POST GAME NEW ORLEANS

GAME STATS

Rebounds - Celtics 33/ NO 48 ........ Offensive - Celtics 6/NO 11 ........Defensive - Celtics 27/ NO 37
Points In The Paint - Celtics 32/ NO 48
Fast Break Points - Celtics 16/ NO 7
FG - Celtics - 34/78 (45.9%) NO 31/71 (43.7%)
3PM - Celtics 4/18 (22.2%) NO 2/17 (11.8%)
FTM - Celtics 6/16 (37.5%) NO 26/31 (83.9%)
TO - Celtics 15/ NO 17
Assists - Celtics 22/ NO 12
STL - Celtics 11/ NO 5
BLK - Celtics 4/ NO 3
PF - Celtics 21/ NO 21
Bench Points - Celtics 31/ NO 28

NEXT GAME - FRI - HOME - 7:00PM - CHICAGO - CSNE/ESPN

POST GAME RECAP


ESPNBOSTON.COM

Rapid Reaction: Hornets 90, Celtics 78

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

BOSTON -- Rapid reaction after the New Orleans Hornets defeated the Boston Celtics 90-78 on Wednesday night at TD Garden:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Al-Farouq Aminu scored a team-high 18 points (making 12-of-13 attempts at the charity stripe), while Anthony Davis (10 points, 10 rebounds) and Greivis Vasquez (15 points, 11 rebounds) posted double-doubles for New Orleans. The Hornets did most of their damage inside (winning the points-in-the-paint battle 48-32). Paul Pierce really struggled from the floor, connecting on just 5-of-16 shots (1-of-7 beyond the 3-point arc) and finished with 12 points over 33 minutes before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. Kevin Garnett was a team-worst minus-21 despite chipping in a team-high 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting, but had only four rebounds and turned the ball over three times. Jason Terry chipped in 12 points off the bench for Boston.

ROUND 1 TO AUSTIN
With Eric Gordon out on the second night of a back-to-back, Austin Rivers got a friendly bump in playing time against his dad's team and responded by registering eight points on 3-of-6 shooting with an assist over 22:43. He wins the first head-to-head battle between father and son -- only the fourth time it's happened in NBA history.

TURNING POINT
The Celtics were up as much as 11 in the first quarter, but kicked it away with some sloppy and atrocious play in the middle quarters. The Hornets were up one at halftime before embarking on a 15-4 run to open the second half. A Robin Lopez layup after a Rondo turnover -- Boston's 12th of the night -- had the Hornets out front 59-47 with 6:34 to go in the frame. The Celtics made a couple charges in the fourth quarter, twice making it a one-possession game, but simply couldn't get over the hump (Courtney Lee missed a couple triples that could have tied it). The Hornets stretched their lead back to 11 with 3:37 to go and Boston simply couldn't string together consecutive buckets.

WHAT IT MEANS
Boston's season-high six-game winning streak is snapped by a Hornets squad that has now won six of their last seven. The Celtics started strong, but couldn't generate consistent offense, which allowed the Hornets to get some points in transition (aided by 15 turnovers that led to 21 points for New Orleans). The Celtics didn't help their cause by missing 10 of 16 free throws. They'll kick themselves after the Hornets shot just 43.7 percent and missed 15 of 17 3-pointers they hoisted. The Celtics close out this five-game homestand by hosting the Chicago Bulls on Friday night before a brief two-game road trip makes stops in Detroit (Sunday) and Cleveland (Tuesday).
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CSNE

Celtics' streak snapped after 90-78 loss to Hornets

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY


BOSTON – Austin Rivers did not have a particularly good game against his father and the Boston Celtics.

But like his dad, the younger Rivers was more concerned about his team getting the victory.

And that they did, as the New Orleans Hornets pulled ahead in the second quarter and pulled away in the third for a 90-78 win.

Boston (20-18) had their moments in the third and fourth quarters to put the pressure on New Orleans, but those moments often resulted in turnovers and missed shots which ultimately added up to a missed opportunity for victory as the C's season-long winning streak is snapped at six games.

For New Orleans, it was the yet another solid performance for a team that's showing they can win with and without their best players.

Hornets coach Monty Williams announced before the game that top-scorer Eric Gordon would not play because Wednesday's game.

Gordon had offseason knee surgery and the Hornets have not allowed him to play in back-to-back games.

His absence had little impact on the game other than create a great chance for Austin Rivers to see action.

Rivers averages about 25 minutes per game this season, but came into Wednesday's game having played a total of 14 minutes in the previous three games.

Against the C's, he played 14 minutes in the first half and finished with eight points while playing 22 minutes.

New Orleans continued to pull away in the third quarter by doing one thing and one thing only - playing harder.

They were more aggressive going to the basket, which was evident in the Hornets having a 24-12 advantage in points in the paint. They collapsed on C's shooters with greater force which resulted in the C's shooting less than 40 percent in the second half after connecting on 51 percent of their shots in the first half.

New Orleans dictated the game's tempo and pushed it to a level that the Celtics were never able to match.

In the end, the C's spent far too much time looking to score from the perimeter instead of attacking the rim. And that made an already improved defensive effort by the Hornets, even better.


WEEI 93.7 FM

FAST BREAK: AUSTIN RIVERS WINS BRAGGING RIGHTS OVER DOC 01.16.13 at 10:29 pm ET

By Ben Rohrbach

Austin Rivers scored just eight points in 22 minutes against the Celtics, but he walked out of TD Garden with bragging rights against his father. C’s coach Doc Rivers watched as his team blew an early double-digit lead and snapped a six-game winning streak in a 90-78 loss to the Hornets.

Five Hornets (12-27) reached double figures, led by Robin Lopez‘s 17 points, and New Orleans won the rebound battle, 47-33. Greivis Vasquez (15 points, 11 rebounds) and Anthony Davis each had double-doubles.

Kevin Garnett‘s 15 points led the Celtics. Paul Pierce (10 rebounds) and Jason Terry each scored 12. Rajon Rondo had 11 assists but just seven points.

WHAT WENT WRONG

First-half lapse: Mainly behind the starting five, the Celtics built a 21-10 lead in the game’s first nine minutes. Mainly against the C’s reserves, the Hornets slowly chipped away until a four-minute stretch midway through the second quarter, when the Celtics committed four turnovers and missed three jumpers. That’s when the young New Orleans squad snatched their first lead of the game, eventually taking a 44-43 advantage into halftime.

Painting a poor picture: The Hornets’ first lead, 33-32, came after a pair of layups from Greivis Vasquez and Austin Rivers and a Jason Smith dunk. That was quickly followed by an Al-Farouq Aminu dunk. The point? The Celtics allowed a whole lotta points in the paint (48 to be exact), and 22 of those first 33 points came in the key.

Too many freebies: Doc Rivers doesn’t want to see his team give up more than 14 turnovers, and he definitely doesn’t want them to allow more than 14 points off those giveaways. They turned the ball over 15 times, gifting the Hornets 21 points. Garnett, Rondo and Pierce were the biggest culprits, committing 10 between them. Of course, the C’s 6-of-16 free throw shooting didn’t help, either.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Bass first: It’s been five games since Brandon Bass last scored 10 points, and after his first half, he seemed prepared to snap out of the drought. Bass made four of his first five shots, including a trio of jumpers, to score nine points by the break, but he attempted just one shot after the half and failed to reach double figures. He’s already lost minutes to Jared Sullinger, and he’ll need more stretches like he had in the game’s opening 24 minutes in order to keep Chris Wilcox from taking even more.

Terry time: Likewise, Terry reached double digits after his first scoreless game of the season on Monday night. His performance was the lone bright spot off the bench, and it couldn’t have come at a better time, as he scored 10 of his 12 points on 4-for-4 shooting in the third quarter to keep the Celtics within five … against the Hornets.

3-point defense: The Celtics held New Orleans to just 2-for-17 shooting from beyond the arc, including 1-of-5 by former Magic sharpshooter Ryan Anderson. It might’ve helped had the C’s shot better than 4-for-18 from 3.

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It is rare that I say this....but Doc deserves a big part of the blame for this loss.

-In the 3rd quarter, when Vazquez was controlling the game - he had Bradley on the bench - Why?
-He had nothing going to the basket for nearly the entire 2nd half, so what does he do? Keep his best driver (Barbosa) on the bench until the game was basically over.
-When Leandro finally comes in - he looks great and sparks the team, albeit too little too late.

Not sure if he was pre-occupied with his son being in town or what, but he did not do his best job on the bench. That was not the reason they lost - but it certanly didnt help.

Two sloppy games in a row....we lucked out with the Bob Cats but this was a stinker! Friday will tell the tale if we can bounce back against a good team.

We had a good opportunity to gain some ground with Brooklyn who also lost. We lost ground to Atlanta who won and we are tied in the lost column with Mil. Bucks.

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Mk,

I cannot agree with you more....where was Barbosa? Where was Bradley?

But again we played poorly in the last game as well but won......I think a college team can beat the Bob Cats .....Chicago will be a test and good measure as to who we really are.

If we just hang around 500 before the trading deadline Danny will treak the team with a move. I do not think he will trade the young inner core but guys like Terry and Bass may be moved to set the team up for next year with also the signing of a few free agents! In my opinion, next year is going to be the team to compete for the finals.

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Up 21-10 in the first quarter and Jet was shooting a three that would have given the C's a 14 point lead. From that point when he missed, the Hornets outscored the C's by nearly 30 points over a period of over three quarters at 87-71 with a couple minutes left.

Shockingly bad performance for a team that looked like it was getting its feces together (I know the usual term for that is not allowed on here).

What a disappointing game. Every game is critical to start moving up the seedings ladder.

Awful game, they played what I call STUPID BALL. It seemed in the beginning as if they were going to run away with the game. Then they just got lazy, kept shooting from the outside and missing.

Barbosa sat on the bench at a time when they could have used him driving to the basket.

I have a little feeling that Bradley may have been hurt or something. At half time he kept his jacket on and kept feeding Barbosa the ball, giving me the impression that he was not going to start the second half. Then he went into the game without warming up at all. Brian Doo was stretching him out at half court at half time. He just didn't seem right.

All in all, a very disappointing night with the Celtics losing to a team that they should have beaten by double digits. They made Robin Lopez look like a superstar out there and he is such a dud.

I guess we wait to see what Friday brings, but this is the second game they have played like this. Scary.

Rosalie

i think there were several factors at play.

bradley was doing an excellent job at harrasing the offense, taking time off the clock, early on when he did that, we put together a nice lead. when bradley wasn't out there doing that on D we were getting hurt.

i dont give a d@mn wether bradley doesn anything on offense, his D alone is disruptive enough to create havoc for the opposition

Rondo wasted time bringing the ball upcourt.

I actauly timed it in the first half, in the second i coudlnt as my link started to freeze up, but Rondo would use the same amount of time to walk the ball up court as Bradley on D shaved off the clock- actauly almost a second more. Rondo was also taking over a second longer than his teammates in the first hald when THEY brought the ball upcourt.

One of Rondo's greatest edges is his speed. instead he actualy took more time on average than the hornets to get the ball over the halfcourt line.

Peirce settled on too many jumpers... damnitt man go inside and draw some fouls...

this team has it within them to be as god as any team in the league. they just have to want it. VS new orleans, they didnt want it. somewhere in boston a lawyer is prolly laying out his plan to sue boston for not giving their all (a la san antonio)

Rondo is not an elite point, how many times has Pierce or KG been off and team needed some spark, some scoring from the point and they get 6 or 7 points.....shoot and keep on shooting.

Someone said we should trade Pierce if we can get a young BIG, I would consider trading Rondo.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Rondo is not an elite point, how many times has Pierce or KG been off and team needed some spark, some scoring from the point and they get 6 or 7 points.....shoot and keep on shooting.

Someone said we should trade Pierce if we can get a young BIG, I would consider trading Rondo.

The thread I started "Interesting Article on Rondo" didn't seem to go over well on the board when I posted it. Rondo's performance last nite fits in right with what Ford was talking about. If he is a superstar then he has to play like it. You can't take games off. We needed scoring bad last night and he failed miserably. If he would have been a factor offensively then Pierce wouldn't have kept putting up shots. You could tell Pierce and even Terry at times were passing up shots because they didn't feel good shooting it. I am not blaming the loss on Rondo though, there were a lot of performances that figured in. Horrible 3pt shooting was one. Horrible rebounding was another. Matty said he timed how long it took to get the ball up court. I had never done that but I had definitely noticed it. Happened quite a few times when we got a rebound and I thought we could push it, only to have the ball walked up. Tommy said it right last nite, you can run every play, not just on rebounds. We don't do that.

Of course its easy to over react to one game. I think there has been a lot of over reacting to our win streak as well. We played a couple of good games in that streak and a few that were not good, we just won mainly on defense. We definitely need rebounding and a inside defensive presence. Again I am not throwing this all on Rondo, it was a team effort. Jump shot after jump shot.

Didn't see the game, so can't comment specifically on it. But of course that doesn't stop me from chiming in.

Regarding Bradley, it's so tempting to think that he's "back," but his recovery from two shoulder surgeries will be ongoing for a while. I have absolutely no idea whether that was a factor in Doc's decisions regarding Bradley's playing time, but there are bound to be bumps in the road before he's 100%.

Rondo's habit of walking the ball up the court is curious. He's done it seemingly forever, and no one can understand why. Doc has said on multiple occasions that it's not a good thing, and as people here have pointed out for a long time, it plays into the opponents' hands by forcing the Celtics to run their offense with essentially a 16-second shot clock instead of 24 seconds. We've all seen how the Celtics' offense suffers at times and they turn into a jump-shooting team that gets a poor percentage shot as the clock runs down. Considering what Rondo is capable of, it's frustrating. He certainly is an enigma.

But the C's were just coming off a six-game win streak. Teams have off games. If their better play of late is the true trend, then this will just be a blip in the schedule. At a minimum, it should give Doc ammunition to get their attention.

[quote="tardust"]

cowens/oldschool wrote:Rondo is not an elite point, how many times has Pierce or KG been off and team needed some spark, some scoring from the point and they get 6 or 7 points.....shoot and keep on shooting.

Someone said we should trade Pierce if we can get a young BIG, I would consider trading Rondo.

The thread I started "Interesting Article on Rondo" didn't seem to go over well on the board when I posted it. Rondo's performance last nite fits in right with what Ford was talking about. If he is a superstar then he has to play like it. You can't take games off. We needed scoring bad last night and he failed miserably. If he would have been a factor offensively then Pierce wouldn't have kept putting up shots. You could tell Pierce and even Terry at times were passing up shots because they didn't feel good shooting it. I am not blaming the loss on Rondo though, there were a lot of performances that figured in. Horrible 3pt shooting was one. Horrible rebounding was another. Matty said he timed how long it took to get the ball up court. I had never done that but I had definitely noticed it. Happened quite a few times when we got a rebound and I thought we could push it, only to have the ball walked up. Tommy said it right last nite, you can run every play, not just on rebounds. We don't do that.

Of course its easy to over react to one game. I think there has been a lot of over reacting to our win streak as well. We played a couple of good games in that streak and a few that were not good, we just won mainly on defense. We definitely need rebounding and a inside defensive presence. Again I am not throwing this all on Rondo, it was a team effort. Jump shot after jump shot.[/quote



I saw that thread, didn't comment because I had started a thread a month earlier or so where I said alot of things very similar, like Rondo was dominating the ball too much in the offense to rack up his assists and his assists had little impact on us winning games and that we needed more scoring out of him to carry us for stretches like the elite points or players do/can.

All will be forgiven and we will again have a new perspective if we beat the Bulls next game. I would much rather beat the Bulls than the Hornets. Of course I think we should be able to take care of business against a team with a 33% winning percentage on our home floor. To me there is no excuse for that. We beat the Bulls we feel good about our team. If we don't beat them them we are looking for answers again. For some reason I think inside play will be a factor next game.

Everyone played pretty bad after that first quarter lead hopefully this will help us going forward, this has to motivate us for Bulls, if we can't play hard and win with them playing without D Rose then I'll lower my expectations, is it asking too much for Rondo to have 3 games in a row of 20+ points....okay how about 18+? the guy is in his 7th season, take more shots, carry the load, don't play scared out there. He should be playing with an attitude I'm gonna beat you, go right by or at you and beat him.....in boxing you have to beat a guy to the punch, Rondo doesn't do that enough or at all, eventually they know he won't shot or try to score and they all overplay the pass bogging down our offense more.

What everyone must acknowledge is we are fighting for the 8th spot and the Bucks are tied with us in the loss column. There are a host of teams ahead of us who are not going to fade and go away like in the past.

Games like this are essential wins for us to try and move up in the standings. We lose Friday and it is 2 steps back verses one step back if we had won last night.

I just don't buy into the whole team not being up for the game. The team is run by its floor general......Rondo and, what you see is what you are getting from your general! Like in dancing.........if you do not have a good lead partner your not going to look like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers!

Also interesting to note that Scal spent the first half standing & talking with Danny Ainge. Scal if he did not chose broadcasting would be a coach in the NBA. I am sure Danny was picking Scal's brain as to what he thinks of the team.
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New Orleans knocked off the Sixers the night before and then, without Eric Gordon and with only 5 minutes of Brian Roberts, proceeded to beat us. So much for the wear-and-tear of back-to-backs.

We had a nice lead and then we let them back in. We scored 35 points in the 2nd half.

1. Bradley started out like a house on fire. He was giving Greivus Vasquez significant heartburn, had 3 steals in the first half and hit his shots. Then, he disappeared in the second half. He only played 22 minutes total. I don't understand that. By the end of the game, though, he couldn't even stop Vasquez from getting past him on the baseline. That doesn't differentiate him from anybody else, and I don't understand that either.

2. Brandon Bass had a very good game. Too bad it was wasted. He hit his shots, played good D and rebounded. Very solid game. A bright spot in this game is that Bass' shot is back.

3. Al Farouq Aminu outplayed Paul Pierce. Pierce rebounded like a fiend and shot us out of this game. 12 points on 5-16 and 1-7 from 3. He has got to take fewer 3s. Take a break. Relax. Do other things (like rebound like a fiend) but stop taking 3s every time down the floor. It's screwing up our offensive flow. Try stopping your man once in a while too. Aminu averages 7ppg and was game high scorer with 18 last night. He lived at the line, shooting 12-13. Pierce was talking before the game about how he was going to be ready for Austin Rivers. He should have been thinking about Aminu instead. Pierce fouled out.

4. Lopez outplayed Garnett. That it was Robin and not Brooke makes it even more embarrassing. Coming out of halftime Lopez outfought KG and Bass for an offensive board, and that set the tone for the 3rd quarter, they just outworked us. 4 of Lopez's 6 rebounds were offensive. He's averaging 11.6ppg and scored 17 last night on 7-11, almost all of the fgs inside. KG was making boneheaded plays that you'll have to wait a dog year to see again.

5. Greivas Vasquez out played Rondo. Outscored him 15-7, outrebounded him 11-3. Rondo had 11 assists vs 4 for Greivus, but Rondo didn't help the offense much last night, his passing being quite passive. When he ran, it worked, but most of the game he'd walk the ball up and then hold the ball while the offense was running. So, by the time he makes his pass we're down to a handful of seconds left on the shot clock. That makes things easier for the Hornet defense. Think Barbosa would walk the ball up? I think his walk would resemble most people's jog and his jog would be most people's run.

6. JET had a good game. The Hornet bench was in the process of creaming our bench until he heated up. Finally. 12 points on 5-10. He still played matador defense, but by the end of the 3rd quarter I realized I couldn't single him out for that since they were all guilty as charged.

7. JET's good game probably kept Barbosa on the bench. The way Rondo was playing I don't see how replacing Rondo with Barbosa, instead of replacing JET, would have necessarily been a mistake. In 3 minutes, Barbosa came in and scored 7 points on 3-4. We scored a whopping 35 points in the entire second half. It was obvious we couldn't put the ball in the hole. He's a goddamn microwave Doc, put him in!

8. This game was lost at the line. We only shot a mindboggling 38% on 6-16 while they shot 84% on 26-31. The fact that they hit theirs and we didn't hit ours is only part of the story. That they got 31 ftas is the bigger part. Our perimeter defense stunk last night and our baseline defense wasn't much better. They were penetrating and dishing and we were fouling. 48 of their 90 points, 53%, were in the paint. Another 29% was scored at the free throw line. Put those together and that's really, really bad defense.

9. All of Austin Rivers' shots came at or near the rim. He's a good shooter, but the way we played perimeter defense last night he didn't need to be. His mother was in the stands cheering him on. That's the express train to divorce in that family.

We wasted a beautiful chance to move up. Chicago won in OT at the buzzer, but Atlanta beat the Nets and Indy lost too.


bob


.

Doc is never divorcing that MILF.

Hi,
It was deserved L. What else do you expect when the whole team, including coach, takes "a day off" for 3+ quarters?
I hope they enjoyed the time off and rested enough to face Bulls on Fri.
OTOH, I'll take this 6W-1L pattern any time, especially if it lasts for the rest of the season.

AK

Here's Jared Sullinger's coach father's tweet after the game:


This Celtic loss tonight is hard to accept. Perfunctory at best with execution n effort. Seems like some issues embedded somewhere.
about 13 hours ago via Mobile Web (M5)ReplyRetweetFavorite



@satchsullinger
satch sullinger


.

People i have been reading all the comments here and in other forums and i agree that Doc Rivers coached one of his worst game in his career ,and the team didnt play the right way.But we have to talk about the main reason for the defeat....Rebounding and points in the paint,the same old problem that many people thaught was solved but not me ,i ve been saying that this team needs a bonafided center,to deal with big teams like New Orleans.As good as Jared Sullinger is playing is clear that referees wont let him play and he wont help us in the bench,a veteran big with experience is needed badly and Danny Ainge has to stop saying that he is happy with the team he has,thats a lie and he Knows it,so lets hope he does his job and get that needed player.48 rebounds for NO and 33 for Boston is not good.

Practice: Bradley sits out session

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley sat out Thursday's practice session with what coach Doc Rivers termed a rib injury suffered in Wednesday's loss to the New Orleans Hornets. Bradley will be a game-time decision for Friday's visit from the Chicago Bulls.

"He’s OK, he’s not great," Rivers said of Bradley, who was spotted before practice walking with team physician Dr. Brian McKeon. "He got hit in the ribs or somewhere; I don’t even know where he got hit. We’ll see tomorrow. He’s not going to practice or do anything today, for sure."

Rivers had previously noted that Bradley, who has played eight games in 14 days since returning from double shoulder surgery, appeared tired during Wednesday's game, but the injury might have diminished his typically relentless on-the-ball defense.

After scoring a season-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting over 27 minutes in Monday's win over Charlotte, Bradley registered just four points on 2-of-4 shooting over 21 minutes against the Hornets.

A few more notes from Thursday's pre-practice access:

* JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS ON JUMPERS: Rivers always stresses that he's OK with open looks, but admitted the Celtics got too comfortable with their perimeter shots on Wednesday. "There’s nothing wrong with taking jump shots -- if you’re open and you're making them," said Rivers. "But you gotta have some sort of regulator on your team and on yourself if they are not going in. You have to go to the second and third options, and look for a better shot." Did Rivers like the looks his team got against the Hornets? "Not really. I liked some of them, but I thought a lot of them were rushed, early in the clock. I thought we took a lot of open shots -- ones that were marginally contested. To me, you can get a better shot."

* NO CHANGE FOR BULLS: Rivers pointed to the importance of rebounding against the size-gushing Bulls when they visit on Friday, but said he won't change the starting lineup. Rivers has used veteran Jason Collins at center to take some of the wear-and-tear off Kevin Garnett, but said this will not be one of those games.

* CLOSING THE BOOK ON AUSTIN: Rivers was clearly eager to move on from Wednesday's father-vs.-son battle with New Orleans rookie Austin River, but said his son limited the postgame trash talk. "He was very humble, which for him was great. No it was fun, we had a good time after the game, it was a lot of fun," said coach Rivers. "Other than that, I wasn’t in the greatest of moods, it was really good to see him." The elder Rivers also made it a point to thank the fans for the ovation they gave his son when he entered the game. "It was really neat the fans giving him that ovation, I didn’t expect that," he said. "That was actually another strange event from last night, a player who has never played [in Boston] comes in and they cheer for him. So that was cool, too." Celtics fans also booed Austin Rivers after drawing a foul on Paul Pierce in the closing seconds of the third quarter. "I loved that more," said coach Rivers. "My wife [Kris] was laughing. [The fans would] clap and then all of a sudden it was like, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we gotta win this game.' That was funny."

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BobH,

Hindsight into Rondo's complete game performance is a lot different from Doc's having the right to expect, at any given moment during the game, that Rondo could do a turnaround and completely take over the game. It has happened many times in the past with Rondo, and Pierce too for that matter.

I agree with you that Barbosa should be getting more playing time. But it should be incorporated into the game plan, not just as a move of desperation that essentially disrupts the rotation and potentially the game plan.

I believe Doc is of the school that says you win or lose with the players who most consistently submit the best performances. You don't display a loss of confidence in a key performer just because he goes through a bad stretch in one game. That philosophy would have denied the Celtics Terry's double figures last night. (Of course, they weren't enough, but they were better than a sharp stick in the eye.)

I am one who thought that Barbosa looked great in his limited minutes during what was essentially garbage time last night.

Sam

Is it obvious to everyone now how valuable AB is to this team? One off night (due to injury) and the team slumps.

It hard to believe that Doc would not be happy with shots early in the shot clock, especially since we are forced to shoot so many at the end of the clock.

I thought something happened to Bradley last night, I was at the game and was watching him before the third quarter. It was apparent something just wasn't right with him. He took no shots on the basket before the second half started, kept feeding the ball to Barbosa. I commented to my son that I thought he wasn't going to come out for the second half and that Barbosa would have gotten the start. Oh well..

you guys are a bunch of freakin manic depressives

dboss