Celts to win Atlantic

[Kim Malo]

Yup, very entertaining  game to watch (except for the very loud idiot 
behind me who kept insisting they needed to get Tony out of there and 
have GMoney - who got schooled by Hughes's fakes, much less James - 
guard LeBron, in between insistence that Mike Brown was an idiot 
because he didn't make their entire offense a two man game between 
LeBron and Ilgauskas) and pity they lost. But they certainly belonged 
out there with Cleveland, which is more than you can say of a lot of 
their losses. Definitely encouraging.

That had to have been pretty close to a sell with most actually using 
the tickets. There weren't a lot of empty seats. It's been the same 
way the past several years, where there are a few high attendance 
games at the beginning, a noticeable drop off and then a pickup after 
the new year, and especially into the second half. Not saying they're 
exactly a hot ticket - I had some spares I ended up giving to charity 
because I was having trouble getting friends interested in going. But 
it's not exactly a new phenomenon that there's an early winter 
doldrums. And it's not like they've played well enough consistently 
enough to create a demand.

Anyway, they lost this one more on failure to stop Cleveland than on 
that last shot... or Tony's missed FT before that. I wouldn't have 
had Wally take that shot while he's been so off  either, but until 
they learn to stop someone vs trying to outshoot them, not going to 
say they "deserve" to win any game (responding to Gene's comment, not 
implying you said that, Mark). It is nice to see Delonte getting back 
toward his old self, although there was one very scary moment when he 
didn't even get up off the floor under the basket at the offensive 
end until after the play had already started at the other end.

And have they been sneaking Dick Harter in the back door? I know what 
his rebounding stats were, and yes, they were impressive, but way too 
many times Al wasn't even looking for the offensive rebound, just 
immediately heading the other way on defense. Really annoys me - when 
your team has been shooting in the 40% range you don't assume *any* 
shot is going in. I'll live with a mediocre shooting % so long as you 
pound the boards to get extra shots to make up for it.

Wish they'd gone to Al more consistently on offense in the 2nd half 
to take advantage of him and to try to get Ilgauskas in foul 
trouble.  By the time they did he was forcing it and out of rhythm. 
We are sooooo bad about feeding the hot hand when we have one.

Seeing him up close and in person, Gomes really does look like he's 
still hurting. He and Delonte are the two guys I am least worried 
about at least putting out effort and he looked like it was tough to 
move at times.

First time all year the crowd didn't boo Scal to death over a missed 
shot, I think. Either the crowd was completely amateur night (see 
above about the idiot behind me) or they're actually starting to get a clue.
Kim

At 04:11 PM 1/4/2007, Berry, Mark  S wrote:
>Theo is having back surgery and is officially out for the year, by the
>way.
>
>Last night's game was very encouraging and I continue to see some good
>things. They need to do it consistently. That's the challenge for young
>players. Anyway, Al is for real, Gerald is a mega-talent, and both
>Delonte and Telfair looked good last night. Good stuff.