The Loss

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

Obviously, the Celtics can't blame the Antoine Walker 
injury for the way they allowed the Bucks offense to 
dictate the outcome. Boston did a great job boxing out 
against a soft team (4 offensive boards total for 
Milwaukee), but there were very few deflections and that 
sort of thing.

At .533, Milwaukee actually shot the ball better than the 
Wiz did against us in the 45-point blowout. And this 
looked all the more impressive because a high number of 
shots were actually challenged by Boston, and because 
they took and made (.500) a high number of treys. Both 
teams hit some amazing shots.

And what a fun NBA game for the average fan. There was 
very little sloppy play, with only 21 turnovers combined 
in the game (as well as 24 three-point swishes). 

Just to stay in that type of game, the Celtics needed 
great team and individual efforts (Bremer, Walt and 
Pierce). I thought Boston showed poise throughout, and 
were able to keep the Bucks from going on prolonged runs 
(as every opponent has done against us lately). 

The way the Bucks shot lights out, this could have easily 
been like the Wiz or Nets blowouts. Seriously, we hung in 
there as well as could be expected.

Walt looked like a far more polished and intelligent 
version of the "I love Waltah" from the opening month of 
the Pitino era, back when he was briefly up around 18 
points and 9 boards per game as a starter. If nothing 
else, that guy has as much stamina and energy as 
Havlicek. He never takes any plays off that I can see.

JR Bremer also hit five clean treys. I love that JR takes 
it all in stride, like he's been the 16ppg scorer in the 
league for the past ten years or so. He looks like a cool 
customer. You still see fantastic composure/poise, 
whenever they do a close up of him after a play.

Vin just never really got going, against a team without 
much size or toughness in the middle. Jason "Tea or" 
Caffey surprised me with his mobility and ball handling.

Turning to the "Kedrick watch", this all kind of reminds 
me of the Sundance Kid, in that Kedrick can't shoot 
straight unless he is moving. 

His catch-and-shoot is the worst on the team. 80% of his 
(non-alley-oop) baskets come off the dribble.

I know people want to bash Kedrick to get at Wallace. 
Last night he did play poorly, but he was again a human 
pogo stick.  

He twice stole rebounds by jumping over the guy in 
position. He bounced up from behind and picked it clean 
above the head of the guy. Once he came out of nowhere to 
do that, like spiderman.

Kedrick's slo-mo highlight moment last night was chasing 
Ray Allen around a series of picks to swallow up a jump 
shot attempt and start the fast break. 

That was notable because few NBA jumpshots get blocked. 
They might get deflected, but they don't get swallowed up 
like that. Ray Allen has a 40+ inch vertical and uses it 
on his jumper (which is why its a thing of beauty), but 
he hung a split-second too long and that's all Kedrick 
needed. 

Kedrick is still a project, but at the same time its 
pretty obvious why a team would draft him high. The guy 
can have a series of statistically bad games like last 
night and still take your breath away.

If he can make even 2 out of 10 standstill jumpshots from 
now on, that would probably be a shocking improvement. 
His mechanics fall apart on standstill 24-foot shots. He 
doesn't even look like a competent shooter.

It would not surprise me if Tommy H. was on to something 
about Kedrick's range. This year, Kedrick should dribble 
in along the baseline and take the hanging 18-footer.

Reggie Lewis used to kill teams with that shot. Get the 
defender on his heel and then hang and shoot. I think if 
you rolled back the tapes, Kedrick has made 4 out of 5 of 
his last moving jumpshot attempts.

Maybe by next season, he'll add that 3-point range. What 
Kedrick really needs is 82 games of uninterrupted good 
health. To me this is no longer a waiting for Godot 
situation.

I think Kedrick is just getting started. I personally 
doubt Chris Wallace would toss him into a February trade 
package with Shammond, like he did with Joe Forte in the 
Kenny Anderson trade.



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