Doc Rivers: Hard to Figure!

The guy gets fired several years ago from the Orlando Magic, and yet he keeps his home and family there. Now coaching Boston against the organization that fired him, he is unable to get his team motivated or prepared enough to close out the Magic. Maybe there's too much Magic for the Celts to deal with. Magic with the Lakers was hard to deal with, now Dwight Howard's Physical (Does he listen to Olivia Newton John) brand of Magic has the Celtics teetering on the ledge ready to do a Bruin-like toople akin to Humpty Dumpty. If I were Rivers, I's want to be as far away from Orlando as possible. You couldn't give me tickets to Disney World. Four straight close out games vs. the Magic dating back to last year and the C's can't seal the deal on any occasion. Davis and Daniels shouldn't play due to the concussions for their own safety. I think now it's evident that with no hard nosed enforcers like Posey and Powe off the bench, this year's team falls short of the '07-'08 title team. That team would know how to respond to Howard's intimidation. Howard's not doing anything Shaq hasn't done when he was in his prime. Looks like fumbling away game 4 will prove very costly for the Celtics. The fans, players, coaches and front office of the Celtics won't realize just how costly until just before midnight Sunday May 30th, after Game 7.

What Game 7 is that?

Please get a grip. One game at a time. One game at a time.

Make enough dire predictions in a year, and who knows? One of them might come true. Is that the objective? Why not support your team? It's worth a try.

Sam

If Perkins and Sheed can play we will be fine.

man what a night. I dont think i will be able to check in here...too busy. Bob heck if you would text me with any news about perk/ glen/ daniels/sheed I would preciate it.

Here's hopin we didnt lose our whole front line.

Sam, I still support the Celtics, and sorry for all the doom & gloom. What is happening to the team now is a combination of Katrina and a Sunami! THis happens to me every time things appear to be rosey (win the 1st 3 games) and I put on my green rose color glasses, something hits the fan (and it smells awful) and everything comes crashing down. Life may not be as pleasant looking at the dark side, but at least when or if something good happens you can be pleasantly surprised! As Chester Riley (William Bendix) would say, "What a revoltin' development this is!-MD

personally I'm pissed............

I could rant about a lot of stuff about the game but it would serve little purpose.
for once I'd love the refs to have balls enough to call a tech when an Orlando player reacts to a call!! Kinda makes me wonder............

I just hope the C's are just as steamed as I am. I just gotta believe they are. And with the crowd behind them I just cannot see us losing tomorrow night..........not no way, not no how!!

beat

beat wrote:personally I'm pissed............

I could rant about a lot of stuff about the game but it would serve little purpose.
for once I'd love the refs to have balls enough to call a tech when an Orlando player reacts to a call!! Kinda makes me wonder............

I just hope the C's are just as steamed as I am. I just gotta believe they are. And with the crowd behind them I just cannot see us losing tomorrow night..........not no way, not no how!!

beat

Kind of how they called a tech on Vince (game 2) for his reaction to an instant replay shown at the scorer's table, while walking away to the bench? Or not doing anything to Pierce after he shoved Redick after a foul in game 5? The reffing has been bad all series for both teams.

The shove by Pierce was not really obvious as a shove in gameplay.

Gonna have to download game 2 and look at the technical on Carter.

Nyce_1 wrote:

beat wrote:personally I'm pissed............

I could rant about a lot of stuff about the game but it would serve little purpose.
for once I'd love the refs to have balls enough to call a tech when an Orlando player reacts to a call!! Kinda makes me wonder............

I just hope the C's are just as steamed as I am. I just gotta believe they are. And with the crowd behind them I just cannot see us losing tomorrow night..........not no way, not no how!!

beat

Kind of how they called a tech on Vince (game 2) for his reaction to an instant replay shown at the scorer's table, while walking away to the bench? Or not doing anything to Pierce after he shoved Redick after a foul in game 5? The reffing has been bad all series for both teams.

Nyce,

I cannot argue with you on this point at all. Although I think criticism of the officials often amounts to a lot of whining, it has been truly bad in both directions.

Regards

I looked at Carters technical just now and although it is pretty picky I can see clear reasons for it..

The players are allowed a natural reaction to the play/call and are then supposed to walk away. Carters reaction came first on the play and then he walked away from the bench to see the replay at the scorers table.

After he watched the replay he had a reaction in what I am guessing to be the direction of the official hence getting Td up. His reaction did not come directly after the play.

MD,

I guess it would be nice if the Celtics just swept every series throughout every playoffs. But the essence of the playoffs is that they're supposed to pit the best against the best. A huge element of winning a championship involves dealing with adversity.

I think a lot of people admire the 11 championships won by the Russell Celtics—even if they didn't experience them personally. Do you know that, during those 11 playoffs, 44% of the series in which the Celtics participated (counting preliminaries and finals) went the limit?

That's 44% of the time when the fans had to suck it up, man up, and take a leap of faith for the team. The Celts were confronted with a wide variety of injuries and other obstacles (including advancing age). The commercial travel (sometimes by pro plane) was killer, and they often played two nights in a row (7 games in 12 days in one 1962 series I looked up).

The 2009-10 Celtics haven't yet been pushed to the limit in any series, and they aren't now. They've got the best possible medical treatment. They have at least a full day off between games. They travel comfortably. I believe they'll be well-prepared mentally for Game 6.

What has happened to large chunks of Celtics fandom? It seems that so many want guarantees. Where did leaps of faith give way to neuroses?

The fact is that fans go into battle more figuratively than players, but the basic parameters are similar. It's serious stuff, but either we have faith or we don't. It's for each of us to consider which it is. Equivocation is not an option for those who don't want to labeled bandwagoners in the best of worlds.

I don't know about anyone else, andI don't expect anything of anyone else, but I'm all in for the Celtics. I'll be delighted if they win Game 6 and will deal with it and get prepared for Game 7 if they don't. But there's absolutely no room for equivocation in my allegiance.

Sam

Guys I got to work a long assed day tomorrow and will miss the game and game on thread. I expect you all to pull them through. Regardless of the outcome this season has been one of the best for me cause of having all you hoop nuts to talk to. I really love this place and this team. Hers hopin for a win.

jeb

Pull up the Boston Herald and read the article by Ron Borges. I just wish this could happen, but Doc doesn't play that way. Myself, I go back to the days when there was always an enforcer on the team! He'd take the punishment and give double back out. What about you Sam? Louscy, Embry, Silas, and the best one was Kevin McHale, who would have ever thought he would do what he did to Rambis? I am so sick of Howard getting his way, it's time...

rosalie i posted that article on another thread. I think the refs should be given the chance to do their jobs when this punk swings his elbows the FIRST time. If they dont it's time to hurt him enough to get him off the floor before he REALLY hurts somebody.

As a sidenote, can the league suspend players for things that did not cause a blown whistle during the game?

I know in the Swedish soccer federation as an example they can not penalize a player for an infraction that was not included in the referees match report.

I would guess the NBA have more or less free hands though?

swede,

The NBA can and will review infractions after games even if the whistle isn't blown. If a player punches another player when the 3 referees aren't looking, they will be suspended.
Mark Cuban routinely submits videos for the league to review a play.

Sam, I'd never dispute your facts and figures supporting the duration of past Celtic playoff series and the (compared to today) less than ideal circumstances for scheduling and travel. The results and titles stand for themselves. Based on the turn of events since Game 4 which includes the awakening of many of the Magic players, and the deterioration of team play of the C's coupled with the physical maladies of the team now, my head tells me the collapse is imminate. My heart simply hopes my reasoning and assessment of the current situation is wrong-Leap of Faith to me was an old Steve Martin, Debra Winger movie from the 90's-MD.

tjmakz wrote:swede,

The NBA can and will review infractions after games even if the whistle isn't blown. If a player punches another player when the 3 referees aren't looking, they will be suspended.
Mark Cuban routinely submits videos for the league to review a play.

And remember Robert Parish KO'd Bill Laimbeer. The refs didn't eve call a foul on the play but he was suspended the next game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idA9Vym1F54

Just playoff basketball

MD,

One of the easiest things in life is to make an equivocal prediction. "I think the world will end next Thursday, but I hope it doesn't." A chance at a winning prediction combined with a butt-covering caveat in case the prediction is wrong.

I take it that, as far as being in or out in terms of believing in the Celtics, you're currently out. Period. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having an opinion. It's just interesting to know where people stand...one of the functions of a message board.

I believe there is another alternative: so strongly hoping one's team will win that there's no room for predictions (qualified or not). That's the leap of faith. And what was remarkable in Russell's day was not the statistics; it was the number of times that blind leap of faith (otherwise known as hope) had to be exercised in a "winner-take-all" situation. Because that leap took a lot more out of a person than an equivocated prediction.

Sam

Swede and TJ,
The chances that the league will punish/restrain D12 are aprox. the same as me winning a lottery tomorrow. I understand when a ref misses an infraction or calls a foul when there's none in the heat of the moment. But it's total BS when league officials watch the play over and over from different angles and can clearly see what actually happened and do nothing. Unfortunately, NBA looks more and more like WWF.
I wonder if they should implement something similar to red flag in NFL. Or implement financial punishment for refs: e.g. you mis-call 5 times a game = 1 game suspension without pay, you accumulated 3 of those games = 10 games suspension without pay. The main problem here is who's going to judge the judges?

AK