottom line is that as Obie sows, so shall he reap....