Day late, Glen Rivers short

[Eric Albert]

>"keltsfan" <keltsfan at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>This game was lost because Pierce made poor decision and generally didn't
>play well, Rondo couldn't defend Billups when it mattered most,  Glen Davis
>played like a rookie and Perkins cement laden legs were a liability.  If
>Rivers should take responsibility for all that, well then I guess he's to
>blame. 

I think this game was great! The Pistons played flawlessly, hitting one
contested 3-point play after another. The Celtics were obviously pressing:
missing free throws, missing layups, making unforced turnovers. And STILL
the C's could easily have won this game.

In fact, I felt the C's played a much stronger game overall. We shot 49%;
they shot 40%. We outrebounded them. We had 32 points in the paint;
they had 18.

19 times out of 20, you win *easily* with those stats. The Pistons didn't
outthink us, they didn't outdefend us -- they won by hitting 45% of their
twenty 3-point shots (the most they've hit all year) to our 29%, and by
hitting 87% of their free throws to our 62%.

The Celtics are a great 3-point shooting team, they're the best in the
league at defending against the 3, and they're a good free-throw
shooting team. They just got a little rattled this game. But they won't
keep being rattled.

Maybe Doc isn't the top guy at calling end-of-game plays. But he's got
this team playing so well that it rarely matters. Most games, including
future games against the Pistons, we're not going to need last-second
plays -- it won't even be close.

This team can be proud of how they played tonight, and they're going to
be fine in the future.

-- Eric