Rims too tight in Manchester?

It never occurred to me, but Tommy was on to something when he wondered if there was a breeze affecting shots in Manchester last night.

Somebody on Celticsblog said they thought the rims were way too tight, and unless it swished, the ball was going to rattle out. The person said they noticed it early in the game.

Looking at the team shooting %, I think that was probably the case.

Even from the FT line, the two teams combined for about 52%. About 16% from 3. And the teams combined for about 33% from the field.

I think that the poor shooting was more due to the fact that this was the last exhibition game of the preseason for both teams so the upper level concentration was just not in the house for either team.

Both squads are tired of exhibition games, they know that their rosters and rotations have been pretty well determined, no body wanted to get injured, the coaches played tons of guys, etc, etc, etc pretty much just to get the game over with.

This game might have been a statement to the NBA about the length of their preseason. The bad part is that the fans that went to this game probably do not feel that they got their money's worth.

I wonder how many other "last" exhibition games around the league resembled this game?

I thought I was watching a game from the mid to late 1950's. In 1957-58 the league averaged 101.9 fga per game, 61.7 rebs per game and shot at a .383 clip. Last night the Celts had 100 fga's, 67 rebs and shot .350. So last nights performance by the Celtics was pretty much the norm for the league during the entire 57-58 season.

swish