Re: is there...

[CeltsSteve@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 11/7/03 8:18:52 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
kkv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

> >
> >And you/we know for a fact that O'Brien specifically called Pierce's number 
> >every time down the court during that stretch and it definitely wasn't a 
> case >of Pierce deciding he would try to take over and do it on his own?
> 
> No, I don't know that for a fact. But from the second quarter on, they 
> seemed to abruptly change their tack and start going to Pierce seemingly every 
> time. I have trouble believing that Pierce would suddenly become an Antoine 
> clone after playing very unselfish basketball this season (for the most part). It 
> seemed to be a conscious decision by the robotic 
> Obie to exploit some mismatch that his statware told him existed on the 
> floor (like, "Pierce scores 64% of the time while being guarded by Brandon 
> Armstrong"). Perhaps Pierce was complicit in it as well, but I really doubt he went 
> off on his own like that. 


Antoine is gone now so I don't see the relevance of trying to blame him for 
Pierce's failures tonight. And I don't doubt for one minute that Pierce isn't 
capable of thinking that he is the Man or that he now needs to be the Man and 
try to take over a game. The other night in NO he did the same thing when he 
got caught up in a mano a mano duel with his homeboy BDiddy.



> Tommy was criticizing it as well, and he should know what's going on as 
> they sit right there. To not exploit a weakened NJ frontline and waste Kedrick's 
> and Marcus's career games...only Obie and Isiah Thomas are capable of 
> that.We're never going to have a passing/running offense as long as Obie is coach, 
> unless the players ignore him like the bumbling idiot that he is. Kestas


Coaches coach. Players play. O'Brien had nothing to do with Pierce's failure 
to execute and him committing three critical TO's at crunch time. I'm not 
suggesting he coached a perfect game and your disdain for him is well documented 
but I'm sorry, you can't pin this loss on O'Brien.                
    
CeltsSteve