Celtics Stat of the Day, 12/27/09

Last night, I thought there were two turning points demonstrating the lack of Celtics killer instinct against the Clippers.

The Celtics led by 10 (60-50) in the third quarter and appeared to be on the road to putting it away.

Here's what happened during their next 15 possessions:

4 layup attempts (that's good)
2 possessions eventuating in free throws
3 jumper attempts
3 three-point attempts
3 turnovers

The Celtics led (for the last time) by 5 points (73-69) in the fourth quarter, and a reasonable degree of poise could have put it away.

Here's what happened during their next 8 possessions:

0 layup attempts (that's bad)
1 possession that eventuated in Rondo's free throw attempts
4 jumper attempts
1 three-point attempt
1 turnover
1 technical foul

In other words, assuming the free throw attempts resulted from inside moves, 7 out of 23 possessions that could have helped put the game away involved inside moves.

Sam

Sam,
I'll try not to beat this to death but this team lacks consistency & knowing how to put teams away or pull wins out of the fire. They must improve in these areas or will not win it all. I'm optimistic that they can get it done. They just aren't there yet. We can't really know how this will all play out until all hands are on deck.
As I said last night, I wouldn't have wanted to be on THAT plane last night...It was not a happy place...Fortunately it was a short flight. LACELT

Sam

one stat that jumps out at me is the foul shot attempts

for comarison looked at a couple of other teams losing efforts last eve and saw Indiana had 44 attemps.

Yeah PP does get to the line a lot for us and TA played well BUT we need to get to the line and getting inside shots is probably the best way.

Allowed only 4 offensive boards too.

BB is looking better and his minutes should increase.

No loss is a good loss but we did do many things good. Just not for long enough periods of time.