POST GAME ATLANTA - GAME 5

Tough loss in an exciting game.....but we should have won. We stopped running the ball in the second and third and a couple of defensive lapses in the 4th quarter cost us.

Back to Boston..........let's hope!

NEXT GAME THURSDAY @ BOSTON - TIME:TBD - CSNE/TNT

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POST GAME RECAP

ESPNBOSTON.COM

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com


Paul Abell/US Presswire
Kevin Garnett and Al Horford chase a rebound in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal series in Atlanta.
ATLANTA -- Rapid reaction after the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Boston Celtics 87-86 in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal series Tuesday night at Philips Arena. The Celtics lead the series 3 games to 2:

HOW THE GAME WAS WON
Al Horford, back in the starting lineup for the first time since January, paced five Hawks starters in double figures with 19 points and 11 rebounds over 41 minutes (so much for a minute restriction?!). Josh Smith added 13 points and 16 rebounds for Atlanta. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce each had 16 points for Boston, while Ray Allen added 15 points off the bench, but it was Rajon Rondo's late third-quarter exploits that made this a game again after Boston fumbled away its own first-half cushion.

TURNING POINT
The Celtics erased a seven-point deficit with under four minutes to play by leaning on their Big Three (Garnett fadeaway, Pierce rattling home a bucket in the lane, and Allen 3-pointer), but Horford responded with two big buckets, including an uncontested dunk in the lane and a driving hook. Boston had a chance in the final moments to win it when Rondo stole an inbounds pass with 10 seconds to go, but couldn't get off a shot.

BOLD PLAY OF THE GAME
Rondo put together a dizzying stretch late in the third quarter, single-handedly taking over the game and bringing the Celtics back from a 12-point hole. In between throwing lobs to Ryan Hollins -- who had his best outing in a Celtics uniform -- Rondo produced three consecutive buckets to trim Boston's deficit to 2 (66-64) at the end of three quarters. Rondo actually hit a jumper that put Boston back out front early in the fourth frame.

C'S LET HAWKS OFF THE ROPES IN FIRST HALF
The Celtics built a 10-point lead little more than three minutes into the second quarter with a little 7-0 run as the Hawks went 3½ minutes without a bucket. But instead of delivering a knockout blow, Boston let the Hawks sneak back into the game. The Celtics went the next five minutes without a bucket and Atlanta actually rallied ahead with some strong 3-point shooting late in the first half. Williams (2), Johnson, and Teague combined for four triples over the final 123 seconds as the Hawks took a 40-37 advantage, only for Rajon Rondo drilled a trifecta of his own at the buzzer to knot the game at the intermission.

WELCOME TO THE PLAYOFF RALLLY TOWEL FACTORY
The potential last game of the season inside Philips Arena did little to fill up seats. Right before tip-off, the entire side not shown on TV was incredibly empty, maybe highlighted by the white rally towels draped over each seat. Not a good look.

WHAT IT MEANS
So the Celtics went and made things difficult on themselves. They could have made this easy up 10 in the first half, but couldn't put the Hawks away when they had a chance. Now it's back to Boston for a pivotal Game 6 on Thursday night at TD Garden.

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WEEI 850

FAST BREAK: CELTICS LET ONE SLIP AWAY, HAWKS STILL ALIVE
By Ryan Hadfield

With the Celtics trailing by one, 87-86, and just over 10 seconds left in the game, Rajon Rondo stole the ball and frantically dribbled up the court. He would never get a shot off, however, as Al Horford and Josh Smith pressured the ball, forcing Rondo to lose control as time expired. The Celtics still have a 3-2 series lead over the Hawks and have another opportunity to advance to the second round Thursday night at the Garden.

Horford led the way for Atlanta with 19 points and 11 rebounds in only his second game back from a pectoral injury that sidelined him since January. For Boston, Rondo finished with 12 assists and 13 points, but shot just 6-of-17 from the field and had five turnovers. Kevin Garnett added 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Rondo’s Road Rage (The Good): It’s safe to say Rondo won’t be visiting Atlanta anytime soon. His Game 1 performance was excellent, but was overshadowed by Bump-Gate. In his return to the scene of crime Tuesday night, the floor general started 2-of-10 from the field and was largely a non-factor through 33 minutes of action.

Then Rondo went crazy (In a good-natured-I’m-taking-over-this-game kind of way).

After the dreadful start he hit four of his next seven shots. The stats don’t justify Rondo’s impact. He took over the last three minutes of the third quarter in a stretch that saw him feed a perfect lob to Ryan Hollins, put back a Ray Allen missed 3-pointer, steal the inbound pass, hit the ensuing jumper, and score a driving lay-up the next trip down the floor.

It was the type of play the C’s have grown accustomed to seeing from Rondo. He was the catalyst the Celtics needed, dwindling an 11-point deficit to just two at the end of the third quarter. The fourth quarter was more of the same for the All-Star point guard.

Allen’s Acclimating: Allen played his best game since being relegated to the bench. The offensive spark the sharp-shooter provided is precisely what Doc Rivers envisioned when promoting Avery Bradley to the starting lineup. Late in the game, with the score 83-76, the Celtics stormed back going on a 7-0 run, capped off by an Allen 3-pointer.

The 36 year-old finished with 15 points, going 5-of-10 from the field.

Forcing the Issue: Throughout the first half Boston played the aggressor. Through 20 minutes of action the Hawks had just two free-throw attempts to the Celtics nine, and Boston had only one personal foul called on them, while Atlanta had nine.

This speaks to the fact the Hawks were comfortable settling for jump shots — whether contested or not — while the Celtics forced the issue.

The Little Big Guys: The Celtics starters and Ray Allen get the fanfare, but Keyon Dooling, Greg Stiemsma, and Hollins gave Boston solid play in the first half of Game 5. Dooling had a big 3-pointer in the second quarter, and both he and Stiemsma had highlight blocks.

Hollins’ stat line doesn’t show much, but he battled hard underneath and, remarkably, registered a plus/minus of +8. Furthermore, he was on the court during the Celtics second half comeback, stuffing home two lobs from Rondo.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Three-dom!: The Hawks weren’t rotating, the crowd was dead (except for the C’s fans), it appeared the Hawks were fine with jump-shooting their way to a summer vacation and the Celtics lead grew to double digits.

Then Atlanta got pay back for Boston’s 3-point assault in Game 4 when they shot 11-of-26 from 3-point land on Sunday, by knocking down four straight 3-pointers to tie the game at halftime. The Hawks finished 7-of-16 from beyond the arc.

It’s easy to dismiss the run as a hot streak. That’s fair, it happens. However, the Celtics were late closing down on each of Marvin Williams’ back-to-back 3-pointers, even worse, no defender was within 10 feet of Johnson’s 3-pointer. Additionally, the Celtics failed to execute on the offensive end to stop the bleeding.

The Truth Hurts: Paul Pierce started Game 5 like it was simply a continuation of Game 4. He was 4-of-6 from the field and seem poised for another virtuoso performance. But the C’s captain only hit one of his next seven shot attempts, finishing the game with 16 points.

Pierce did seem to be laboring a bit which could be related to the left knee injury he suffered during shoot-around before Game 4 on Sunday. His airball that would have put the Celtics ahead by one point with less than 20 seconds left would suggest that is entirely possible.

Youth Served: It’s been an up-and-down series for Bradley. Maybe his left shoulder started bothering him again, or maybe Rivers just wanted to go with Allen, but Bradley only saw 17 minutes of action Tuesday night. He took just two shots and had two turnovers in a forgettable night.

Hi,
It was a tough loss. But unlike games 1 and 3 Celtics were fighting through.
If they win game 6 they'll prove my theory - with Atl play only evenly numbered games, e.g. if it's game 1 call it game 0, if it's game 3 call it game 2, etc.
On a serious note, I'm really concerned about PP, GS and AB. I hope it's nothing major and tomorrow they'll be back to usual selves.

AK

Pietrus has been way off too, I'd give Quis a run.

In the off season, the Celtic doctors are going to be kept busy and earn enough through their surgeries to buy a summer cottage on the Cape Cod!

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Cow,

The head injury has affected Pietrus as well. He has not been the same since coming back. I wonder if he is still hurting?

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Its all about health, imagine if we just had all our parts, we'd be San Antonio East.

cow

I think we need even more trainers and therapists

Cow,

If we had Green we would be tops in the East. That killed us.

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One of the main problems with Bass on the floor is defense, I know he plays hard and has a few moments, but he doesn't have enough size. With Perk whenever KG left the lane to chase a shooter on perimeter Perk could man the middle, now if KG roams too far away its automatic attack us inside. Hollins was doing good job last night, being active using his size, as soon as he went to bench in 4th Hawks just scored right at the basket, was too easy.

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I know Green would have had a huge year, his perimeter and running game would have been so perfect for this team this year.

cow

Cow,

You are right. Bass is not a starting power forward. He was pressed into that role when we lost JON and Wilcox. This is one area the Celtics need to concentrate on in free agency or a trade.

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Agreed, I like Bass, if we can get a young banger in the draft I'd be happy to see KG go back to the 4.

cow

Tough loss in a game that was there for the taking.

Pierce looks like his knee is bothering him, as he was unable to close like he usually does.

They will win on Thursday in Boston...not worried at all.

A win we could have had. Oh well.

1. I thought Rondo's energy level in the first half was low. The second half? Way high. I don't think he ran enough. A lot of his little floaters and high-off-the-backboard layups weren't dropping. Ironically, his jumpshots, which used to make us cringe, have been going in all series. 6-17 hurt us. To be honest, I think this is another game where stats don't tell the story. There was that amazing burst where he got the offensive rebound and then stole the ball and hit a jumpshot to bring us close at the end of 3, but other than that I didn't like his game. The final steal, where he tried to go fullcourt, had a few things wrong with it. One was that nobody tried to set a pick for him or be available for a give-and-go to break him free of Josh Smith. The second was that he had his head down all the way up court and it was obvious he was going for a hero shot and wasn't going to give the ball up. That made it easy for Horford to leave KG and come over to pin him against the sideline.

2. Not a good game for Pierce either. Shots weren't dropping. When Pierce throws up an airball, like he did late in the game, and blows that layup, that's unusual. Even when he misses he almost always hits iron. He kept leaving his man, Marvin Williams, alone in the corner. Williams was 5-9 for the night and 3-6 from 3. Pierce is denying his knee hurts, but I'm thinking that's BS. I think his knee hurts and that's not good for us.

3. Joe Johnson wanted more touches, he got more touches. Considering he shot 6-17, I'd say let him have more touches next game too. Next time, in Boston, they won't get lucky and sneak away with a win.

4. Now I really am getting worried about Steamer. Only 4 minutes? And Hollins plays 19? I'm afraid I have to disagree with my friend Cowens about Hollins. I thought Horford owned Hollins. I don't know if there's an NBA limit on dunks if your names aren't Howard or Jordan, but Horford exceeded it last night. Hollins got blocked twice under the basket. He missed an 8-footer. He cannot score except on an alley oop. If he has to come down with the ball, he's in trouble. He's a liability on the free throw line. He's unfocused energy. If Steamer's hurting so bad he can't play more than 4 minutes, then I say activate Sean Williams and give him a chance. 4 minutes of Steamer doesn't give us enough depth off the bench behind KG and Hollins is leaving me cold getting that many minutes.

5. I liked Bass's game. He was aggressive, which is more than he has been this entire series. He was a threat inside and out. Yeah, he's undersized at 4, but that's been true all year, he hasn't shrunk, but he's attacking now, hitting his shots, grabbing rebounds and that's all he needs to do.

6. Horford's rust has come off in a hurry. A very good game by him. He hit his baseline jumpers and attacked inside. Hollins padded his boxscore well by giving him 2 of his 3 blocks.

7. An uneventful night for Bradley. Doc acknowledged that Larry Drew's decision to move Joe Johnson to 2 (which they really couldn't do until Horford came back) was working and they needed someone bigger. Unfortunately, I didn't see Pietrus doing much better. Johnson just missed a lot of shots.

8. Ray Allen is doing a great job coming off the bench. Of course, he was in there for clutch time, hitting a big 3, so what does it matter if he starts? Hear that, Ray? It doesn't matter if you don't start. Only an uncharacteristic 3-5 from the free throw line. We could have used those points.

9. I don't think I've ever seen a team where, game after game, they not only take 3ptrs, they take 3ptrs regularly from 3-8 beyond the arc. Are they really so afraid of being guarded they need to take a 28-footer? That's a coaching thing. You need to tell your players to run their offense a little closer in and not just settle for the howitzer shot from downtown Marrietta because it's offered.

Personally, I thought we played a lousy game. I've seen games where our shooting % was worse, but missing shots is not the same thing as playing poorly. I thought we didn't have much movement in our offense. Did you see any pick-and-rolls from Rondo to KG? Did you see a lot of Rondo penetrations with the kick out to a shooter? Those are our halfcourt offensive bread-and-butters. I thought our perimeter defense was off because we'd rotate to stop the ball but we didn't stop the ball. We'd rotate on defense but forget the hot shooter in the corner. Horford was getting loose underneath a lot because his man would come over to help Rondo with Teague and, instead of stepping in front of Teague and forcing him to reverse his field or turn away, they just let him keep sliding along the perimeter and that let Horford roll to the hoop for a dunk. Some bad decision making by Rondo, some just flat-out bad shots by Pierce, practically a no-show by Bradley and Steamer and yet we were still in a position to win. That's what I'm taking away from this (other than the question mark about Steamer or what kind of pictures Hollins has on Doc) is that we didn't have a particularly normal game for us and yet we could have won anyway. Our end of game execution was poor and yet if Pierce's layup went in we would have won.

Ok, so they had their little hometown rally, putting lipstick on a pig. Now, we close it out in Boston tomorrow.

bob

.

Last night's game was a missed opportunity.

Despite terrible execution, especially late in the game, we were in a position to win and get some rest for the wounded.

Hollins came in and grabbed 3 offensive rebounds, which was a positive. Especially since you need to consider the last Celtic to grab more than one offensive board in a game was in the last century (yes, that's sarcasm, but not all that far off). Ray still looked sharp too.

Horford's return changes that team significantly; evidence his switch-off with Smith to Rondo that put the clamps on us at the end of the game as the best example. Heads up D by the Hawks there.

I wouldn't want to find ourselves going back to Atlanta. We'll need to take care of business at home Thursday, which if we're reasonably healthy we can do.

I still can't figure out why Doc is playing Hollins all those minutes and had Steamer on the bench for all but four minutes of this game. It has been said over and over again that his feet are not an issue. Even Doc says his feet are feeling the best they have felt in a long time. When he was in there, he played well in all but a couple of sequences. I am sorry, Hollins had a half way decent game, but I really believe Steamer deserves more minutes. There is more to this than Doc is letting on.

I will not blame Rondo for the loss, heck, he is the one who got them back in the game. However, those floaters weren't going in, why wasn't he looking for someone else to score?

Bob, that last play of the game bothered me too. The steal was great, but he took the ball, never looked downcourt, and got trapped by Smith and Horeford. That means KG was all alone. He was the one they should have been looking to score. Just one basket, that's all.

Joe Johnson has proved that he is just a shooter and I am not sorry he is not here. Complaining about not getting looks, he got them last night and it took everything he had just to score. Horeford was the difference in this game, he is terrific.

ONE MORE GAME, THAT'S IT. I HAVE BEEN SAYING "CELTICS IN SIX", HERE'S HOPING I AM RIGHT!

Rosalie

This is an article from Celticstown.com. It breaks down, play-by-play, Steamer's 4 minutes. He's not as down on Hollins as I am, but he does ask the question "Why isn't Doc playing Steamer?".

We spent the last two or three months of the regular season learning how Greg Stiemsma can impact a game, how he blocks a lot of shots and normally plays proper positional defense, how his rebounding and defensive low-post position have improved quite a bit since the Celtics’ season-opener on Christmas Day, how he occasionally hits jumpers because he weirdly possesses a nice mid-range shot. Yet for whatever reason, Doc Rivers decided to yank Stiemsma from the rotation last night. His usual second-half minutes went to Ryan Hollins.

Stiemsma played four minutes for the night. Hollins, mostly an afterthought since being acquired midseason as a free agent, played 19.

This isn’t a post to complain about Hollins. He caught a couple alley-oops, grabbed three offensive rebounds (including one where I thought to myself, “Holy hell, Ryan Hollins just became a man”), blocked one shot (I felt like he blocked more — they must have been after the whistle) and generally didn’t screw up anything too badly. At least once, Al Horford absolutely swallowed Hollins on the interior and reminded us the difference between an All-Star and a journeyman, but for the most part Hollins did his job pretty well.

Yet he’s more prone to mistakes than Stiemsma. He can’t hit the mid-range jumper. He doesn’t block everything inside the Boston city line. He’s historically an inept rebounder who hasn’t built a well of trust over the past three months.

When Stiemsma played just 14 combined minutes in Games 2 and 3, I thought it was just a matter of Doc Rivers trying to match up with Atlanta’s small lineups. But even with Al Horford back and the Hawks playing more conventionally, we saw very little Stiemsma in Game 5. He says his feet feel better than they have all season, so it’s not an injury issue. Rather, Rivers made a choice that Boston would be better off without their top shot-blocker.

With that in mind, I took the time to re-watch all of Stiemsma’s possessions yesterday. Thankfully, because he only played four minutes, it didn’t take too long. What follows is a play-by-play account of Stiemsma’s floor time.

Play one: Stiemsma sets a mean screen for Brandon Bass, opening Bass for a wide open jumper. Bass misses the jumper but Stiemsma grabs the offensive rebound, one of just nine the Celtics would snag last night. Paul Pierce ends up with a layup on the ensuing possession when Stiemsma intelligently cuts to the opposite side of the hoop, taking his guy with him and leaving Pierce with a wide open lane.

Play two: Stiemsma helps into the middle of the lane off Al Horford. Joe Johnson beats his man, but Stiemsa is there to alter the shot and force a miss. Bass corrals the rebound.

Play three: Rondo drives to the hoop and foregoes an open layup in favor of passing to Stiemsma. It’s intercepted. Even if we despise Stiemsma with everything in our veins, we cannot blame this on him.

(Editor’s note: We now have three plays, and Stiemsma has been prominently involved in every one. This will become a theme. The man makes his presence known.)

Play four: Marvin Williams drives to the hoop. Stiemsma leaves his man to contest and forces a very ugly attempt. Despite very little contact, a whistle blows and Williams heads to the line.

Play five: Pick and roll between Stiemsma and Paul Pierce (I’ll let you guess who handled the ball). Pierce ends up going to the hoop and turning the ball over.

Play six: Jeff Teague dribbles in transition with a full head of steam. He attempts to make a pass to a teammate for an easy score, but Stiemsma deflects it and the Celtics seize possession.

Play seven: Brandon Bass picks up the pass deflected by Stiemsma and outlets it to Paul Pierce. The Truth makes a layup, largely because of Stiemsma’s defensive effort.

Play eight: The Hawks spend most of their offensive possession playing footsy with each other, after which Joe Johnson takes an ill-advised 30-footer to end the shot clock. His shot misses. Rondo boards.

Play nine: Stiemsma sets a screen for Rondo, who’s open off the screen but misses a jumper.

(Editor’s note: We are now more than halfway through Stiemsma’s four minutes. So far, he has grabbed an offensive rebound which led to a Paul Pierce layup, deflected a pass to lead to another Pierce layup, altered one shot to force a miss and generally done nothing wrong. In other words, nothing yet has screamed, “Doc, it’s Ryan Hollins time.”)

Play 10: Jeff Teague drives to the middle, but Stiemsma cuts off his path, Teague is forced to circle back outside. Later in the possession, Teague drives to the right side, Stiemsma contests his layup and it misses. Brandon Bass rotated well on the weak side and has inside position on Erick Dampier for the rebound, but forgets to box out.

(Editor’s note: I am 99.97 percent sure the following play is why Rivers decided to keep Stiemsma on the bench for good after his first stint. Also, it’s Stiemsma’s first mistake.)

Dampier offensive rebounded Teague’s miss because Bass politely declined to box him out. A pick-and-roll of sorts in the left corner forces Bass to leave Dampier alone and double Josh Smith with Ray Allen. Dampier is sitting wide open underneath the basket but Stiemsma fails to rotate, and Dampier gets a layup at the rim. This, I admit, is Stiemsma’s fault.

Play 11: Rondo misses a floater from eight feet. Stiemsma watches, but not creepily.

Play 12: Teague again drives to the basket, again hears Stiemsma’s breathing patterns, again misses a layup. This time, Stiemsma does not leave Bass to try to rebound the miss he forced. He grabs the board his damn self.

Play 13: Stiemsma sets a ball-screen for Ray Allen. After catching on the roll, Stiemsma awkwardly dribbles off his foot and the ball falls out of bounds to the Hawks. Mistake No. 2.

Play 14: Joe Johnson manages to avoid a horde of Celtics defenders trying to stop him and meanders his way to the hoop. Despite Stiemsma’s best efforts to return Johnson’s shot to sender, Johnson floats the ball an inch or two above the shot-blocker’s fingertips and splashes the nets.

Play 15: Mickael Pietrus misses a three. I find this hard to pin on Stiemsma, who had great position for the offensive rebound but was out-jumped by Josh Smith, who tends to out-jump the majority of living human beings.

Play 16: Stiemsma is defending Erick Dampier, but a few feet off him in help position. The ball gets swung to Dampier, who passes quickly to Josh Smith underneath. I’m not sure exactly why Brandon Bass isn’t defending Smith properly, but Smith goes to the other side of the hoop and misses a reverse dunk. He grabs his own rebound. Stiemsma, who did his best to contest the first dunk, blocks Smith’s second dunk attempt, but sadly declines to do the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag. Rondo picks up the rebound and the Celtics are off to the races.

That’s it. That’s every possession Stiemsma played. In his eight defensive possessions, the Hawks managed just six points, a meager 75.0 offensive rating which would have been very much worse than the Charlotte Bobcats’ league-worst rating during the regular season. In his eight offensive possessions, the Celtics scored just four points, awful, but Stiemsma’s contributions led to both of their hoops.

In four minutes, Stiemsma missed one defensive rotation, made one turnover, blocked a Josh Smith dunk, altered three separate Atlanta layups to force misses, deflected a pass to cause a steal, almost blocked Joe Johnson’s floater in the lane, grabbed one offensive rebound to keep a possession alive and added a defensive rebound, which came after one of the three shots he altered. His final impression of the night came while blocking Josh Smith’s attempted dunk, which helped to cover up Brandon Bass’ defensive inadequacy on the possession in question.

I still don’t know why Hollins played all Stiemsma’s minutes from that point forward. I can only guess it was due to the missed defensive rotation, but Stiemsma wasn’t alone in that sin. I also remember a series of missed defensive rotations by other Celtics, several of which led to Al Horford dunks.

Hollins played reasonably well last night, but I’m 114 percent convinced Stiemsma gives the Celtics the best chance going forward. I can only hope Doc Rivers agrees.


bob


.

Has any reporter asked Doc? I wonder what his reply would be. Thanks Bob, I am glad I am not the only one wondering.

Bob,

Taking neither side of the Hollins/Stiemsma debate for a moment, the article you posted left me with one thought;

Has this person nothing else to do?

Not you of course, Bob, but the writer. Who, besides an NBA coach, breaks something down that completely? In the writers case he not only took the time to do it, but he took the time to analyze a situation that he knows nothing about except the video. There's more to the decision of who played than can be found by burning out the circuits in the DVR looking for clues a la Sherlock Holmes.

I have also wondered or pontificated about why one player should get minutes over another, but that is taking it to a level beyond silly. Reminds me of William Shatner's appearance years back on SNL, doing a parody of himself and telling the Trekkies to "get a life!"

Just a thought that struck me.

Regards

No defense. Three Celtics standing around.






Steamer, challenging Teague. His man, Rondo is at the free throw line.






Bradley, chasing Joe Johnson around





Look at all the green in the crowd





Pierce's legs looked just fine here, but it was still early




Steamer, with the straight up block on Smith. I don't know where KG was at that moment, but he had to be on his feet. Quick reflexes by Steamer. Smith went right back up after the missed dunk.




KG, for 3, at the buzzer.




Same play. Coming from behind Josh Smith did all he could. He made KG move off his spot.





After drawing the double, Ray assists to an aggressive Bass





Same play. Watch how Horford gets out of the way.




Ok, some props to Hollins. Nice offensive rebound and dish to Rondo.






Hollins, outrunning the ancient Dampier downcourt.

NYCelt wrote:Bob,

Taking neither side of the Hollins/Stiemsma debate for a moment, the article you posted left me with one thought;

Has this person nothing else to do?

Not you of course, Bob, but the writer. Who, besides an NBA coach, breaks something down that completely? In the writers case he not only took the time to do it, but he took the time to analyze a situation that he knows nothing about except the video. There's more to the decision of who played than can be found by burning out the circuits in the DVR looking for clues a la Sherlock Holmes.

I have also wondered or pontificated about why one player should get minutes over another, but that is taking it to a level beyond silly. Reminds me of William Shatner's appearance years back on SNL, doing a parody of himself and telling the Trekkies to "get a life!"

Just a thought that struck me.

Regards

NYCelt,

Actually, no, I don't think this person or the people who write for redsarmy.com or celticshub.com or hoopshype.com, etc. have anything else to do. I think they make their money with these blogs (ad revenues) which also act like a living resume for them for short-term gigs as reporters.

Considering how much time I spend on this site, the question might be relevant to me too. :-)

bob


.

keep those articles coming Bob. I couldn't care less about how much time anyone spends on the computer!

NY Celt: you have to admit, the guy who wrote the article really broke it down well. I thought it was just me who was wondering why Steamer wasn't playing more. It is good to know there are others out there (Bob!) who feel the same way. Anyway, those of us who have nothing to do but read the computer half the day (retired) appreciate the ramblings of another crazy Celtic fan.

Bob and Rosalie,

My point is more that he spent so much time breaking that down to come to a conclusion that Steamer should have been playing the minutes Hollins got. Yet he could have no way of knowing why Doc didn't play Stiemsma more.

All the writer did was illustrate history. We still don't know any more about why Hollins played over Stiemsma. Seems like a useless exercise to me. Maybe he could have used the time to clean out the garage...

Again; just a thought that struck me after reading the article.

Regards

He has two bad feet, I know I have what Steamer has.

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Stiemsma: "I'll be all right"

April 20, 2012

Celtics coaches notices Greg Stiemsma is struggling with his feet, and pull him from the game in Atlanta

ATLANTA — There is a fine line between playing through pain and having that play hurt the team.

Greg Stiemsma found himself treading -- scratch that, more like sinking below - that fine line on Friday which is why C's coach Doc Rivers opted to keep him off the floor for the entire second half of Boston's 97-92 loss to Atlanta.

"Greg's foot was bothering him, so we pulled him," Rivers said.

After the game, Stiemsma said both of his feet have been bothering him lately, with the left one - the one with plantar fasciitis - bothering him more on Friday.

"It's just been a lot of games, a lot of minutes and not a lot of days off so it all kind of adds up," Stiemsma said. "But I'll be all right."

With plantar fasciitis in his left foot and a bone bruise in the other, Stiemsma has the kind of injuries that can only heal with time and rest - neither of which Stiemsma or the Celtics have a lot of right now.

Boston has essentially kept him off the floor during shoot-arounds and practices to help preserve his feet from any added pounding.

"This season his foot is just not going to get completely better," Rivers said.

Stiesma admits he hasn't been as forthcoming as he should have been about how much his feet have bothered him lately even with a slew of treatments.

"It's hard to take yourself out, to ever admit that you're a little sore and hurting," Stiemsma said. "It's not fair to the team; it's not fair to yourself to play when you're not at 100 percent, when you can't do the things that you need to do. I was feeling kind of slow out there tonight. I think I looked like it, too."

He did, which is why Rivers didn't hesitate to give his minutes in the second half to Ryan Hollins who had his best game as a Celtic with eight points and five rebounds. "He has to be more honest with us about how he's feeling," Rivers said of Stiemsma. "That's a lesson he should learn from this."

Well, there's the answer.

bob

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