POST GAME NETS

Celtics 79 Nets 88

Well what can you do, I mean you lose to a better team. I mean what are the Nets 22 & 43 and playoff bound! What a mess. Hey Doc you have a 7 footer in Krstic who is a good rebounder and he's gaining splinters in his butt sitting on the bench.

What's up with Rondo? The worst stretch of basketball I have seen in 4 seasons by him. What the heck is he doing shooting the ball when the Celtics are down 2 pts with less then 2 minutes in the game left. What is he doing. At least 10 times tonight he's just standing there and allowing the shot clock to wind down and the takes a stupid shot or passes off to someone who has to rush their shot! When was the last time you saw Rondo consistently try to dive into the paint. Not often since the Perk trade which means he is still sulking about losing Perk. Hey what does he care, he's locked to a 5 year $50M contract. See you all at the ATM machine!

Is it my imagination or do the Celtic players look down. There is no more excitement from the players including those on the bench especially in close games when we hit key shots. Nat was a great ra..ra guy and someone who can create excitement and a spark off the bench for others to feed on!

That my friend is vintage Celtic basketball A La 2006-2007.

Good Night Mr & Mrs America and all the ships at sea!

112288

I think it's just one of those skids that even the best teams often put in down the stretch.

Combine a long season, the fact that the playoffs are a lock (although playoff seed is not) and other factors such as injury and these bad runs happen.

Nothing we, and other division leaders, haven't seen before.

It will turn around.

God I hope so NY!

112288

112288,

The Spurs had their turn tonight too; they just got thumped by Miami 110-80.

On the brighter side it's NCAA tournament time. My personal favorite sports event. Nothing like a single-elimination tournament. Win or go home with three weeks of the best basketball you could ask for.

regards

Ya, time to turn on March Madness! forget the NBA for a while.

112288

It is a darn good time of year, and the NCAAs gets my attention. I don't follow college ball much anymore, but the tourney is a whole nother thing. Oh yeah, I think a decent golf tournament follows in early April doesn't it? Down in Georgia somewhere?

Okay, NOW the sky is falling...



Just kidding...it will get better...

I don't believe that this is a temporary skid. I think that this team is just not as good as some of us, including me, believed. They are still good, to be sure, but they are not a championship caliber team. And here are the reasons I believe that:
1. The defense is not as good as it has been in year's past. Not as intense, and unable to shut down teams when they really need to do it.
2. Lack of good interior defense. And with Perkins gone, that will not likely improve. How many times do we need to see the opponents making layups and dunks on us? Who else besides KG (who is a good, but not a great, interior defender) guards the rims nowadays? Davis? Nope. Too short. Krstic? Nope. Too soft (though I still like his play overall if we can sign him for the upcoming years). Shaq? JON? Nope. They may never come back and get reintegrated.
3. The injuries have taken their toll by making PP, RA, and KG (and Davis) play more than they should have so far this season. I will discuss Rondo below. Those guys look tired now. They have lost a step and are having trouble scoring and moving the ball. Part of it is their age, of course. But thats what I see out there.
4. Rondo. Sorry to you Rondophiles out there, but I think that he is the elephant in the room. He is NOT an elite PG in my opinion. Sure, he does some things very very well: assists and defense, primarily. And he is smart and tough. On the other hand, Rose, Williams, and Paul also play D and dish well. The difference in those guys, the elite PGs in the league, and Rondo, is that Rondo has NO outside shot and he cannot shoot FTs. Those two area drag him down to the second tier-good, but not great. Yes, I do understand that the primary function of a PG is to set up your teamates. HOWEVER, there are other PGs in the league that do that AND command attention on the offensive end. Every other team in the league knows that Rondo cannot shoot, and that he is the guy to foul at the end of the game. Despite these known weaknesses, he had failed to improve them over the years. I don't know if its lack of work or lack of talent, but IMO it drags him down to the second tier of PGs in the NBA. Also, there are many nights when he lacks intensity. Championship teams cannot afford that. You put his weaknesses together with items 1-3 above and it adds up to a good team, but not a championship team.
I just hope the Lakers don't win it again; we sure won't get there this year.

Pumpsie,

I agree with your assesment that injuries have taken their toll this year, especially on our core starters.

I don't think it's worn us down to the point of falling apart however.

I think the picture should improve...

We don't have the banger down low any more, but I'm not so sure that's what we need. I think giving up a little there in favor of more mobility and an improved perimiter game is what we will need more this year. I think we need to run just a little and have depth at the wing if we're looking at taking on the likes of Chicago, Miami or San Antonio. Beef might help matching up against Howard or Bynum, but that's not the only way to attack those teams; I think both are sitting ducks if you can go uptempo for short bursts which we should be good for. Besides, if you pull either of those guys out to the top you open things up for players like Pierce, Green, Allen and Rondo to penetrate and get to the rim and finish or kick back out to shooters there when needed and when the D collapses in.

We've got a collection of shooters and scorers, but we also have improved shot blocking and rebounding. I think we'll be in good shape to make a run at a title this year.

Put me down as one of the Rondophiles too; I think he's shown he belongs with the top of the class.

Hang in there Pumpsie, I do expect you're going to be pleasantly surprised by playoff time.

regards

bobc33 wrote:It is a darn good time of year, and the NCAAs gets my attention. I don't follow college ball much anymore, but the tourney is a whole nother thing. Oh yeah, I think a decent golf tournament follows in early April doesn't it? Down in Georgia somewhere?

You've got it Bob. In my humble opinion there's not a better time of year in sports.

NYCelt wrote:Pumpsie,

I agree with your assesment that injuries have taken their toll this year, especially on our core starters.

I don't think it's worn us down to the point of falling apart however.

I think the picture should improve...

We don't have the banger down low any more, but I'm not so sure that's what we need. I think giving up a little there in favor of more mobility and an improved perimiter game is what we will need more this year. I think we need to run just a little and have depth at the wing if we're looking at taking on the likes of Chicago, Miami or San Antonio. Beef might help matching up against Howard or Bynum, but that's not the only way to attack those teams; I think both are sitting ducks if you can go uptempo for short bursts which we should be good for. Besides, if you pull either of those guys out to the top you open things up for players like Pierce, Green, Allen and Rondo to penetrate and get to the rim and finish or kick back out to shooters there when needed and when the D collapses in.

We've got a collection of shooters and scorers, but we also have improved shot blocking and rebounding. I think we'll be in good shape to make a run at a title this year.

Put me down as one of the Rondophiles too; I think he's shown he belongs with the top of the class.

Hang in there Pumpsie, I do expect you're going to be pleasantly surprised by playoff time.

regards

I will tell you this: if we don't secure the #1 seed, we aren't making it out of the East this year. Going through both Miami and the Bulls is a low percentage endeavor. Miami is not as bad as they have been playing, and the Bulls are the best team in the east this year. Our only realistic hope is that the Bulls either lose to Miami or get softened up and fatigued by them to the point that we have a chance to upset them.
I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree about Rondo. Without FT shooting ability and a semblance of an outside shot he gets just a B- from me. I would rather have Paul or Rose or Williams or Nash or Nelson than Rondo. At least all of those guys have to be guarded. No one even guards Rondo. Why should they?

There is a lot of truth in what you say Pumpsie! Unless Rondo is surrounded by offensively gifted players as he is now, he's just another good but not great point guard. Rondo is a very good passer however, by being surrounded by great offensive players, teams will then sag on to them denying the pass and thus opening up the driving lanes for him to score his easy layups. Take away those shooters and he cannot produce points for himself from the outside.

112288

No need to overanalyze or anything, this team is just old and cannot play well enough to win in back to back......alot of concern for Rondo, hes just in some kind of a deep fog, not the same player. Could he be so upset about losing his best friend on the team? I don't know, but this is easily the worst stretch I've ever seen from him, no intangibles, cannot finish what used to be simple lay ups, never seen him throw the ball away like this. If he can't get his head and game right were going no where.

Hi,
Oh well... another lousy loss.
One of the problems, as I see it, is that Celtics play in bursts, defensive bursts that is. Erratic, inconsistent play. Last night there were two: 1st one in the second half of the Q1, 2nd in the middle of the Q4.

Now, to the bright side. I'm pretty sure that this won't last and, it will definitely go away in the playoffs.
Also, in those bursts you saw what this team is capable of. Even when you look at the 2nd unit you could see more cohesion and understanding, unlike 3-4 games ago when most of the new players were like space cadets.
Also, remember this time last year? Everybody was screaming bloody hell, Celtics were loosing left and right, even to the L-Leader NJN. We all know what happened after that.
Also, I suspect there are ripples from The Trade after all. But as we all know, the farther from epicenter the smaller the ripples.
Also, there are some "parts" of the Celtics "machine" that are still in repair shop but soon to be inserted back.
As for "low percentage endeavor" against Mia and/or Chi, I believe that Celtics are equipped to win with 70-80% probability regardless of the seed. And I'm sure neither team wants to go through Boston.

AK

I just started looking at this whole thing from the typical Employer/Employee point of view. It makes a lot of sense. Most of your very best run companies are constantly shifting to stay competitive. They have to. If you stand still, you die. What that means to most employees is just when you get comfortable with everything and everyone around you, management yanks the carpet out from under you. That means two things to employees, normally. You are either promoted or you are fired.

Now given that you can't be technically fired under CBAs, you can be traded, waived, benched, etc. What did Danny do? He wanted to test the ulitmate heart of this team (and its fans for that matter) at its most critical juncture. Granted none of us were too comfortable pre-trade this year, but we knew where we were going, (to the playoffs) and we felt confident that if all players were back, no one could beat us. This looked an awful lot like last year at this time with injuries, etc. Danny thinks second verse same as the first. If we do nothing, we aren't going to win in June.

Danny shakes up a large core of the team. Mostly bench and one starter. One starter who we learned was more banged up than we thought and who wanted more money than we could afford.

The more I think about it, this may be about more about Rondo and his future than the rest of the Celtics. Danny wants to know about Rondo's heart (and secondarily about the team's heart, but I think he already knows that part). So he potentially took something away from RR (and replaced it with something far better as we are finding out with Krstic and Green). Not to get religous on everyone but this looks like the classic Abraham/Issac Old Testament sacrifice story. Just think about it. I won't elaborate unless someone asks further. But it was a story about testing one's heart under the most extreme, absolutely unbearable circumstances.

Rondo is right now so lamblasted and under so much pressure, he can't see straight. "You took my best friend away. I can't believe you did that! Not Perk! And look at this POC you left me with to figure out!" Now Danny has time on his side and a relatively easy schedule to finish out the season to arrive at the answer he wants ala RR, but he wants to see how his future is going to look with Rondo. He has put him in the worst possible situation, brand new bench, no Perk and 20 games to figure it all out before the playoffs. And per DA, he's expecting Banner 18 in the rafters come June.

Now your typical employee acts exactly like RR in his position. Running the other direction at least in the short run. Sloppy play, not caring, pissed, "losing" games, etc. He will do one of two things after this funk has worn off. He will response like the true champion he is, probably torching past Rose in MVP quality to our complete amazement or he will crash and burn, eventually being traded off into Bolivia, as Mike Tyson once said.

Danny has shown him the future of Celtic basketball. We're going younger, eventually no more Big 3 as it currently stands, more points created from more defense and we're running. What say you, RR? The ball is in your court. I'm watching RR from here on out. The rest of the guys are doing what is required if not more than what is being asked of them under the conditions. I'm beyond pleased with NK and JG. Don't miss RK. Miss Perk but not so much anymore.

I'm pretty sure DA is not questioning KG, PP, RA or GD's hearts right now. That core is intact. This is all about RR. Think about last year. RA heart was put under the microscope right around trade time. Would any of us doubt him or his heart given his year this year?

off into Bolivia, as Mike Tyson once said.
Dbrown

I actually think he said oblivion

beat

As to your take it's pretty obvious we are in a funk and Rondo is off his feed a bit (using a dairy farm term) we are trying to be competitive yet evolve for the future without the big three. Ths script is still being written and hopefully has a nice ending. And as you say the ball is clearly in Rondo's hands.

beat

DBrown...A quick apology from me.

In my haste to write a post earlier I inadvertently edited your former post by accident rather than quoting you.

Moderator error. I sincerely apologize and I'll see if I can find a way to go back and restore your original.

7) One of the commentators said last night, I can't remember which one, but they were talking about the Final 4 NBA teams. He made a comment about Doc. "Doc has made all the right moves this year with this team." I started to think, you know, he's right. Why do we doubt about our current situation? Well, probably because nothing is 100% guaruanteed unless victory or a win is your goal and you have more points than your opponent and the clock has run out. There's always room for the "I told you so's" out there.

- DBrown




I wanted to especially agree with DBrown's point #7 and add a quick comment.

I don't get the worry level I see in general.

Let me say right away that everyone has their own style and I wouldn't suggest anyone here is less than a true fan. Some are optimistic, some try to be absolutely level and realistic and others go into throws of depression when we're down by 3 in the second quarter. There is nothing wrong with any of this.

Mine is just a personal observation and some questions;

- How did so many get a crystal ball?

- How can anyone be so certain we're toast this season?

- Going back to the late 50's how many times have we been in a worse position and played in the championship or won a title?

- Why am I so certain that if we go back to the pace we were running all of the worry goes away, Danny becomes a genius, Rondo is recognized as an all-star and nobody wants to bring back Posey or Walker (yes, that last comment is a touch of sarcasm)?

I'm in the realist camp; I call 'em like I (think) I see 'em. I've seen plenty of causes and times to panic and I don't see it now at all.

Teams do go through a stretch like this. If anyone wants to waste the time looking it up I would bet it happens to almost every team, almost every year. We are deep and we are talented. We should match up well in a series with the other 4 or 5 teams with a realistic shot this year.

It's a personal thing; I just don't get the negativity.

Maybe it's time for everyone to go have a green beer, sit and chill.

Just my $.02

Sorry, beat. I'm pretty sure MT said Bolivia(n). I think it was either right after the Buster fight or the Holyfield fight. He meant oblivion, but he was so knocked out of it he said Bolivia. I'll apologize if I am wrong, though. It was replayed and quoted numerous times, almost in a very ad way since that was the beginning of the end for MT. Who knows, I may be losing it!

NYCelt wrote:7) One of the commentators said last night, I can't remember which one, but they were talking about the Final 4 NBA teams. He made a comment about Doc. "Doc has made all the right moves this year with this team." I started to think, you know, he's right. Why do we doubt about our current situation? Well, probably because nothing is 100% guaruanteed unless victory or a win is your goal and you have more points than your opponent and the clock has run out. There's always room for the "I told you so's" out there.

- DBrown




I wanted to especially agree with DBrown's point #7 and add a quick comment.

I don't get the worry level I see in general.

Let me say right away that everyone has their own style and I wouldn't suggest anyone here is less than a true fan. Some are optimistic, some try to be absolutely level and realistic and others go into throws of depression when we're down by 3 in the second quarter. There is nothing wrong with any of this.

Mine is just a personal observation and some questions;

- How did so many get a crystal ball?

- How can anyone be so certain we're toast this season?

- Going back to the late 50's how many times have we been in a worse position and played in the championship or won a title?

- Why am I so certain that if we go back to the pace we were running all of the worry goes away, Danny becomes a genius, Rondo is recognized as an all-star and nobody wants to bring back Posey or Walker (yes, that last comment is a touch of sarcasm)?

I'm in the realist camp; I call 'em like I (think) I see 'em. I've seen plenty of causes and times to panic and I don't see it now at all.

Teams do go through a stretch like this. If anyone wants to waste the time looking it up I would bet it happens to almost every team, almost every year. We are deep and we are talented. We should match up well in a series with the other 4 or 5 teams with a realistic shot this year.

It's a personal thing; I just don't get the negativity.

Maybe it's time for everyone to go have a green beer, sit and chill.

Just my $.02

NY, I'm in, you buying?

Pete,

Sure; why not? It's for a good cause. Green inside and out!

Regards

Dbrown

You're correct I got it backwards

here is the quote with another one from Iron Mike

Miscellaneous Quotes

"I really dig Hannibal. Hannibal had real guts. He rode elephants into Cartilage."

"I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian."

beat

Actually I was wrong as well. It was Bolivian as you have it above. I edited mine after I saw the error of my ways. That was a while ago. Which fight was that?

dbrown

I have no idea what fight it was after even if it was after a fight, just googled tydson and the quote and found it along with many others.

beat

No starter had to play over 30 min. Sunday evening so the back 2 back excuse doesn't wash with me. What is with Rondo-someone shoot him some kryptonite? Did he lose his cape or his mojo? Even if either O'Neal makes it back, they'll need a year's supply of rustoleum to get 'em shined up for the playoffs PLAYOFFS-Jim Mora-Did somebody say PLAYOFFS?-The Bulls with Noah, Deng, Rose & Boozer are waiting to slice and dice the C's like an Info-Mercial for Vege-Matic-I have visions of Scal raining 3's both at the United Center & TD Bank North Garden in garbage time-MD!