Re: [Celtics' Stuff ] Isiah tells team: Play 4 quarters

[Celtic4Hire@xxxxxxx]

Hee Haw, Egghead. Isiah feeling the pressure. Isiah bankrupted the future to 
win now to make the local media happy.  If they can't make the playoffs now in 
the weak East and no options for growth potential on the team and capped out 
and no free agents to trade, it looks very bleak for the long term. Egghead, 
you got to watch the games if you are going to comment. You just can't pick up 
the media drivil and the supposed "inside" scoop. Sure hope you didn't get 
hurt in the stock market crash with that kind of thinking. Of course, there is 
still minimum contract Vin Baker who is going to save the team. Any other last 
hopes out there?

Two paths to attempted success, to GMs. Danny bucks the local media pressure 
to win now and protects the team from long term damage. Isiah buckles to local 
media and only looks short term. Danny takes the short term hit from the 
media while Isiah takes the bows for borrowing from the future to pay for the 
present, limited success. Night and Day and we aren't talking Brevin and Todd. The 
"insiders" aren't interested about what the Celtics will be in 2006 because 
that is boring. They need something to talk about now and winning games now. I 
know which horse I got picked....

DJessen33


<<       New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com 
       'Sorry' sight as Isiah
       tells team: Play 4 quarters 
       Mike Lupica
       Wednesday, March 17th, 2004 
 
       They had looked nothing like a playoff team for so much of this game 
against the Washington Wizards. Against a lottery team, the Knicks had played 
like a lottery team. There were times in the second quarter and in the fourth 
quarter when they did not play with enough effort, play as if this game, even 
against Washington, mattered as much as it did. 
       And that is unacceptable, especially with a team that has so much to 
prove to its fans, and itself. The Cavaliers had won and the Heat was winning 
and the 76ers were ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies in Memphis. Even in the CYO 
half of the Eastern Conference, nobody is going to hand the Knicks anything. 
And they can't keep trying to give games away with both hands. 
 
       They ended up getting the game. Then they heard about what Isiah 
Thomas thought of their effort last night, or lack thereof. They all heard it good 
from the boss, who made it clear once again that this is his show. Who expects 
you to compete the whole way, the way he did, not just at the end. 
 
       The locker room door stayed shut a long time, long past the league 
rules about such things, and when Isiah came through the double doors afterward, 
and was told about the league rules about opening the locker room door, he 
said, "I'm sorry." 
 
       After what was a sorry effort from the Knicks until the last minute of 
regulation and all five minutes of the overtime. 
 
       Isiah Thomas was asked then if he spoke to the team. 
 
       "I said hello to the team," he said. It sounded sarcastic. Then he 
apologized again and walked away. 
 
       Tim Thomas said Isiah Thomas spoke what he felt. Moochie Norris said 
they were all told they had to do better. They do. They had played like a 
lottery team. Against a lottery team. But at least they won the game. They didn't 
beat the Celtics last week. They didn't beat the 76ers last week. They could 
have won them both. Should have won them both. They didn't blow this one, give 
them that. First the Knicks heard it from Lenny Wilkens at halftime in 
Milwaukee. This time they heard it from the guy who runs the team. 
 
       "I told Lenny," Isiah said before this game, "that whatever he said in 
Milwaukee, keep saying it." 
 
       After the Knicks won, 114-110, in overtime, Wilkens said, "We have to 
learn to play hard the whole game." 
 
       "We just acted like we could show up and expect it to happen," Wilkens 
said. 
 
       The Knicks must be getting a little better. They are now discussed as 
losers even when they win. They get taken to the principal's office. 
 
       And they did win. They were down five points to the Wizards with 46 
seconds left. But then Tim Thomas (32 points), one of their few stars last 
night, made a huge three and Stephon Marbury got to the line and made two free 
throws. The Knicks were still alive. Trying to come back in the last minute 
against the Wizards the way they had come all the way back from 26points against the 
Bucks. Get the game, no matter who it's against. 
 
       Last week against the Celtics, a bad loss against another bad team, 
even if that team has been hot lately, Marbury stood outside and settled for a 
three-pointer when the Knicks were down two and the Knicks lost. And lost to 
the 76ers later in the week, another one they should have had. Now they had the 
ball with 6.2 seconds left, and it came to Marbury because the game has to be 
in his hands in a moment like this, even if he had blown that game against the 
Celtics. 
 
       He went to the basket this time. He went to the basket and drew the 
defense to him and threw up a floater that hit the rim and went high in the air 
and seemed as if it would go down. It did not. But there was Nazr Mohammed, 
Mohammed with his hops and his athleticism - the kind of player Isiah Thomas 
wants - to tip it home right before the buzzer. And then they got hot in 
overtime, even with Allan Houston long out of this game with a bruised quadriceps 
muscle. 
 
       The Knicks seemed ready to put the Wizards away in the second quarter. 
You can put bad teams away that early. The Wizards are a bad team and had 
lost six in a row before last night. The Knicks went 21-4 on them and got a 
10-point lead. 
 
       A lot of it had to do with Michael Sweetney, in ways that do not show 
up in the box score. He played interior defense when nobody else was doing 
that for the Knicks. He switched when nobody else was switching. He didn't seem 
afraid to put a body on Brendan Haywood and Kwame Brown. He played the game 
hard, with passion. On a night when the Knicks only did that occasionally. 
 
       "When I got here, I couldn't understand why (Sweetney) was in street 
clothes," Isiah Thomas was saying at courtside. 
 
       But then the Wizards made a big run at the end of the half and got the 
lead and what looked like a trap game for the Knicks all the way had turned 
into that exactly, all the way to the end. And then into the locker room. 
 
       "It wasn't just (Isiah)," Moochie Norris said. "As a team we said 
we've got to do better the rest of the way." 
 
       The Knicks came back last night. They did it against a bad team. It 
would have been the worst loss of the whole season. At least they showed some 
character at the end. Marbury, who ended up with 16points and 14 assists, went 
to the basket this time. Tim Thomas and Nazr Mohammed showed you why Isiah got 
them. 
 
       They don't ask you how you won at this time of year. They just ask you 
if you won. Even if you do get called to the principal's office afterward.  >>