The missing piece (this season) is a point guard

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'll get back to the point guard thing... First, some thoughts on last
night.

I absolutely love the way they're playing. They're working hard, moving
without the ball, finding the open man, looking inside first. It's beautiful
basketball to watch. 

Pierce... He's playing great. Antoine believed any shot he took was better
than a shot from someone like Tony Battie or Eric Williams. Pierce believes
an open shot is better than a challenged shot. It's great to see.

Kedrick... Very disappointing. I don't agree that he was down about the
fouls. He looked down about missing his first two shots. He hung his head as
soon as he missed his second shot and didn't come up with the offensive
rebound. That's not a good sign. 

Baker... What can I say? He was great. He took good shots, passed well,
defended well and ran the floor. I'm stunned by Vin Baker.

Blount... Who was that guy? He still needs to rebound more, and Cousy was
the first guy to really nail Blount's problem (he doesn't react quickly
enough to things), but who knew he could pass like that? 

EWill... He's playing better than he ever has. If he keeps this up, that
expiring contract becomes even more valuable. As important as he seems right
now, will things change when Jumaine Jones (Ainge's guy) gets healthy?

Battie... He's great to have around. It sounds like he's being shopped for a
point guard, but I hope Ainge is careful. An expiring contract isn't a good
enough reason to dump him right now. I'd at least wait until midseason and
hope Perkins could assume some of Battie's minutes at that point.

Lafrentz... Rock solid. He knows what his game is and he sticks to that. I'm
not sure he plays "Celtic hard" yet. Most of the guys on this team play
ridiculously hard compared to many other NBA teams. Not sure Raef is at
their level yet. If he gets there, he'll really be a force.

Walter... He's a square peg in a round hole on this team. He just doesn't
seem to fit like the other guys.

Now, the point guards... This remains the glaring weakness on this team.
Mike James is a backup on 90 percent of the teams in the NBA. He doesn't
have any point guard instincts and looks for his own shot (which isn't very
good) far too much. He pushes the ball up the floor, but really doesn't know
what to do with it when he gets there. The six assists amazed me. I don't
remember them. As for Banks, there's a LOOONNNNG way to go. I'm not just
talking about his lousy shooting. He made every wrong decision with the ball
last night. He made the wrong pass, took the wrong shots, dribbled to the
wrong places... He just didn't look like a point guard yet. The most glaring
example was a 3-on-2 when he had someone (Pierce?) open on the right wing
for what looked like a dunk, but Banks kept it himself and committed an
offensive foul while throwing up an awkward shot. Everyone else on the team
is moving the ball and finding the open man. But the POINT GUARDS aren't.
That's worrisome. I thought Cousy was dead-on in his analysis of those guys.
Anyway, I'm definitely not giving up on Banks. I think he'll be fine, but
it's not going to happen as soon as we'd hoped. Eventually, Banks starting
with James coming off the bench should be a nice combo. But it's not working
right now. As I mentioned above, rumors have the Celts shopping Battie for a
point guard. I'm not sure that's the best answer, but it explains the Brevin
Knight rumor. Knight not only would give them a true playmaker (admittedly,
an injury-prone one), he'd give them an expiring contract so that next
season Banks is free to take the starting job. Jeff McInnis is another name
linked to the C's. I think the perception out there is McInnis is better
than Knight, but I'm not so sure about that. McInnis is the better shooter
and scorer, but he's not the playmaker Knight is. We'll see how it plays
out.

Now, some positive general observations because I didn't want to end on a
negative... The Celtics have gone from one of the worst shot-blocking teams
in the league to, maybe, one of the best. All four big guys can move
laterally and block shots from the weak side. That's the biggest improvement
in what we already knew was a good defense. Blount and Lafrentz, especially,
seem like natural shot-blockers. These guys really discourage penetration -
they close on the ball quickly and challenge every shot. Antoine couldn't do
that. ... I thought Obie did a great job managing the rotations yesterday.
Everything seemed to flow and it always felt like a good combination out
there. Having said that, I have been thinking the big-man combinations
seemed just a little odd. Baker and Blount are playing together a lot, and
Battie and Lafrentz are playing together a lot. Going into last night's
game, it seemed to me the two best high-post players (Battie and Lafrentz)
were playing together, while the two best low-post players (Blount and
Baker) were playing together. Seemed a little strange. But then Blount put
on that passing display and I realized Obie had seen something in Blount I
never knew was there. Like Kestas, I'm not sure I buy Obie's story that he
always wanted to install more of a passing game but didn't have the depth...
But whatever the reason for the change, it's great to see.

Mark