Re: THE CELTICS GLIMMER THREAD - 70+, STILL GOING STRONG!! GO CELTS!!

[Sam]

Jeb,

My problem with putting Pierce in there is that it wasn't sustained.

Agreed on the others.

Sam

[jeb]

yeah Sam I hear you. It was just so good to see him move well. That for me it lifted my spirits way up. So I hear you but will retain it as a personal glimmer.

[Sam]

Jeb, I'm glad you're on the glimmer trail.

Sam

[jeb]

if he can get his mojo back were in business and i am convinced it's health related.

[jeb]

made free throws down the stretch ... sheed...bench

[gyso]

made free throws down the stretch ... sheed...bench

The bench, for sure.

Supercuts player of the game: Sheed
Honorable mention: Glen Davis
Honorable mention part two: Eddie House.

Bench: 44 points
Bench: 20 boards (7 offensive)

[gyso]

made free throws down the stretch ... sheed...bench

The bench, for sure.

Supercuts player of the game: Sheed
Honorable mention: Glen Davis
Honorable mention part two: Eddie House.

Bench: 44 points
Bench: 20 boards (7 offensive)

I guess to qualify as a glimmer, it has to as short as a tweet.

Here goes:

With all the parts together, the bench shows the first signs of cohesiveness.

[Sam]

Celts @ Kings:

# 28: Glen Davis doing his lunchpail thing.

# 29: Sheed seizing the initiative on his post offense and interior defense.

#30: Celtics holding the opponent to 40 points in the second half.

# 31: Good chemistry displayed by the bench.

# 32: Quis exerting control over the dynamic of the bench, especially in ensuring that the most consistent offensive emphasis is in the paint.

# 33: Edited addition: Creation of hordes of scoring opportunities. (It's easier to learn how to capitalize on opportunities than to learn how to create them.)

# 34: Edited addition: 12 points off12 Kings turnovers while holding the Kings to zero points off 13 Celtics turnovers. (No stopping to congratulate themselves in the first instance, and no time for head-hanging in the second.)

# 35: Edited addition: Despite the very close game, no starter played more than 33 minutes.

[RosalieTCeltics]

It has to be health with Paul, he really doesn't have alot of lift there right now.
That is why everything keeps getting blocked. The other thing is that he really telegraphs his moves lately, so the defense sets up for him. I just hope he starts feeling better soon because he is the key to the first unit along with KG.

[dbrown4]

Lots of good things I saw last night v. SAC. I'm sure without looking or caring SAC has a losing record, but for the Celtics there was a definite re-focusing. Defense created a lot of turnovers. Unfortunately they didn't convert a great amount but that will come. Sheed came alive as well as Eddie knocking down threes in stride. I don't know what the deal with him is lately/this season in that he has been putting his foot on the line more and giving up several "extra" points. But it is a rhythm thing I know.

Perk is Perk. Every time he gets the ball down low from a high entry pass or gets a rebound, he brings the ball down and either loses it or gets fouled and makes 1 of 2.

Bench clearly won and finally looked like their old selves. Even scoring by period, I felt, without looking @ boxscore. SAC was hitting lots of timely threes, otherwise we would have blown them out.

Also, back to Sheed. When on defense in the post, with the entry pass, he has been phenomenal at creating turnovers, especially against the likes of ORL and DH. Great at reading where that pass is going and reacting.

Clutch free throw shooting at the end, although it was Ray and Paul doing the shooting. No offense but we should expect them to make those.

Real marker game again will be in LAL on Thurs. They need to win it.

48 hours left for the deadline. Got to trust Danny on this one. My vote is for the add on.

Once again that calm came over me in the last few minutes. They were going to win. Even when SAC got the lead briefly.

[Sam]

Dbrown,

The feeling of inevitability that they'll win is a great one to have. It's been too far in the opposite direction too often lately. The time when I began to sense it was in the third quarter, when the Celtics once again started to display some of the sloppiness that has become too familiar lately...then pulled themselves out of it and wound up actually gaining two points in the quarter. I thought that, although it might not have seemed like much, it was perhaps a significant moment in sharpening their resolve.

Interesting that you mention turnovers. The Celtics had 13, and the Kings had 12. But the ESPN box score reports that the Celts scored 12 points off Kings turnovers, while the Kings scored zero points off Celtics turnovers. I found that amazing (if it's really true) in two ways. First, the ability of the Celtics to capitalize has to be a pretty good sign of not stopping to congratulate themselves when they do something positive. Second, when they do commit an error, the ability to dig in and do something about without hanging their heads is pretty important.

Before an NBA team can start to function at its peak potential, it has to have the ability to create opportunities. Last night, they had so many scoring opportunities go awry that I wished I had kept count. (I bet Doc's got the count.) I believe the ability to create so many opportunities was eminently more far-reaching than the fact that they misfired on a lot of them. Misfiring can be reduced by watching film and eliminating certain tendencies. The ability to create opportunities is not nearly so easily learned.

Hmmm. I think I've talked myself into a couple more glimmers!
Sam

[Sam]

Rosalie,

Take heart in the fact that no Celtics starter played more than Paul's 33 minutes. The five bench players played 37% of the Celtics minutes and scored 46% of the Celtics points. The "bench" figures do include some time time that Sheed spend playing with the starters. But I was interested in the fact that, for a short period of time, Doc entrusted the game to the five bench players as a unit.

Sam

[cowens/oldschool]

Sam the bench play should be a glimmer,with Quis and Baby were 10 man deep,Quis missed so many layups,but loved the fact that they were good shots and all game movement and passing created in close good looks that we could not convert,but were still good shots.....were gonna start converting those,I'm thinking with the layoff,refexes were just a little slow,no matter how much you practice theres no speed like game speed.

[dbrown4]

That was just from my bleary-eyed observations of the flow of the game last night @ 12:30AM! It didn't seem like they scored that many points of turnovers!! I thought the defense created alot of those situations.

Plus, the third quarter was a draw for the most part and not the usual bust. I have had a tendency lately to not get too hyped about good 1st half performances, waiting to see how the 3rd quarter goes...

I know there are 31 games left, but we are running out of real estate with each passing game to bring this all together. I am demanding victory on Thursday.

"You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs - Victory is spite of all terrors - Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory, there is no survival."

Winston Churchill/Doc Rivers, just before taking the court on Thursday in LA

[bobheckler]

"You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs - Victory is spite of all terrors - Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory, there is no survival."

Winston Churchill/Doc Rivers, just before taking the court on Thursday in LA

"We will fight them in the locker room. We will fight them at the gatorade bucket. We shall never surrender".

[Sam]

Dbrown,

Obviously, the objective of every game is to win it. But, right now, I'm more interested in improvement. If they lose a game but register improvement, it's a net plus in my mind at this juncture. I've never cared about mid-season "statement games," which I think set up a false set of priorities whereby the team can only win or be an abject failure. And I don't think that's how the long season of pro basketball works.

I hope they win against the Lakers. Suppose Kobe doesn't play and the Celtics win. Will that be a diluted statement? Suppose Kobe doesn't play and the Celtics lose. Will the Celtics players be expected to commit mass hari kari? Suppose Kobe plays and the Celtics lose. Isn't it fairly well-accepted that the Lakers are currently in a much better groove than the Celtics anyway? Suppose Kobe plays and the Celtics win. I'll let others visit BDC and give the Lakers trolls blackboard material as I simply analyze what the Celtics did well and where they still need improvement.

For me, the only "must win" game is that last one of the year.

Sam

[dboss]

This probably has already been said but the recent play of Big baby and daniels has been more than just a glimmer.

When they play well it really makes a huge difference.

dboss

[RosalieTCeltics]

Looks like Baby was reading the reports of his being traded and wanted to change Danny's mind! He has been playing quite well in the last few games.
I like seeing him down under the basket rebounding, I just wish he had about four more inches in height!

Daniels is showing why he was signed. I really like this kid's game alot.

All of these reports about Eddie being traded are a little disturbing to me.
As good as Robinson can be at times, there are games where he is just terrible. It just doesn't make sense to me to trade Eddie away. Maybe not sign him next year, but why get rid of him now. This kid can be a head case!

[dbrown4]

Sam, Perhaps I was a little rash in my demands! But Doc should still use the Churchill speech come Thursday!

Somewhere along the way, though, you are going to have to make a transition from improvement (and winning or losing) to winning. You can improve all you want in the playoffs, but if you don't win, you go home.

Also, your scenarios for Thursday could easily be playoff scenarios. We just don't know what we are going to get on Thursday or in the playoffs.

I think you and I just differ on where we are going to draw a line or the line on our assessment and projection(s) on chemistry and the subsequent playoff run. You've said several times in many threads to get back to you in April for an assessment on chemistry and playoff impact. I'm more around the time of the start of the NCAA Tournament.

Certainly if the Celtics go 1-4 (including NOH) on this West Coast stretch, it won't build up much momentum. These are all playoff caliber teams this week. It's going to say they can't beat playoff caliber teams. Everyone is back and the list of remaining games is getting shorter and shorter by the day.

And Lord help us if another injury or two comes up again. I'm assuming we've had more than enough injury problems and there won't be anymore the rest of the season based on the law of averages. But that isn't realistic either!

These games right here this week are our best look at this team against playoff caliber teams, at least in the West. CLE is the only real team left on our schedule in the East beyond potential first round teams. The remaining schedule just doesn't lend itself to too many more real opportunities.

They need to win. They're coming down the stretch. Show us what you've got, Boston.

[Sam]

Dbrown,

Neither you nor I could say something like, "The only fair evaluation will occur at 11:59 pm on the night of March 13th." Unless one is into the "Big Bang" theory, evolution doesn't take place in a split second. It occurs over time.

For all I know, a Celtics resurgence might be complete by March 13 only to have another Celtic go down with injury. In addition to gradual changes over time, there can be more significant occurrences (perhaps even the signing of a free agent or a 10-day contract). For all I know, and depending on who might come aboard in the next day or so, it could take longer.

The one thing I know for sure is that, on my calendar, April is closer to the playoffs than March is. That's why I tell people to see me in April. What good will a March assessment due if things could change further by April? Until April, I'll continue to identify challenges and glimmers as I see them...but predicting the future based on either the present or some artificial interim date, given the volatility that can occur in the NBA, is ill-advised in my opinion.

I've been doing this glimmer thing for a while now, and I don't seem to be breaking a sweat identifying positives even during a less-than-stellar period in Celtics history. If I felt like it, I could also start a similar "challenges" thread. (I don't bother because others seem to need to be convinced to look for challenges.) Things keep happening that add to or detract from the long-term prospects for a basketball team. Suppose you pick March 13 as your target date and KG sheds his cumbersome cast and immediately becomes more mobile on March 14. Will you be likely to change your assessment?

Of course it would be nice to win games. But, for one reason or another, the Lakers have been far ahead of the Celtics in stabilizing their performance so far this season. The Celtics have been reeling, still have two key performers physically below par, have a starting unit that's rather out of sync, and barely scraped by the Kings. How does that justify setting up the Lakers game as some sort of pivotal litmus test of the Celtics as a viable team?

If the Celtics beat the Lakers, I'll be as nappy as the next person. I'll continue to contribute to the glimmers thread and watch areas of concern (such as Perk's performance at present) carefully. If the Lakers beat the Celtics, I'll be as sad as the next person. I'll continue to contribute to the glimmers thread and watch areas of concern (such as Perk's performance at present) carefully. Note the difference? No, because, aside from a momentary sensation of happiness or sadness, there isn't any difference.

Sam

[Sam]

Celts @ Lakers:

# 36: Starters playing consistently better.

# 37: Perk asserting himself with rebounding, stifling defense (without many fouls), big plays, opportunistic offense, and poise at the end.

# 38: Defense becoming increasingly stingy as the game progresses (held Lakers to 2 points in last 7 minutes).

# 39: Celtics displaying the will to win in the clutch.

[cowens/oldschool]

Was a very exciting game to watch,winning ugly is a beautiful thing.....Perk was in the thick of everything in the defensive stand.
# 40 Holding LA to 2 points last 7 minutes of the game-must be best shutdown defensive stretch of season.

[dbrown4]

That's all I wanted, Sam. Progress and a win. Oh, and let's not forget all of LeBron's 3 point bricks, especially the last one. My favorite kind of night. I'm going to mark last night as a very small potential turning point in the East. We'll see. I'm just sayin'...

[beat]

D

gotta start somewhere don't we.

beat

[Jerry Tarkanian]

D was great..especially down the stretch....and DID seem to notice KG questioning Sheed's shot decisions while in a time-out.

Both would qualify as glimmers.

Tark

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