Re: Utah game

[Kim Malo <kimmalo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:53 AM 3/25/2003 -0500, Berry, Mark  S wrote:
> The one concern in the wake of last night's game is the team's state of
> mind. Will they take the result as an encouraging step in the right
> direction, or will they look at it as wasted effort and not put out the same
> kind of energy tomorrow?
Actually that particular either/or doesn't concern me. The number of teams 
upcoming under .500 and the C's tendency to play down to perceived (not 
necessarily actual) level of competition concerns me. At bottom, that's 
what cost them Denver, because they realized their mistake too late and 
what talent Denver has matches up against one of our weaker areas with guys 
like Hilario.

> I'm too lazy to look at the numbers, but is Grant Long that much better on
> the boards than Walter? I don't sense it watching the games.
Then we're seeing something different. I don't know what the stats show and 
don't care enough to look them up either, but the big difference is Grant 
is one of the **very** few people on this team whose immediate instinct is 
always to go in for the board, paired with the bulk to be willing to bang a 
bit for it. Whether or not he actually gets all of them, at least he makes 
the effort and changes things slightly just by being in there 
banging.  Walter gets some rebounds, but not the same sort and doesn't GO 
for them as consistently.

That being said, yeah, we do lose some other things on the swap, but the 
banging and boards could play a big role in the playoffs where it's more 
half court, and I've wondered if Obie was looking towards getting some rust 
off him to make him more useful then vs just swapping minutes for the sake 
of doing so or even for the sake of thinking Long made us better now.

> I don't know if Bremer is regressing or if Obie is ruining him,
Sigh. Gotta love Celtics fans.
Kim