Re: statman

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

Cecil, I'm sure, knowing you, you're referring to the free throws. They shot
22, the Celts shot 9. Did you watch the game? After the first quarter, the
Celtics abandoned any notion of going to the basket. They fired up 33
three-pointers, and the offense SEEMED prettier because they made 14 of
those 33.

Like Egg, I looked at the box score, and here's what jumps out at me:

The Celtics attempted 15 more field goals, but made one less than the
Rockets.

The Celtics' bench was 3-for-20 from the floor in 63 minutes (2-for-12 from
3-point range).

The Rockets won the rebounding battle 45-33.

Contrary to what you and Tommy Heinsohn believe Cecil, the Celtics do not
continually get the short end of the stick from the officials. Pierce leads
the league in free throw attempts and makes, for crying out loud. The way
they play dictates that they aren't going to get a lot of free throw
attempts. And pointing to that as the reason for any struggles means you're
just turning a blind eye to the real problems. And there are plenty of
those.

Anyway, the one positive out of the game was Bremer. He's no point guard,
and the body of evidence up to this point certainly doesn't rule out the
possibility that this game was a total fluke, but it's still encouraging. He
looked like Eric Strickland on one of Strickland's good shooting days. Is it
really as simple as just getting more minutes, as Bremer suggested in
today's papers? Because he looked like he couldn't hit the broad side of a
barn up until now. I'm tempering my enthusiasm a little because six of his
13 field goal attempts were 3-pointers and he made four of those. Up to now,
Bremer was anemic from three-point range. Even Walter had a 6-for-6 game a
couple of years ago (the season-opener in Toronto). But if Bremer can do it
consistently-a big if still-he might present a more complete package than
either Delk (lacks ball-handling, ability to penetrate) or Shammond
(streaky, poor floor sense). I don't know. I'm not going to jump the gun on
him. I made that mistake with Greg Minor and Chris Herren-both had big games
early in their Celtic careers and I was convinced both had more of those
games in them. They never did.

Other thoughts from last night:

--I'm not sure that last night didn't do more harm than good. They stayed in
the game with three-point shooting. That's not the recipe this team needs
for winning. If the lesson they take away from last night is that they can
compete with long-range shooting, then they learned the wrong lesson.

--Kedrick is lost. He's a decent defensive player-not the stopper some think
he is, at least not yet-but he doesn't know what to do on offense. Most of
the time he hangs around the 3-point line waiting to launch another
brick-and most of his shots really are total bricks. This offense really
hampers a guy like Kedrick, who would at least be able to use his
athleticism if there was some movement, screening, etc. He could be much
better roaming the baseline, looking for cracks within 15 feet of the
basket. That's how the Kings use Gerald Wallace-a similar athlete taken in
the same draft (at the bottom of the first round-not with the 11th pick)-and
they get much more production from Wallace.

--Every time I watch the Rockets, I feel compelled to give Joe H. credit for
his continued stumping for Terrence Morris a few years ago in the draft. Joe
loved Morris' collection of skills, and Morris has proven to be an effective
bench player for the Rockets as a second round pick. He's Joe Johnson,
basically. Of course, Joe was taken with the 10th pick and Morris in the
second round, but that's the Celtics for you...

--Can't Rudy T. dust off the playbook from the days of Hakeem and get Yao
Ming involved in that offense? I like Steve Francis and (to a much lesser
extent) Cuttino Mobley, but shouldn't Yao be getting the ball virtually
every time down the floor. As good a passer as he is, you'd think everything
would run through him. I have to hope Rudy T is just biding his time and
trying not to bruise any egos before handing that team over to Yao. What a
player.

--More scap heap guys from last night who would immediately replace everyone
on the Celtics' bench-Morris, Hawkins, Norris.

--The Celtics seem completely behind the curve in the NBA right now. The
trend is toward European players and a more European game-motion, passing,
etc. Instead, the Celtics dismiss the European influx as a fad and embrace
the worst of 1990s basketball-one-on-one isolation play. You just get the
feeling that the rest of the league is light years ahead of the Celtics. The
best teams more and more are built around movement, passing and good
shooting-Dallas, Sacramento, New Jersey, Indiana. Even Detroit is doing it
with much less talent (by emphasizing defense as well as balanced, unselfish
offense). That's why the right trade of one of the captains could be a good
thing. But it's finding the right trade that's difficult.

Wow, this turned into a much longer post than I'd planned.

Mark