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Great basketball game at the Garden last night. Sure, I'm a little upset that the Celtics lost, but hey, you can't win 'em all. It was the WAY they lost that has me doing what I do best...questioning Doc Rivers and his team's common sense.
First of all, what do you do when the score is tied and you have the ball with 5-seconds left? Answer: take a shot at the buzzer so the other team doesn't get the ball back. It's Basketball 101. Now granted, Paul Pierce should know better than to shoot the ball so quickly, but what the heck was designed in the huddle? Sure looks like the play was for Pierce. Why? He was the one guy having an awful shooting night. No play for Kevin Garnett or Ray Allen, who was smoking hot? And you don't inbounds the ball on the side where a guy can get easily trapped. But we'll give Doc a pass on that one and blame Pierce for shooting so quickly.
What I can't forgive is this man-crush on Tony Allen. The guy has the basketball IQ of a piece of luggage, and yet Coach Rivers keeps putting him in position to fail. Do you really want the guy who wrecked his knee dunking 3-seconds after a ref's whistle guarding Chauncey Billups on the game's final play? True to form, mensa Allen went for a pump fake 20-feet from the basket and fouled Billups with 0.1 remaining on the clock. Game over!
Pardon the sarcasm, but my main concern this year is what happens when this team needs to make smart decisions come crunch time, both on the floor and on the bench. Last night did nothing to calm my fears.
That's the view from here...how do you see it?
Totally agree with you on this one Panos. But don't be so hard on T. Allen. Yeah he is an idiot, but Doc is responsible for molding him into the idiot he is today. I don't know what to say about Peirce pulling the trigger too quickly. Again, I agree that that is also a reflection of poor coaching. But hey, I guess if the players can have a bad night then the coach can be off too. Let's not overreact and assume all close games will be blown in the future because of poor coaching. Cmon, settle down Teddy.
Agree completely on both plays.
While both are bad, the Tony Allen one was HORRIBLE. What in the world is the guy doing fouling? Sure- Billups may have made that shot (but I doubt it) but if you foul a guy like that with 0.1 you're beaten for sure - if you take your chances on the shot possibly missing then at least you move on to O.T.
Maybe this is the problem with the WAY the Celtics have been winning? I can count on one hand the number of actual close games into the 4th quarter that the Green have played. Need to develop *SOME* strategy so that you know what your bread-and-butter play(s) are at crunch time, who your "money" defenders are, etc. That sort of game is about all that would happen in the playoffs so if the C's are to do some damage there they need to correct this sort of thing, pronto. Maybe they still need an additional veteran brought in around the trading deadline to inject some smarts and crunch-time basketball into this team?
Boisver, an additional veteran? Who do you suggest? Our three stars are all seasoned veterans, Eddie House off the bench is considered a veteran, I guess...The only young players that even get minutes are Perkins, and the occasional Fat...I mean BIG BABY appearance. The thing is none of our "veterans" are proven winners. None of them have gone very deep in the playoffs and been involved in tight games. Robert Horrys and Bruce Bowens win championships.
Robert Horry's and Bruce Bowen's win Championships? Are you kidding me, lets build a team with a few of those guys, and see how far they get in the playoffs. They are role players, well Bruce Bowen to me is more, but Horry is nothing more. Yes Horry has made some big shots, but if it wasn't for the Kobe's, D-Wade's, or Tim Duncan's of the world, these role players would never have won a championship. Saying that they win championships are silly, but I do agree pretty much with what everything else you say.
The right name isn't coming to me but not looking for someone who would play a ton of minutes - just someone who can play great defense like a Bowen (no, the Spurs wouldn't trade *him* to the C's and I realize that). Wait 'til some teams are out of it and look for a guy who's in the last year or two of his deal that will fit under the cap and offer a 2nd rounder or something. Just someone to keep guys like Tony Allen from getting minutes in crunch time of a close game. In non-close games or prior to the 4th quarter he's fine...
Ken you obviously missed my sarcasm. I was just trying to make the point to our friend Mr. Boisver that we do have veteran leadership, not only that, we have all star caliber veteran leadership. Garnetts and Peirce caliber veterans wins championships, not Horry and Bowen type veterans. Those two guys are not all stars. And like you said without Shaqs, Hakeems, and Duncans, on their teams Horry and Bowen's veteran leadership is worthless. So we are in agreement. Please do not call me or my ideas silly again.