I GUESS DOC IS ON HIS WAY TO RELAXING ALL STAR WEEKEND!

Everyone including Doc can talk about the importance of DEFENSE but defense can only go so far if you cannot control the rebounding part of the game. So far this season, Boston ranks 28th in the League in total rebounding. Orlando had far too many second chances tonight. The key all season as to how the Celtic's play is REBOUNDING. They are not controlling both boards. Look at tonight, we were out rebounded 47/32 total and lost both ends - 17/6 in offensive RB and 30/26 on defensive RB. You are not winning many games especially play-off games with stat's like that.

What is really troublesome is the movement of KG. KG is not KG. He must have been hurting 'cause he had no vertical leap tonight and at times was masking dragging his leg. The bottom line is the Celtics need a big guy who is young. Who and how they can deal for one is the $64 million dollar question. Do they bite the bullet and pay the luxury tax and have someone who could help win the Championship this year and set the stage for the transition that is rapidly approaching or do we just grow old?

We are also losing so much in the second unit power forward position. Baby, I mean Glenn UNO UNO Davis cannot jump a lick and when he drives to the hoop he's gotten stuffed more times this year then a Thanks Giving Turkey! Rebounding forgettaboutit! Guess you can say the same for his jump shot - none taken tonight! Package him now.

As I said last night, this is play-off style basketball and these next 4-5 games and we'll see what type of team we have come next week.

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11

give em a few games. hard loss but kg and glen will get in shape and get better.

But jaysus i hear you on the rebounding. Killing us. brutal

Jeb,

So what's your call to improve rebounding? I say need a move!

112288

11

I am prone to waiting to see if glen and kg can work their way back. I liked most of what i saw tonite they just hit a circus 3 or we would have won. Kg is obviously diminished but lets give hem a few games.

It appears that we not only have trouble beating athletic teams, it appears we also have trouble beating good teams that just don't give up and keep playing us hard. That was a game, against Orlando, we should not have lost. We were beat on the offensive boards especially on missed free throws. You should never lose a rebound off a missed free throw. There are no excuses for that.

KG looked old and slow. Would Rashard Lewis have been able to beat him on that last play last year? He has clearly lost some height off his jump. Last year he would not have missed those alley oops.

Pierce didn't show up. How much was Barnes and Pietrus, I don't know, but he's an all-star and future HOFer. Those two should not have been able to stop him.

On the bright side, Ray Allen was magnificent offensively despite having to guard Vince Carter too.

Rondo was on.

Sheed played well. He shot well, at least. It seems like he couldn't handle Gortat defensively though. That T he got because he threw his arms out because he didn't get a foul called will be assessed by the league and, I believe, will be rescinded. Won't give us back the point the T cost us though.

Perk did about as good a job on Howard as anybody could. When you can force D12 to take running hook shots from 8-10 feet (and contest them), you've done your job. I don't know how many dunks, his bread and butter, Howard had but there weren't many.

No way Redick should have been allowed to take that 3 at the end. The one thing that could beat us was a 3.

Yuck.

bob

Bob heck

Pretty harsh dude. Orlando is the best home team in the nba or right at it and we went in there and fought them like wildcats. KG is moving terrible true but I will reserve judgement for a few games. PP didnt get any calls going to the hoop while orlando got every call. I bet they shot twice as many free throws as us.

I agree 100% about that 28 foot 3 point shot. I would have fouled howard immediately. PP and Ray played way too may minutes. Again.

But in that first half we looked better in our sets on o and d than we have ALL YEAR and I could see the benefits of practice. Even if we lose all of these 3 games if I see continued effort and cohesion I will be pretty happy.

no one was near Redick partly because his three was from like 27 feet. he was waaay out there ... don't mean it as an excuse, just an observation.

i agree with jeb that seeing forward progress (whups - is there any other kind of progress?) in effort and cohesion (and chemistry) over the next few games would help me feel better about things. but i'd still like to see them win games where they're up like 16 in the 2nd half.

i also agree that KG needs time to get stronger in games before we will see what his real status is. but he is not KG right now, four games back in, that's for sure ... calling for a KG trade now is hasty, IMHO...

calling for a UNO UNO trade might not be, though. but we likely wouldn't get much for him. hihs play is still sub what it was in last year's palyoff's -- his highlight reel for his career to date, no doubt.

finding a man to box out would be one key to better rebounding for us at both ends, no? are they each fnding a guy to box out? nope. Rondo's amazing, but the big's need to put a body on a guy every time. ALL the big's, and EVERY time ...

that's my call - box out more effectively (MUCH more) and their rebounds diminish, and ours go up. and it's a fundamental skill ... these guys oughta know to do that, and how to do that.

Michael, in Denver

You know who I think would have helped in this game. Start snickering. Mikki Moore.

My reasoning is that the game was won by Van Gundy's decision to play both Gortat and Howard together to take advantage of all the fouls on the Celtics' two tall beef boys (Perk and Sheed). Together, those guys made the Celtics' front line vulnerable and prevented then from doubling Wallace. (When they tried, late in the game, it forced the Celtics' defense into all sorts of switches and, for example, left Ray with two guys to guard on the perimeter when Redick made his big three.)

I wouldn't have minded seeing even a lightweight like Mikki use up a bunch of fouls on Howard rather than watching Perk and Wallace ease up on their defense or foul out. (Someone on the order of P.J. would have been even better.) Frankly, I wouldn't have minded seeing Scal on Howard for a few minutes.

Sam

Sam

We dont have miki anymore...why not shelden?

jeb65 wrote:Bob heck

Pretty harsh dude. Orlando is the best home team in the nba or right at it and we went in there and fought them like wildcats. KG is moving terrible true but I will reserve judgement for a few games. PP didnt get any calls going to the hoop while orlando got every call. I bet they shot twice as many free throws as us.

I agree 100% about that 28 foot 3 point shot. I would have fouled howard immediately. PP and Ray played way too may minutes. Again.

But in that first half we looked better in our sets on o and d than we have ALL YEAR and I could see the benefits of practice. Even if we lose all of these 3 games if I see continued effort and cohesion I will be pretty happy.

jeb,

We had a 15 point lead with under 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. This isn't the first time we've lost a big lead in the 2nd half like that. We looked pretty good in the first half. We executed and Ray and Sheed were absolutely unconscious. Too bad the game's 48 minutes long. We fought like wildcats in the first half. We were a bunch of tabbies in the second half.

As far as KG goes, I'm willing to wait and see, of course, but last night he did not look spry at all.

With the loss of Daniels, we are really thin at 2 and 3. TA played 12 minutes. I thought he was playing well and should have gotten more.

To be precise, Orlando got more than twice as many FTs as us. We got 18, they got 40. Some of the calls were pure BS, like the one on KG fouling Gortat after he blew the stuff and the T on Sheed, but I don't want to blame the refs for our lack of focus and execution in the second half. KG and Pierce were 5-20 for the night combined and Orlando got 17 offensive rebounds to just 6 for us. That's not the refs' fault. That's Doc's fault, that's Thib's fault, that's the players' faults. That's what happens when you forget to box out and don't chase the caroms energetically.

bob

Jeb,

Good point. That must be a large doghouse.

Sam

bobheck

I thought we played very hard in the second half. SO we disagree on that but most every thing else you said is a letter high fastball.

I am gettin fed up with 3's and pp iso crap. It's anti celtic and needs to be addressed. It seems Doc is getting outcoached a right smart in the second half.

The rebounding is killing us. DEAD.

And i am very concerned about pp and rays minutes specialy Ray.

That being said I saw a lot of good stuff last night. Strong celtic play. I saw the benefits of practice. And 5 guys who know and trust each other look pretty happy playing basket ball.

Jeb

Sam wrote:Jeb,

Good point. That must be a large doghouse.

Sam

and i am mystified by what might have landed shelden so deep in there. more recently, it's true that he has mishandled some passes and his hands haven't looked great - but that's about it. isn't it ? (and Perk regularly gets caught off guard by an interior pass from Rondo or someone ...)

Michael

fickel pyg

I concur. Doode can board and lord gawd we need that.