Celtics Hope Toughness Rubs Off On New Guys

By A. Sherrod Blakely
CSNNE.com

BOSTON — Nobody said this journey to Banner 18 for the Boston Celtics was going to be easy.

It certainly hasn't been lately for the Celtics, winners of two in a row despite trailing by double digits in both games.

The C's mini-winning streak has been fueled by the team's core group, getting it done with a high degree of toughness and grit that has to be on display in order to win this time of year.

Boston's core players get it.

The new guys?

Not so much.

Because of that, Boston's last two victories not only have helped pad the team's win total, but also serve as a teaching moment for the team's new additions.

"It was great for the new guys to see that," coach Doc Rivers said following the team's 96-86 win at New York. "There's a sense of urgency that everyone has to play with. We're getting there with the new guys. We're clearly not there yet."

Aside from Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic, the impact of Boston's post-trade deadline additions has been minimal the last two games.

Ray Allen is among the C's not worried about the newer Celtics finding their role and niche in the team's quest for another NBA title.

"If you've never been a part of a team like this, in contention to win a championship, you really don't know," Allen said. "It's the hardest thing you'll ever do in your life. We gotta make sure the new guys understand that. They're going to learn that real quick because the time is upon us."

To win a championship, there's a certain degree of toughness that the Celtics will need to display on a regular basis.

Boston's toughness can certainly be questioned now that their former enforcer, Kendrick Perkins, calls Oklahoma City home.

Rivers understands the void that now exists.

But a relatively healthy Shaquille O'Neal, whom we haven't seen much during the regular season, in the playoffs will certainly help the Celtics on that front.

In the meantime, the veterans will continue to show their newer teammates the Celtics way of doing things that players acknowledge involves being feisty at times.

We saw that in the Knicks game, in which Allen was bloodied after catching an elbow from Jarred Jeffries in his attempt at an offensive rebound, and Carmelo Anthony suffered an outpouring of blood as well when he was hit with an elbow by Rajon Rondo as both tried to corral a loose ball.

In addition to those incidents, Allen and Amar'e Stoudemire had a brief exchange at another point in the game that involved players from both teams being separated.

"We're a feisty team at the end of the day," Boston's Delonte West told CSNNE.com. "When we get away from that, we struggle. We shouldn't need a team to push us to get at what we're good at as a team."

From time to time, the Celtics do need a reminder as to what exactly is there identity.

Rivers did just that during halftime of Monday's win, telling his players that their play up to that point in the game was "soft."

It was the kind of stinging indictment that left the players with a choice: either man up and play better, or simply continue to get pushed around.

They chose the former, which led to their 50th victory of the season, equaling their win total from a year ago with 13 games remaining.

Kevin Garnett, whose intensity has at times gotten under the skin of opponents, said the team's toughness is a reflection of Rivers.

"Our coach teaches a certain style and we try to implement what he wants on the floor," Garnett said. "Doc, he preaches firm; he preaches owning your own space and those things. And when you're not around that or new to that, you just don't get that in one or two days, or one or two weeks or one or two months. It's something that he's going to drill in you. That's what training camp is for. That's what the time with each other is for, so that you understand that style and you adopt it."

Garnett added, "We are a firm basketball team. We're not out here trying to hurt nobody, but we play hard every night."

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Wasnt this the same clown who just questioned the teams toughness 3 days earlier?

“What y’all don’t understand is the feistiness is from our coach,’’ Garnett said. “Our coach teaches a certain style and we try to carry out what he wants on the floor.

“Doc [Rivers], he preaches firm. He preached owning your own space and those things, and when you are not around that and new to that, you just don’t get that in one or two days or one or two weeks. Or one or two months. It’s something he’s going to drill in you.

“We are a physical basketball team but we’re not promoting anything that’s dirty or over the top or extra. We just play firm basketball every night. We’re not out here trying to hurt nobody but we play very hard every night.’’

bob

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bob

Just thinking about Garnett and the intimidation and toughness, not sure that Doc needed to get this thru to him, think it was already there.

Although it's another sport, Garnett sort of remindes me of a namesake of yours. One Robert "Bob" Gibson. One of my favorite players to watch when I was a kid.

Gibson contemporary Dusty Baker received the following advice from Hank Aaron about facing Gibson: "'Don't dig in against Bob Gibson, he'll knock you down. He'd knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don't stare at him, don't smile at him, don't talk to him. He doesn't like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don't run too slow, don't run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don't charge the mound, because he's a Gold Glove boxer.' I'm like, 'Damn, what about my 17-game hitting streak?' That was the night it ended."

Gibson showed no mercy, even to players he liked. Gibson's closest friend on the Cardinals was first baseman Bill White, who was later traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. The first time White batted against Gibson as a Phillie, Gibson hit him on the arm with a fastball. Gibson was surly and brusque even with his teammates. When his catcher Tim McCarver went to the mound for a conference, Gibson brushed him off, saying "The only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it."

And did you know that he played a year with the Harlem Globtrotters before playing with the Cards.

He delayed his start with the organization for a year, playing basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters,[13] earning the nickname "Bullet" and becoming famous for backhanded dunks. Gibson continued to play basketball even after starting his career with the Cardinals, until Cardinals general manager Bing Devine offered Gibson four thousand dollars to quit playing basketball during baseball's off-season.

beat

Beat,

Though the two sports are about as different as you can get, it's a good comparison. I always thought Gibson and Russell had similarities in how they approached their games, though again baseball and basketball are so different. We had great pitchers on the Giants when I was a kid, but I considered Gibson the best. Seemed like he won every postseason game 1-0.

I didn't know that Gibson played on the Globetrotters. Thanks for that little tidbit.

Outside

beat wrote:bob

Just thinking about Garnett and the intimidation and toughness, not sure that Doc needed to get this thru to him, think it was already there.

Although it's another sport, Garnett sort of remindes me of a namesake of yours. One Robert "Bob" Gibson. One of my favorite players to watch when I was a kid.

Gibson contemporary Dusty Baker received the following advice from Hank Aaron about facing Gibson: "'Don't dig in against Bob Gibson, he'll knock you down. He'd knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don't stare at him, don't smile at him, don't talk to him. He doesn't like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don't run too slow, don't run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don't charge the mound, because he's a Gold Glove boxer.' I'm like, 'Damn, what about my 17-game hitting streak?' That was the night it ended."

Gibson showed no mercy, even to players he liked. Gibson's closest friend on the Cardinals was first baseman Bill White, who was later traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. The first time White batted against Gibson as a Phillie, Gibson hit him on the arm with a fastball. Gibson was surly and brusque even with his teammates. When his catcher Tim McCarver went to the mound for a conference, Gibson brushed him off, saying "The only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it."

And did you know that he played a year with the Harlem Globtrotters before playing with the Cards.

He delayed his start with the organization for a year, playing basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters,[13] earning the nickname "Bullet" and becoming famous for backhanded dunks. Gibson continued to play basketball even after starting his career with the Cardinals, until Cardinals general manager Bing Devine offered Gibson four thousand dollars to quit playing basketball during baseball's off-season.

beat

beat,

I don't think KG needed Doc to make him feisty. What Doc does for KG is provide him the license (cover?) to be as crazed as he wants to be without someone telling him to 'calm down'. Furthermore, I think this could be a secret (probably not 'the secret') as to why we were so successful in their first year together in 2008. KG saw in Doc a coach whose 'tude was a tough and demanding as his own, and that helped KG and Pierce (who had already bought into Doc) the combined mindset to get Ray Allen on the same page. Ray Allen had never been a stellar defender throughout his career. He had to expend his energies on the offensive end, since he was "the scorer" on his teams. That all changed when he came here and I'd be willing to bet that the embrace of one-time MVP, future HOFer and also recent newbie KG of Doc's (and Thib's) philosophy made a big difference. Ray is waaay too much of a team player to feel comfortable being the odd man out of a group consisting of the coach, KG and Pierce ESPECIALLY when the players are behind the coach 100%.

Yep, Bob Gibson was one mean MoFo. Mike Tyson with a blazing fastball, a desire to bite someone's ear off and pissed off as all hell that he's 60'6" away from anybody he can do it to. He was that era's Ty Cobb, a mean sonuvabitch that could back it up.

bob

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