Ray Allen & PaulPierce

I just got home and had a chance to read the Boston Globe. I wonder if anyone else has read the article by Gary Washburn about Ray Allen and his lack of offense.. Seems he was quite upset at his lack of involvement in the offense in the past few games. This is something that I have alluded to many times .
How any times in the past ten plus games have we seen Ray get the ball in the first quarter, score 8-10 points right away, and never see the ball again until it is desperation time and he is off balance, he gets the ball with 3 or 2 seconds left and they just want a miracle. I watched Jeff Green last night, all alone never getting the basket, no one even looked for him. This team will never win with Big Baby taking twice as many or more shots as Ray Allen. This includes Paul Pierce too, he is not shooting enough, why do you think they are in such a funk?????

Rosalie

Without looking I think really the whole team isn't shooting enough. Last three games we've taken 71-75-62 (last night) shots respectively. And a check of league stats show we are LAST in FGA per game with 76. The mean is about 80 and high is the Wolves with 86.

The Russell era teams shot the ball over 100 times per game and you did not see them stand around holding the ball looking at the clock either.

We are not pushing the ball up the court
We are not getting into the offense as soon as we need too
Too much STANDING holding or dribbling the ball
Passing up some good shots early in the shot clock.

The obvious result is the defense can get set and also allow fewer second shots as they are in better position to box out. Shooting earlier even a trailer situation off the break will create rebounding lanes.

And the result of this is someone like Ray who really has difficulty creating a shot by himself gets fewer and fewer touches and it seems the shots we do get are a poorer percentage.

But you are correct with this........if Davis is getting more looks than Ray.........something ain't right.

beat

Rosalie,

I think they're in such a funk because they're out of synch. They're out of synch because they're disregarding some very important basics that are the cornerstones of their offense:

• The "picks" they're setting are brush picks, not the solid kind of picks that stand up a defender and throw off his defensive timing. On Ray's curls, he can't get separation from his defender and doesn't even force a defensive switch because no one's holding up the defender with a solid pick.

• They're being very lazy in their spacing of the floor.

• There's too much pounding of the ball into the floor, which eats up the shot clock and forces the into low percentage shots. I notice Arroyo doing a lot of excess dribbling, almost as though he's buying time while he figures out what to do. He's not playing enough to make it a major problem, but neither is he contributing to smooth, ball-sharing mechanics of the bench.

• Aside from Rondo's flurry last night, there's only one Celtic who's really attacking the basket on any kind of consistent basis And, ironically, he's the one player you'd like to see shooting less—Glen Davis.

• They're standing around on offense, although last night I was encouraged to see vestiges of a weave during their two good quarters.

• They haven't yet mastered the techniques of the help defense system. They seem to adhere to it for 20 seconds of the opponent's shot clock and then let down their guard just when a turnover is right around the corner. The new guys especially need to develop a mindset of staying power on defense.

The Celtics can mount an initial lead because of sheer talent and perhaps an initial energy spurt and an element of surprise. But, invariably, the opponent seizes on any of several Celtics vulnerabilities to turn the tide. And, when the tide is turned, the Celtics degenerate into bad habits. Last night, they were able to restart their engines after halftime, but the Pacers just pecked away at the vulnerabilities and the Celtics repeated their ennui act.

Right now, the Celtics obviously don't have the consistent confidence that they can "turn it on" when necessary at either end of the floor. Moreover, the starters don't have confidence that the bench won't blow leads they (the starters) build. That repeated pattern has to get the starters down.

That's all bad news. Now here's the good news. A veteran, extremely talented team can lick these problems—at least enough to allow them to recapture consistent effectiveness. I'm not into yielding to the ridiculous temptation to predict how quickly it will happen or how completely they'll eventually turn things around. I suspect they'll may very well still be figuring it out during at least the first playoff round—when reintegrating Shaq and/or Jermaine may muddy the waters of continuity.

Despite what may seem like a fairly scathing assessment above, I'm seeing glimmers of "getting it" and glimmers of improvement with every successive game. The fact that they had two 30+ point quarters last night means they are capable of fixing the offense, and hopefully the bench will morph from momentum killer to momentum sustainer. It's possible Doc will have to rest his starters via a pattern of bringing in no more than one or two bench players at a time. I'm sure Doc's considering every avenue, and I have confidence in his ability to live up to his nickname.

One thing that just drives me cuckoo is the number of fans and media who are obsessed with bitching and moaning and assessing blame over losing Perk. It's a done deal, and the Celtics would be best served if people would stop sending so many negative vibes to a coach and team who are going to do their level best to continue addressing the major cohesiveness challenge and improve their performance in the area of fundamentals.

And, yes, I know it's people's right to discuss topics that are important to them. But it's been a month for Pete's sake. Believe me, all the good stuff has been said.....again and again. The Celtics could really use the encouragement of their good and knowledgeable fans.

Go Celtics!

Sam

I totally agree with you there, Sam, stop crying about Perk. I have a good feeling about Jermaine. This guy really wants to make a contribution to this team. I am a little worried about KG, seems his arm might be bothering him, he keeps rubbing it and turning it . I hope I am wrong. Shaq will be such a big addition to this team.

Beat-It drives me crazy watching Rondo go from side to side in and out, not looking for the open man, and then passing it in the final 4 seconds looking for someone to bail him out. Either that or he takes a very ill advised shot. I know he is probably trying to find his way out of his funk, but.......you have superstars on this team who are more qualified than he is to take those shots. I was glad to watch him drive to the hole last night, but he has to get everyone involved in this offense or we are going to have some real unhappy players. If you look at the stat's, how can someone get hot if they only handle the ball 4-6 times? Ray is different than Pierce, Pierce can make his own offense. Ray relies on the picks being set, getting him open and hitting the open jumpers.

I hate to see these guys unhappy, they have given us so much enjoyable time thru the last few years, it would be awful for something like that to happen.

There are those out there who are jusy dying to blame Danny for all of this, and they are dead wrong.

Great points, Rosalie. I can't believe the side-to-side, in-and-out stuff is just Rondo being lazy. Until last night, their halfcourt offense looked like a funeral. When no one's moving, it's tough to find a passing lane. Of course it doesn't help when they're lethargic in bringing the ball up.

I've developed a dislike for that little trick of letting the ball roll upcourt, picking it up at halfcourt, and getting into their halfcourt set. I understand the theory of maximizing the shot clock. But they could do pretty much the same thing by pushing the ball up, with the added advantage of giving the defense as little running time as possible to get set. I noticed Indiana doing it too, last night.

I noticed KG rubbing his arm too. Here's hoping we're both wrong in thinking it might be bothering him. He seldom misses two free throws in succession.

And finally, it's been a long, long time since this team had a sense of joy about them. It might have been Mike and Tommy who were talking about that, and I think Tommy said that the joy doesn't come first. They have to improve their play so there's something to be joyful about.

Here's to a resolution of all these situations sooner rather than later.

Sam