re: Jersey

[Mark Piotrowski <markp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I guess I see the problem as a bit bigger than "who's gonna take the 
crunch time shot".  Has that ever been a problem with a scorer of 
Pierce's ability?  EVERYONE knew Bird, Jordan, Nique, et al, were 
getting the ball in crunch time and as often as not they ended up 
shooting the ball -- and as often as not making it (I'll always 
remember that story of Bird telling X McDaniel, "I'm getting the ball 
right here and shooting it", X said "I know" and Bird still comes out 
of the timeout gets the ball right there and hits the game winner).

The problem, IMO, is that too often *earlier* in the game (i.e. early 
in the 4th quarter), the offense became "OK get the ball to Paul" or 
more acurately FORCE the ball into Paul.  2 problems with this:

1.  When crunch time does come around, the Nets will just key in on 
Pierce -- which is exactly what they did.

2.  When crunch time rolls around there is no possibility of any other 
player either being "hot" or even in rythym -- like LaFrentz, who 
should be our 2nd option.

Its like in football -- you run the ball to set up the pass.  The 
Celtics need to get LaFrentz, Brown, Jones, Baker Battie involved and 
stay involved throughout the game to set up Pierce at the end of the 
game -- who SHOULD get the ball in crunch time.  But when he gets the 
ball I want him to be able to look to score OR get it to someone else 
if nothing is there.

The question I have is whose doing is this?  Is OBrien calling play 
after play to go to Pierce?  Or is it as Douglas suggests, the players 
not having the confidence?  I've always thought it was the former -- 
bad playcalling by Obrien since it seems too eerily similar to last 
year's offense.

A few other observations....

-  late in the game I was troubled by how often LaFrentz passed up 
shots.  I know he missed a few earlier (I only saw the 2nd half) but 
he's gotta keep taking them.  IMO, for us to go far in the playoffs 
he's gotta score 16-20 ppg.

-  i was glad Obrien left Banks in -- win or lose.  I expected him to 
yank him for James when the game got late, but I think being in there 
can only help Banks' game and confidence.  Banks was looking to push it 
which was nice.  On the play at the end when Pierce got stripped from 
behind you could see Banks calling for the outlet in great position in 
the replay.  And you gotta love him taking it to the hoop -- eventually 
as this team learns to play together that's going to create some 
wonderful dishes (a la Steve Nash) in the paint.  I know its only one 
game but coupled with the Detroit game, I think Banks is coming along 
nicely.

- what was with Brown?  did he realize its his last chance? did someone 
say something to him?  were things just going his way?  in the 3rd he 
simply went around Richard Jefferson on the baseline (a la Pierce) and 
Heinsohn was commenting he should do that several times a game -- can't 
agree more.  I guess my current thinking though is that Kedrick is just 
freakish athletically but will need more time than we have to become a 
basketball player.  You could sort of see that on the play where he got 
aroudn his man into the lane then jumped but, as Cousy noted, wasn't 
jumping to the rack but to get contact.  I wish they could just have 
someone go over fundamentals with him all day and night.  I guess we 
also have to remember that he's like 21 or 22.  We'll see.

(the other) mark

> > Frederick Hurley wrote:
> >
> > My thinking on this is that perhaps Pierce feels like he is the only 
> > one on the team who has a lot of "crunch time" experience, at least 
> > over the last few seasons. With Kenny Andersonlong gone, and now 
> > Antoine, it wouldn't be unexpected for Pierce to feel a little more 
> > pressure to make ALL the big shots. If you were a veteran, would you 
> > particularly trust that Kedrick, Banks, Battie, et al are better at 
> > making a big shot than you? Maybe Baker would be an obvious #2 option 
> > down the stretch, but he has a couple more months of this type of 
> > play before he begins to really regain some stature as a big-time 
> > player. Perhaps as he further establishes his role as the #2 guy, and 
> > proves he really is back, the Paul will feel less pressure to try and 
> > shoulder the entire crunch-time load.
>
> On Nov 7, 2003, at 10:04 PM, Douglas342@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
> A small problem which will, I hope, go away, is the feeling near the 
> end
> of the game that I can sort of describe like this: "Wow, it's real 
> close, but
> it's nervous time, so I guess we better get it to Paul, our main man 
> who can
> save us." And Paul has his mantra too: "It's crunch time, and the guys 
> have
> played well, but this is what they pay me for, so bring it on." He 
> then tried
> to dribble up the floor and gets stripped. End of game.
> I knew that this season, or at least the first part of it, would be a
> step backwards. I still like what I see overall. This was, despite the 
> result,
> a tremendously entertaining game .