POST GAME BROOKLYN

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The Bad was that they lost to a team that didn't play even one of their starters a single minute. This was a loss to the Net 6-15 and that's BAD.

1. The Good were most of the key rotation players. After the Philly game I opined that Pierce has been looking old and slow all pre-season. I had no idea he reads this board because he came out last night with a vintage performance. He ran, he hit 3s, he played D. 29 points on 10-17 with 5 boards and 2 blocks in 27 minutes. Sure, you can point to the quality of the defense against him (6-15) but he hasn't had any rhythm so far, so this is good for him to "feel it" again.

2. KG only played 14 minutes as Doc continues to treat him like Ming Dynasty china but when he was in there he was completely dominant. Turnaround jumpers dropped easily, defenses rotated seamlessly and he had two blocks, one of which was Russell-ian. He went up and tapped the ball to Pierce to keep it in play and ignite a fast break. KG's "there". This is the first game that Pierce has been "there" but KG's good.

3. Rondo had 11 assists but since I need something to bitch about I'm going to start with him. A lot of his dimes came off of transition 3s, which fueled the runs Sam mentioned. Great, they dropped, but live by the 3 and you'll die by the 3 too. I want to see Rondo creating more assists out of half-court sets. Lee cutting baseline, Bass pick-and-popping, Sully getting position underneath and getting fed. Stuff like that. Execution in the face of a ready defense. If we're going to get assists on fast breaks (and I hope we get many) then let's make them layups, not 3s. He also had 6 TOs. Some of those are chemistry TOs, which should fade away over the course of the season and he spends more time on the court with newbies Lee, Terry and Sully.

4. Another good game for Lee. He's settling in. He's still not hitting that corner 3 consistently like he was billed as doing, but he's doing a lot of other things well. There have been numerous incidences over the past few games where he was the lone defender back trying to stop a layup off a Celtic turnover and he did it.

5. Bass had his usual understated but effective and efficient game. He doesn't take over games but you look at his boxscore later and go "wow, he made a nice difference". He has said he wants to prove this year that he's not just a pick-and-pop player. You go, Brandon, you go. A real pro.

6. Sully didn't score a lot but he had 9 boards, 4 of them offensive in 30 minutes. In fact, he has more offensive boards than defensive ones so far. How much more do I need to say, given how weak a rebounding team we have been the past year or two? AND he can shoot from outside if he needs to. He ran the floor a few times too. Lee got an open corner 3 (the one out of 4 that dropped for him) because Sully was drawing the defense to him by running straight down the middle of the lane like a magnet and a bunch of iron filings. Sully got schooled by Andray Blatche, who had a great game (23 points, 9 rebounds in 23 minutes and pretty much did whatever he wanted to do). Sully's never seen a player like him. Better to cut his teeth in the pre-season. Why didn't Danny like him?

7. Jeff Green had a nice boxscore (14 points on 3-8 shooting) but this was not one of his better games, IMO. Only 3 rebounds. Hey Jeff, didn't you say you were going to focus more on rebounding this year? He hasn't had a good rebounding game yet. Also, he was unfocused on D. He lost his man on the baseline once and also off a jumpball at the Celtic free throw line that got back tapped and Green's man got it. Those are two examples that leap to mind, but there were a number of times his rotations were slow too.

8. Another underwhelming game by JET. I'm afraid to look at Ray Allen's boxscores. I'll give him this though, he's the best towel waver since ML Carr. We need more than that though, JET, we need a lot more from you.

9. The Ugly was the bottom of our bench, our 11-16. I have been excited all summer by the prospect of these guys rounding out the deepest team in the NBA. Now, I wouldn't give a plugged Euro for any of them. Rob Kurz's game reminds me of a solid but unimpressive role player on a college team that gets eliminated early in the NCAAs. He gave up some 3s because he wasn't up on them. Was that bad D, or was it Kurz recognizing a vulnerability due to lack of mobility? Either way, that's bad. And he survived Xmas? Really, Doc, really? In one of the final sequences the Nets missed a free throw and Kurz got pushed underneath the basket by his man allowing Joseph's man to cut across the lane and gather the ball and get fouled. With the exception of Sam, I have been Kris Joseph's biggest supporters. The player I saw in summer league has yet to make an appearance. There was the abovementioned missed blockout assignment on the missed free throw that cost us the game. He played point forward when he was in. I guess the thought was he'd put a smooth move on his man and penetrate. Instead he had 2 TOs on some out of control efforts and was 0-2 from the floor. Doc says the reason he stuck and Xmas and Smith didn't was because of Joseph's "longterm potential". Isn't that what D-league is for? Downs hit a shot, missed what would have been a beautiful inbounds alley oop from Lee (I thought Downs was fouled, but...) and was a general pest. They (Joseph, Kurz, Downs, Melo) came in with 3:57 left and the Celtics holding a 10 point lead and the 4 of them ended up -11. Poor Jason Collins played with them and had his +/- dragged down to a -9. We cannot trust our scrubs to close out a 10 point lead with 4 left against the bottom of another team's bench. Absolutely appalling. It's time for me to stop thinking about them because, regardless of who makes the team, they're not getting off the bench.

The Celtic starting 5 was pretty good, but they were playing the Nets 6-10. No Deron Williams, no Brooke Lopez, no Joe Johnson, no Gerald Wallace, no Kris Humphries, no Marshon Brooks. In other words, no competition. Good for their chemistry and finding their grooves though. Putting together runs, against anybody, is good for the team.

The bad was Terry, Green and some of our execution off of set plays like jumpballs and free throws.

The ugly was those players who don't really matter in the bigger picture anyway.

Doc didn't come out of the locker room after halftime. Watching the debate?


bob


.

sam wrote:BobH,

I think Danny didn't like Blatche because KG detests him. But, for a guy who was cut for lack of conditioning, he put on quite display last night.

You seem to attribute all those threes at least partly to luck. But the fact is that the pace at which the Celtics were playing during that period did not allow the Nets' defense to get set and, in most of those instances, left Pierce wide open. I'm not a big fan of the three (an understatement), but any wide open shot is a better percentage "gamble" than a contested one.

Sam

sam,

Good point about KG and Blatche. Everybody who plays against KG hates him. Everybody who plays with him loves him. Oh well...

I don't think the 3s were luck. I know that when Pierce is trailing on the break and he stops and pops from 3 on the feed from Rondo it's not luck. It has happened so many times the Leprechaun would have to be working overtime to make it so. I'm just a fan of running fast breaks down the opponents' throats. I think that a well-spaced break that attacks the rim is highly likely to produce points and/or fouls while a 3pt shot is less likely to do that but is more likely to create a long rebound and a quick trip the other way. If the defense gives ground, the offense should take it! Don't just pull up for the open but less easy one. The best way to defend a player is by making them sit down with fouls, they can't hurt you if they're benched, and the way to make them foul you is by aggressively attacking them before their defense is set. 3ptrs on fast breaks are not, IMO, aggressive since they don't force the defense to make tough choices.


bob

.

tjmakz wrote:Sam,

Danny didn't listen to you.
Boston has signed Barbosa who is a combo guard and more of a sg then a pg.

I think they just wanted someone who can speak Portuguese to Melo.


bob


.

sam wrote:Cow, I have more chance of growing hair than Bradley has of acquiring a point guard mentality. I know it. Doc knows it. I suspect Bradley knows it.

Actually, I hope I'm wrong because it would be nice to have more point guard skills on this team. But right now I'm hoping that, being a veteran, Barbosa will have enough basketball IQ to be a better pseudo-backup PG than Bradley would be at this point in his career—especially since he's going to have enough on his mind to compete for SG playing time after missing a month or two.

And, by the way, I've seen a lot of K.C. Jones at work. Avery Bradley is no K.C. Jones. Among other things, K.C. had far better basketball instincts than Avery will ever have.

Sam

sam,

As far as growing hair, there are ways to do that requiring far less effort and talent than becoming a point guard.

You know, I seem to remember hearing about Doc coveting Barbosa last year, but he went to Toronto (and then to Indiana in exchange for a 2nd round pick as part of a salary dump) with a $7M contract, which priced him out of our range.

If Doc ever decides to give up basketball he'd make a great headhunter. First he recruits Terry, then Lee and now he gets his man Barbosa after a multi-year dogged pursuit.

Danny's Ace-in-the-Hole.


bob


.