Re: Mr Gimmick strikes again

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Celtics shot .538 from 2-point range last night but 
went 8-32 on 3-pointers. In fact, nearly 40% of their 
shot attempts (38%) were from the 3-point line last 
night. I think they failed to adopt their game plan to 
what was working.

The Wiz missed 13 more free throws than Boston did, and 
that's what kept the game respectable. Clearly, things 
are not good right now. I wish there were obvious, 
practical solutions to get out of this slump, but its not 
just one thing.

Obie worked on offense last week and you can't deny the 
positive results.

This was the second straight game where our offense 
played well enough to win, especially our 2:1 
assist/turnover ratio and ability to finish plays around 
the hoop.

Defense has to catch up, or else we stay a mediocre team. 
Even with Battie back, the Celtics defense is porous in 
other areas of the floor.
 
I have a hunch that game tapes will show Tony Delk is 
really struggling when guarding bigger guards. They seem 
very confident shooting over him, and they drive past him 
when he tries to take the J away.

Elite guards also are having their way with Eric 
Williams. He's not quick enough to make plays on defense. 
Its asking a lot of a 6-8 hybrid low-post forward to 
guard the likes of MJ and Stackhouse.
 
I don't know what Kedrick Brown did to get yanked after 
four minutes against the Wiz, which we all know runs a 
three big guard offense (126 minutes combined for Stack, 
MJ and Hughes).

Maybe the second half will see more playing time for 
Kedrick Brown and hopefully better team results on 
defense, although its hardly a sure thing.

But I think the most glaring issue the Celtics coach 
needs to look at is playing time by the captains.

Teams need unselfish passing to score 100 points, but you 
need veteran individual shot creaters to win in the last 
two minutes. The Portland and Wiz games both really came 
down to the last 4 or 5 minutes, like most games do. They 
both beat us in those final winnable moments. I hate the 
cliche about NBA regular season games, but you really can 
throw out the first 46 minutes of both games. It was 
basically a wash at that stage, after all was said and 
done.

It has gone undiscussed, but Walker is often out of gas 
in the 4th quarter. His 4Q productivity hasn't been that 
great in the past 12 months or so, kind of like the 
reputation Dominique Wilkins had back in his day. 

Walker isn't mailing it in, he's always trying to lead 
the break aggressively in the fourth. But he gets a 
sloppy and he takes more than his share of early shot-
clock 3-pointers. Last night, he tried to take over in 
front of MJ and had nothing to give. He hurt the team 
down the stretch.

Give Antoine 10 minutes off over the first 3 quarters, 
and I think he will be able to make all kinds of good 
plays in the fourth.

The same holds true for Paul Pierce, although I'll say 
this. He's the type of volume shooter that lately is 
taking too much time to heat up. I wish he would slash to 
the hoop early in the games, because that's what usually 
gets him going in the third quarter. After he starts 
taking and making a bunch of freethrows off drives, often 
his distance shooting also gets in better synch.

In the Portland game, he supposedly showed up at the gym 
before everyone else to take shooting tips from Dana 
Barros. But then he couldn't hit the side of a barn for 
the entire first half. I have to assume that players can 
burn out shooting too many threes before a game. Its not 
like Pedro Martinez throws 130 warmup pitches before the 
start of a game. And you may get lazy with your technique 
when you jack up 100 shots in a row.

Right now, upcoming opponents have to have an offnight 
for Boston to have any chance to win. We need to address 
our mistakes/weaknesses on the defensive end or else we 
lose every game. And Walker and Pierce need to be rested 
for the final 6 minutes, even if its a series of 1 minute 
stretches. Even Kidd tends to come in fresh during key 
moments of games.














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