Re: Majordomo results and other thoughts

[Tammo29@xxxxxxx]

>One more point. The Nets still have a chip on their shoulder. They still 
feel as >though the Celtics think they are a better teams and that the recent 
beatings are a >fluke. You could tell that from Martin's comments after the 
game as well as other >comments the Nets have made. The thing is, they are 
right. The Celts DO think >they are a much better team. They DO think these 
recent wins are flukey. You >could tell that in Pierces comments after the 
game ("guys over there are just >playing over their heads"). - Shawn Niles



First of all, wrong guy.
Here are the quotes from Pierce and Walker after the game:  

****Pierce/Herald
``We're playing into their hands,'' Pierce said. ``We're not executing 
our game plan. For some reason they have our number. We turn the ball 
over when we play them an extreme number of times. They run the fast 
break; we don't get back for some reason. We know the things that hurt 
us against them and we continue to let them do it.'' 

``We're not forcing things on defense like we did a year ago,'' Pierce 
said. ``They're just attacking, attacking us and they're not afraid to 
take the ball to the hoop. A year ago teams were afraid to take 
the ball to the hoop, now they feel like they can take it any time they 
want.

``Somewhere between now and when the playoffs start, it can't be that 
way. We're going to have to get it together.''


****Walker/ Herald:
``For some apparent reason, when we play this team we turn the 
basketball over. We do things that are uncharacteristic of ourself. We 
beat them 3-1 last year in the season, and it didn't mean anything. 
They went to the Finals (beating the Celts in six in the Eastern 
Conference finale). So we've just got to carry that mentality if we 
meet them in the playoffs. They dominated us this season through the 
regular season. Give them a lot of credit. They played well. I think a 
couple of their guys played over their heads when they played against 
us, making shots.''
    

    
Secondly, I have to disagree with the notion that the Celtics think they are 
the better team.  They probably felt that way going into last years playoffs.
They may even have felt that way to start this season.  But I don't think 
they still feel that way as a team.
At the same time, every team has to go into games thinking they CAN win no 
matter who they are going up against, how many times they've been beaten, or 
by how much.   Some of that may come out sounding like over confidence or 
arrogance.
  I would be angry if my team went in thinking they were beaten before the 
game even started. 


Game thoughts..........

* I don't think it should be glanced over that we were 1 of 21 between Delk, 
Bremer, Williams and McCarty.  You aren't going to be in many games with 
numbers like that.

** Paul is correct about our defense not be aggressive enough against the 
Nets.
We had three steals, two by Pierce and one by Delk, and one blocked shot, 
Pierce.  The Nets had 11 steals and 5 blocks spread out amongst 8 different 
players.
If other players on the court aren't going to score, we at least need them to 
play ferocious defense and hustle their butts off.  
I didn't see that from anyone other than Battie and that wasn't until the 
game was pretty much decided.

*** Scott tried early to play Pierce more straight up, only throwing doubles 
at him if he started to drive. It didn't work.  He then went back to throwing 
two and three defenders at him before he could even catch the ball.
O'Brien has still not figured out a way to deal with this and more and more 
coaches have decided it's the best way to beat this team.  It's especially 
effective when the rest of the team is shooting 31%.

****I'm really not sure what O'Brien was thinking defensively.  Long, Battie 
and Walter taking turns on Jefferson?  Antoine guarding Aaron Williams?  
Battie on Martin at times?  
He must not have the same high regard for Kedrick's defense as most Celtics 
fans do, since you would think Brown on Jefferson would have been an ideal 
matchup.

***** I know Tommy was screaming for Pierce to get down the court and post up 
before the defense could be set. The funny thing was when Tommy was doing all 
the screaming Paul was doing this consistently and not getting the ball.  One 
time early in the game Pierce was down there with Jefferson on his back and 
no one else within a mile.  Bremer was bringing the ball up on the same side 
of the court, got within about 12 feet, looked right at him and then for some 
unknown reason pulled the ball out and went to Antoine who was coming up on 
the other side of the court, only for Antoine to pull up and miss a three 
pointer.
Very disturbing since at the time Paul was having his way with the Nets 
defense.

TAM