Celts run out of gas: Green stall in loss to lowly Bulls

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Celts run out of gas: Green stall in loss to lowly Bulls
By Steve Bulpett
Thursday, November 13, 2003

The Celtics paid homage to former president Calvin Coolidge last night. They
were the embodiment of his famous quote, ``I do not choose to run.''

     For a new collection designed to share the ball and get out on the break,
that's essentially choosing to lose - which the Celts most ingloriously did to
the Bulls, 89-82.

     Jim O'Brien began by giving credit to Chicago, a spring resident of
Secaucus and the draft lottery since 1999, but the numbers were just too
insulting to bear after the hours and days and weeks spent on doing things
differently.

     ``The fact that we didn't have a fast-break point is our doing,'' he
said. ``Missed foul shots (nine in 27 attempts) are our doing.''

     The Celts were also a wicked 32.9 percent from the floor, but O'Brien
said, ``I don't really concern myself about missed shots. I concern myself
about defense and tempo, and we didn't play with any tempo to our offensive
game. We didn't push ourselves. We didn't endure on back-to-back games.

     ``When we got down the other end, we chose to stand instead of move
without the basketball. And I think in the NBA that I know of - in the last
three years and the way it's going - if you stand, you lose on offense. You
have to move, you have to screen.''

     And, OK, you have to get games like this.

     The Celtics followed the thrill of a road victory against the Pacers with
the agony of a home defeat against a team that should not be on their level.

     ``This is definitely disappointing,'' said Paul Pierce [news], who
extracted groans from the crowd with his 4-for-15 shooting (14 points) and
seven turnovers. ``When you beat the best team in the Eastern Conference and
then come back and lose, not to a bad team but a team that we should beat at
home. . . .

     ``We just didn't show the mental toughness on back-to-back nights to get
it done. We didn't move the ball. We didn't cut. We stood a lot and watched
each other play one-on-one basketball. It's very frustrating. We just didn't
play the type of basketball we know we can play. This is a game that really
hurts. It's like winning (Tuesday) night didn't really mean anything.''

     Still the Celtics seemed poised to steal this one. Down 11 with nine
minutes left, they went on a 10-2 run. Moments later, after Mike James [news]'
sixth trey of the night, they were within a mere deuce.

     But over the evening's last 4:12, the Celts scored just four points - two
on meaningless free throws with 18 seconds left.

     Adding insult to insult, Jalen Rose made with the Walker Wiggle when he
went to the line for the last of his 20 points with 33 seconds to go.

     The Celts had little wiggle in their walk, but O'Brien wasn't buying any
correlation to his club's third game in four nights. Not even the back-to-back
set.

     ``I sure as hell hope not,'' he said. ``If our guys can't play
back-to-back games, then that means there are (17) games that we're going to
lose because we have (17) sets of back-to-back games. You've got to play
basketball.''

     Better basketball. Smarter basketball.

     Pierce was criticized last week for trying to take over games personally,
but even though he had some tough-looking attempts from the floor last night,
much was the result of an overall breakdown.

     And there was some nasty deja vu in the fact the Celts launched 27 treys
(making eight).

     ``A lot of those were unselfishness on Paul's part to pass the
basketball,'' O'Brien said, ``but that's not the type of offense, frankly,
that we want to play for as many possessions as we played it tonight.''

     Said Pierce, ``With the type of team we have, we can't afford to just
stand around and hope I'm able to drive or make something happen. I mean, most
teams are going to play me with two or three guys, and we've got to do a
better job of moving, cutting, making the extra passes.''

     The Celtics didn't last night, but O'Brien assured the errors were
correctable.

     ``We didn't stand around for the first seven games of the season,'' he
said. ``We moved.''
Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx