Gone with the wind.....

What does it all mean?
I would have added: It's somewhat meaningful especially in the playoffs....

Means nothing until we face them with KG, Wallace, Daniels and the rest of our team healthy.

steve3344 wrote:Means nothing until we face them with KG, Wallace, Daniels and the rest of our team healthy.

totally agree

It means that Glen Davis may be starting to find his groove; it confirms that Scal is a valuable emergency player who functions best when there is some continuity and rhythm to his minutes; and it substantiates that a severely shorthanded team, playing a back-to-back against a good young athletic team that's at full-strength is very likely to get tired toward the end. That's absolutely the sum total of the implications of this game.

Sam

Sam there are other implications, as I have implied all season, even when the Big 3, Rondo, and Wallace were on the court:

1) poor ball and player movement in 4th quarters;

2) few assists in 4th quarters;

3) poor shooting in 4th quarters;

4) few free throws.


This has been a CONSISTENT theme all season. Everyone can give reasons for it, but it boils down to lack of aggression in 4th quarters (and other quarters at times).

I hope someone can come up with the number of assists the Celtics generate in 4th quarters compared to other quarters. The last 2 losses the Celtics have had a sum total of 4 assists total in the last quarter. The implications to me are that the Celtics are playing a different 4th quarter than the rest of the game, especially when an athletic team is pressuring them. Tonite Rondo had 2 assists after halftime. He had 2 after halftime of our last loss. And I am not even blaming Rondo. Hard to get assists when passing to statues.

This is the last time I post these problems. The only consistency this season has been injuries and the lack of aggressiveness in which the
Celtics play 4th quarters. I know, you have heard me say this many times. I will let the Celtics' play continue to make my argument for me.

sdcelt - Assists first half tonight: 14. Assists second half: 5 (and only 2 in the 4th quarter).

Shooting: 63.3% through three quarters, 31.3% in the fourth quarter.

And actually Rondo had ONE assist after halftime, not two. He had 6 in the first half, 7 for the game.

Perk's 6 turnovers were killers tonight. We were minus 15 tonight in offensive rebounds and turnovers vs the Hawks and minus 15 in free throw attempts. Virtually impossible to overcome that.

And now, from the Herald, an update that Rasheed will probably be out a week. But I'm betting longer:

Sheed unavailable

Garnett may not be the only Celtic on the mid-range plan. Rasheed Wallace, a game-time scratch because of what the team described as a sore left forefoot, may be a week away from his next action.

“It’s day to day, but I would say maybe a week,” Rivers said. “It’s a toe, foot, I’m not sure what it is. I know it started hurting him after the game last night (in Toronto). He was saying his foot bothered him. And then this morning it got bigger, I guess. But when he came to (last night’s) game he thought he was going to play. He actually went out and tried to warm up, and then he came (back) in and said ‘coach, I can’t go.’ ”

Glen Davis started in Wallace’s place.

This is what happens when the waggon is hitched to old horses. Things that would not bother 23 & 25 year old young men seem to crop up and derail 35 year old men approaching middle age. The Hawks own us now and they know it. Just like when Pedro Martinez admitted the Yankees were his DADDY! Time to examine the process of retooling this franchise. Hey GYSO, give us the economics of what's possible and how long it will take. Hopefully, not another 22 years!-MD.

One game might not mean anything, but being 0-3 vs the Hawks (who have upgraded substantially through acquisitions and internal improvements since the '08 playoffs and whose athleticism gives the Cs fits) does mean something.

I look at the Hawks to the Celtics as the Blazers (when healthy) are to the Lakers, but worse. Because now the Hawks have a belief that they can win in Boston after winning both games there this year.

Sometimes, it's all about matchups, and to me, the Hawks are the worst matchup for the Cs in the East. Worse than the Cavs or the Magic.

Cs would be better off as a 2 seed with Cavs getting the 1 seed and ATL the 4 seed, as the Cavs own the Hawks. I think the Hawks are a bigger threat to the Cs than the Cavs.

Reminds me a little of the NFC East this year. Dallas owned Philly. Philly owned NY. NY owned Dallas.

Eastern Conference NBA looks similar:

Cs> Cavs, Orlando
Orlando> Cavs
Cavs> Hawks
Hawks> Cs

Going to be very interesting in April/May.

Everybody should just relax and not go off the deep end about us being 0-3 against Atlanta while being severely undermanned.

The Hawks know they have little chance of beating Boston (ESPECIALLY in a 7 game series) if both teams are at full strength.

Last night we were undermanned and second night of back to back,Perk has to take it up faster on his post moves before the double comes.Being undermanned we still played starters almost whole 4th quarter,should have used TA,House and SW more last nite.

It means that 40+ minutes for any starter (cept Rondo) on the second night of back to backs is tooooo much as this team is presently assembled.

beat

Keep on truckin', SD. I'm still not buying. All of the factors to which you allude can easily be functions of recent exhaustion and lack of rotation continuity the entire season.

The Hawks have learned how to beat a depleted team consistently. If the Celts are depleted in the playoffs and face the Hawks, the result could very well be the same. If not, revisit me then.

Sky, I have pretty much the same response to your assertion. Yup, the Hawks are improved and are at least sputtering in the RIGHT direction when, at full-strength, they face the Celtics. None of that has anything to do with the Celtics, who have yet to unveil their true potential. (Perhaps they never will; who knows?) The closest to their true potential against the Hawks (and it's just the tiniest of hints given the Celts' continuing state of roster disarray) comes when they're freshest, as in the first quarter last night.

For more than 60 seasons, I've seen one team or another (usually young ones) get unduly hyped over their possibilities because they happen to have good season's records versus other teams due to circumstances that then change come playoff time.

The Hawks beat the Celtics earlier this season when KG was very tentative and the Celtics were in the early stages of their season-long struggle to develop cohesiveness with their new additions. Recently the Hawks have beaten a depleted, exhausted team twice in four days. It's certainly nice to develop confidence, but let's see whether that confidence is misplaced when and if they face the vast array of options the Celtics will have if and when they return to full strength. Sometimes the impact of disillusionment can be worse than never having had the elevated confidence in the first place.

Seasoned veterans know what the score REALLY is, and they focus not on momentary indicators of hopefulness but rather on the long-term task of getting through the rough times and becoming the best they can be by playoff time. They understand the rush of adrenalin that confidence can bring to kids; and that knowledge becomes a challenge that gives the veterans added resolve when the chips are down. They leave it to the fans and the young players to be impressed by all the temporary or interim stuff.

Sam