The C's need to realize that Atlanta is a more athletic team, and they're playing like a 37-45 team should, like they have nothing to loose. The only athletic match-up that favors the Celtics is the Rondo-Bibby match-up. Tony Allen needs to get more minutes (or minutes period would be a good start, he should not have a DNP next to his name), he's our best athlete, and has the ability to drive to the basket, which the C's need desperately when Rondo and Pierce aren't in the game. And also, Rondo should be playing, at the very least, 10 minutes in the fourth quarter, there's no need to have House or Sam "I like to shoot jumpers with 20 seconds left on the shot clock and no one underneath for the board" Cassell in there in the 4th, it makes our offense look purposeless.
To be successful, the Celtics need to control the pace of the game (with Rondo), when we control our offensive pace, we're more prone to take good shots, and by forcing Atlanta to play 20 seconds of solid defense on each possession, we also force them to take poor shots and play lazy offense, which makes it easier to force turnovers (look at the last 6 minutes of the 3rd last night).
Also, we can't have Ray Allen covering Joe Johnson for 10 minutes in the 4th quarter, it's just stupid, especially when Johnson goes 5 for 5 on five straight possessions in the 4th, give TA 20 minutes a game, let him tire out JJ.
The Celtics were successful all season because they played smart basketball, we made teams play our style of ball, we exploited match-ups that were presented to us, and we created good match-ups on defense to shut down other teams, all things that we haven't done for even a full quarter in ATL, nevermind a full game. We need to be the veteran team that we are and play our style of hoop, and not let the youthful Hawks attack us.
Topic: Time to call out Pierce, Garnett, et al (Read 9007 times)