Ainge, O'Brien talk tough: Echo Pierce on `soft' C's

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ainge, O'Brien talk tough: Echo Pierce on `soft' C's
By Steve Bulpett
Wednesday, November 26, 2003

In the wake of Paul Pierce [news] calling the Celtics ``one of the more soft
teams in the league'' and openly questioning the squad's toughness, Danny
Ainge pondered the value of the challenge - and then added a fresh slap of his
own.

     ``Honestly I don't know if it's good or not,'' Ainge said. ``But it's
true.

     ``I've always believed you have to be instigators and not retaliators,
and I'm not even sure we're retaliators. We've got to get tougher. I would say
smarter and tougher. To me, it's not like it's all physical softness -
although there's some of that. To me it's mental. It's a state of mind. It's a
confidence level. I believe the desire is there, but it takes more than desire
to win.

     ``When things aren't going well - when the momentum isn't going our way -
that's my biggest disappointment,'' added the C's director of basketball
operations. ``That's where toughness comes in. When the momentum's going the
other way, our defense becomes worse. We become more passive and tentative
instead of becoming more intense and more aggressive.''

     After running through a practice in preparation for tonight's game in
Orlando, Jim O'Brien said he didn't mind Pierce speaking out. The toughness
issue, he added, is obvious.

     ``I have no objection to what Paul said in the paper,'' the coach said.
``He's our captain. And I know Paul never excludes himself when he's talking
about the team. He wasn't talking about those guys, he's talking about us
guys. And right now, clearly we are not as mentally tough as we need to be.

     ``I don't think it takes a real intelligent person to figure out that if
we were as tough as nails mentally we would not go through lulls in the game
that see us get outscored 34-12 in the third quarter (against the Knicks
Monday). So that's an issue.

     ``You're not looking for guys that chew nails. You're looking for guys
who execute the defensive game plan every time. That's mental toughness. You
get what you're supposed to do done when you're on the basketball court. No
ifs, ands or buts, no excuses, no `He didn't get it done.' You get your job
done. That's mental toughness.''

     The Celtics have shown great capacity to run their plan at both ends of
the floor. Building leads has not been a problem. Withstanding another team's
run has. The Celts have lost four straight games in which they had ample
opportunity to put their foot down and claim victory. But lapses in rebounding
and in ball movement - among others - have cost them.

     ``You've got to challenge yourself,'' Eric Williams said. ``You've got to
be able to look in the mirror. You've got to be able to understand that if you
don't put in all the effort that's supposed to be put in with the team that
we've got, we're going to come out on the short end of the stick.

     ``Right now we've just got to go in there, re-evaluate our mental
toughness and come out there and compete. That's what this thing is all about
now. I'm hoping our young team isn't falling victim to feeling bad about
losing that 17-point lead in New York (Nov. 17 to start the skid). You can't
feel sorry about yourself in this league. There's always another game to be
played.''
Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx