POST GAME WASHINGTON

My suggestion is put this game in a burlap sack, weight it down with a pair of Shaq's sneakers walk down to the end of LONG WHARF and drop it into Boston Harbor without any tea party!

Games like this as was in Cleveland, game #2 that can come to haunt us come April and the Finals!

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PS Ray lost this one with a poor dunk vs clear lay up.....Don't feel too bad as he's won more games then he has lost!

112288

27 second half points says it all.

Bummer, but momma said there'd be nights like this...there'd be nights like this...there'd be nights like this.

At least the Spurs lost too and that keeps us within 3 games in the loss column for best overall record.

Shot 58% first half (22-38) and 29% in the second half (12 for 41).

Second half shooting:

Rondo: 2 for 6
Allen: 2 for 8
Erden: 1 for 3
Garnett: 3 for 6
Pierce: 1 for 7
Davis: 1 for 4
Daniels: 0 for 1
Nate: 2 for 5
Wafer: 0 for 1

16 free throw attempts first half, 2 free throw attempts second half.

I didn't watch this game, I had other plans (more important than watching the Celtics? Blasphemy!), but playing down to your competition is dangerous since all they need to do is to rise to their competition a bit to beat you.

Hi,
I guess they spent all the gas they had left after Jazz game in the 1st quarter and decided to coast to the end. Almost pulled it off.
Now comes the most dangerous opponent. I hope they've filled quota for Cavs already.
I don't blame RA for the dunk vs lay-up. If it went in it'd serve as a spark for the W. I think RA was aiming at it. Unfortunately he missed.
But let's look on the bright side. Out of 10 losses 5 were to the teams with winning records. I'll take an above .75 record at the end of the season as long as the first 9-10 players are healthy. The last but very important item - KG's spring is back. The one alley-oop I saw yesterday - spin from the defender, jump, dunk - all looked effortless and fluid.

AK

Not worth a second thought.

It happens....next.

Second night in a back-2-back. no length at Center to combat McGhee & Blatch (Wow! would Blatch be nice with the C's and the right attitude!) Semih was outmaned. Neither O'Neal and no Perk. Jermaine may never be right enough to give us SOMETHING! Celts should pay for snow and ice removal at Shaq's place so there's no more slip ups. I hate to say it but Sheed's return may be a necessity. By the way, can anyone believe how the Pistons are dissing poor Rip Hamilton?-MD. (Rip needs to wear is watch to get time, or go before the judge after commiting a crime)-LOL-MD.

you've all said it all.
to me, bottom line is we couldn't hit a barn door with a baseball in the 2nd half. awful, awful stuff. steve's 2nd half scoring chart tells the tale.

yet amazingly, we were still in it close to the end, somehow. but when you're THAT cold - and it wasn't great D that did us in, we got our looks, it looked to me like a contagious team wide shooting slump - well, you just cannot win a game like that.

NEXT !!!!!!!!!

We had games like this every once in a while last season. Usually on a B2B. There will be times when all the stars align and none of them can throw it in the ocean. PP had his shot to win it, although I thought his spot was on the right elbow, not the left. Also, we won't see WSH in the playoffs. John Wall needs to chill it a little post game. They were lucky PP's shot fell in the 10% of misses if he shot that same shot nine more times.

BTW, I hate to sound BDC-ish, but would Rip be a good, seamless fit here in the next month before trade deadline?

Rip might work here, i think, but the Melo trade rumors still swirl, and in Denver, there's hints that Rip may be caught up in all that before it's over. (what a mess !! )

bigpygme wrote:Rip might work here, i think, but the Melo trade rumors still swirl, and in Denver, there's hints that Rip may be caught up in all that before it's over. (what a mess !! )

Hi,
Sure, Rip in green sounds nice but what will DA have to give to get him? Plus, what is he going to do strapped with all that money?

AK

Rip's already strapped into a mask. Why would he worry about being strapped with all that money? lol.

BTW, what is everyone's best guess what Danny will do before the trade deadline? Also, the trade deadline and the having your final playoff roster set are not the same date, correct?

NOTHING as of now.

Appears that the health issues are going to be there for some all along the way, biggest concern is JO. With SO behind him. Perk and West should be fine once they return. Hopefully Perk can work his way back into reasonable basketball shape quickly.

beat

Dbrown,
I think you're correct re: trade deadline and playoffs roster.

Beat,
Is SO = Shaq? I suspect that all the fuss about ice and hip is just to give the old man time to rest. There, probably, will be one more "intermission" at the end of March.

AK

sinus

Yeah Shaq was the SO I was refering too. funny but he looked pretty good to the folks in row 1 going after the loose ball.

Would like to get teh best record but our health comes above all else. If we can achieve health and best record...........WOW!

Sometimes the best moves are not making one in the first place.

beat

Does anyone think we are overlooking CLE tonight given everything that follows in the next two weeks for us schedule-wise?

This was us 4 years ago. The Celtics finally won a game after losing, what, 17-18 in a row? I'm sure Doc will alert them to this.

This on the C's bog about Cleveland

Mark as SpamReport as AbuseCeltics Blog LBJ, Shaq, West, & Big Z accounted for 57.9 pts per game last year - add in the injured Mo and Andy V and that's 82.3 ppg missing this year

82.3 ppg ....................whew more than James left or are not playing! But we still need to take care of business!

Losing this one WILL not be an option.

beat

Sam,

I just had a thought or two on the assist to baskets scored stat. I know when we see it in and around the 60% range or greater, we imply that everyone is getting involved, passing, etc. And for us, in most cases this implies victory. This season the heavy dish man is Rondo, obviously. Also, an assist in bball is not like hockey where sometimes they will credit two people with an assist on the same goal.

I tend to think of an assist as an "easier" basket than say a PP Iso since hopefully the passer is putting the ball in the right place for the scorer to score. I may be wrong here but you start seeing enough RA threes from the corner off a RR pass and it does look a lot easier.

I guess what I'm asking is is there more to the assist that we should be considering. One pass to set up a score/basket doesn't seem to tell the whole story. The stat line does show who and how many assists came from a particular person, but wouldn't we get more of an idea from involvement looking at the distribution sans RR (in our case)? And is there any meaningful (cumulative) stat that would show that versus other teams?

If we had RR with 13 and no one else with assists, I would call that not so good a night. But if we saw RR with 13 and most everyone else with 2-3 spread evenly, I would say everyone was involved and touching the ball and we would probably win that game going away.

For me, the true definition of Celtic team basketball would include everyone getting involved. RR knows his job is to put people in position to score. His numbers are always going to be off the chart. But the rest of the team also puts others in a position to score via assisting and how evenly and seamlessly they do that would seem to imply another indicator of success (aka victory).

dbrow

Sometimes me thinks you think to much!

Think your above reasoning is WHY we are shooting the ball at the rate we are close to if not leading the league in field goal %. I haven't got the time or the patience to check it out but I'm willing to venture the teams with the lowest shooting %'s are also the teams with low assists total. Onlystands to reason.

there go check that out.

beat

D, I'm not certain that I fully understand your question, but it appears that you're focusing on how well the job of distributing the ball is shared by the whole team rather than being concentrated largely in one person.

In my eyes, the ideal approach to the game makes each player a role player. Not in the sense that some people view role players as secondary or complementary players. I mean that each player has one or two "specialty" strengths (playmaking, rebounding, setting picks, pushing the ball upcourt, scoring, defensive stopper, spacing the floor, etc.) plus secondary abilities to call upon when needed.

Factors such as flow and matchups in any given game will dictate to what extent a player focuses mainly on his specialty versus utilizing his secondary skills. For example, in Game 1, it might be most effective for Rondo to feed Paul and Ray all evening long so they can capitalize on favorable matchups in the scoring department. In Game 2, Kobe might be cheating off Rondo and into the passing lanes, so it might be more appropriate for Rondo to swing the ball to Paul and KG so they can become more prominent than usual in setting up teammates while Rondo tries a few jumpers to determine whether he can force Kobe play him more "honestly."

In other words, I don't think there's any set formula as to whether it's preferable for assists to be spread among the many or concentrated among the few. It's all situational. All things being equal (which they seldom are), I'd prefer to have the specialists focusing on their areas of specialty while also chipping in elsewhere when appropriate.

In general, the Celtics do seem to thrive on an above-average incidence of assists, averaging assists on 64% of their field goals compared to 54% for the Heat and Magic, 57% for the Lakers, and 60% for the Spurs.

I may have run off at the mouth without really answering your question. If so, I'll try harder if you'll cue me about a proper direction to take.

By the way, in Cousy's last season (1962-63), the Celtics assisted on only 52% of their field goals compared with 64% this season. Yet I believe the earlier team was easily the better passing team (including two future hall-of-fame PGs) than the current team. The reason for the discrepancy between then andnow? In those days, if a player took a dribble after receiving a pass and then scored, the passer was not credited with an assist.

Sam