Indy / Atlanta...any parallels?

[ScoobyDoo]

The last time we were in the playoffs against Indy, both Walker and Pierce melted down. Now, hoever many years later, looks like both Garnett and Pierce are melting down  a bit.

We were favorites in the series against Indiana and we are now against Atlanta.

is it the players we're putting on the floor? Or is it the coach not corralling the players and emphatically insisting, demanding poise, concentration and execution.

It's almost like a coach has to slap players back into reality sometimes. Doc just seems to stand there, expressionless like a deer in the head lights while everything is unraveling.

Case in point:

1. Blowing the huge first quarter lead
( Maybe it's me but I would have called a time out immediately and would have been flipping out in that huddle, challenging every one of them. Asking them if they thought they were in JV or the NBA and if they had any interest in winning the game)   
2. Blwoing the fourth quarter lead.
( Here, we go up big with Garnett, Powe, Posey, Rondo and whoever and then he changes everything and we lose our lead. How can you just stand there and watch Ray Allen get abused by JJ over and over again. Especially when Posey was basically Icing him two minutes earlier? )     

[Who]

That Celtics team never had a training camp together, Antoine came midseason, and the wheels were coming off before the playoffs even started. They just weren't a team. They didn't know what they were doing. They had no time together to figure it out. Indiana on the other hand were a playoff tested veteran crew who had been fighting like dogs for months. They executed very well offensively getting the most out of their talent and played hard nosed defense. That was the difference.

It's a huge difference to now and hurts any comparison

This Celtics team has had all year, they do play like a team, they do know their roles. They have more talent and they're deeper. Atlanta has no playoff experience, has no real veterans outside of Bibby, do not play together as a team, do not execute well offensively, do not play good defense. They're horribly unbalanced.

[ScoobyDoo]

Maybe I didn't make my main point clearly enough.

The parallel I was trying to draw is that I beleive it is one of the main priorities of a coach to corral and slap his players around physchologically sometimes into being focused, composed and into executing. Not getting caught up in the distracting emotional end of it.

In Indy both Toine and Paul came unglued. Last night and in game three both paul and Garnett came unglued.

The team in general is unglued...is it the players or the coach?

How mentally tough is Doc making this team oever and above their own individual levels of mental toughness?

because the Hawks have successfully reduced this series to that issue, not a talent issue.   

[Who]

Maybe I didn't make my main point clearly enough.

The parallel I was trying to draw is that I beleive it is one of the main priorities of a coach to corral and slap his players around physchologically sometimes into being focused, composed and into executing. Not getting caught up in the distracting emotional end of it.

In Indy both Toine and Paul came unglued. Last night and in game three both paul and Garnett came unglued.

The team in general is unglued...is it the players or the coach?

How mentally tough is Doc making this team oever and above their own individual levels of mental toughness?

because the Hawks have successfully reduced this series to that issue, not a talent issue.   

Oh okay, sorry about that, I think it's the players

They're feeling the pressure and they're not responding well to it. Atlanta is free as a bird, nobody expects anything from them. Boston are a 66 win team that roared through the season and is a championship caliber squad, suddenly their form has dropped and Atlanta have taken a swipe at them, all the pressure is on their shoulders. They're feeling it too. Their body language as the game wore on last night wasn't good. They haven't responded to it.

It's far more about the players than the coaching staff. The coaching staff could try one or two things but it's the player's response to pressure more than anything else.

[ScoobyDoo]

I do agree that the players need to respond to the pressure and step up. But I also think the coach can be influential in helping them get there as well by keeping them focused and calming them down. I don't discount the prssure and I also think it's normal for it to have some affect on your performance but then you corral yourself.

But the coach can nudge them in the right direction. Kind of like you could have a student who can write great papers but the teacher needs to point them in the right direction occasionally. Just because they're great players doesn't mean they don't need to be psychologically manipulated sometimes when they are having doubts. And all players have doubts at points, no matter how good they are.

I think that's what separates the really great coaches from the average ones. Knowing how to keep the players focused and poised under duress. I think Phil Jackson and Popovich are two of the best at it.

To me, when the pressure is on, Doc often times looks like a deer in the head lights.

[jay_jay54]

I do agree that the players need to respond to the pressure and step up. But I also think the coach can be influential in helping them get there as well by keeping them focused and calming them down. I don't discount the prssure and I also think it's normal for it to have some affect on your performance but then you corral yourself.

But the coach can nudge them in the right direction. Kind of like you could have a student who can write great papers but the teacher needs to point them in the right direction occasionally. Just because they're great players doesn't mean they don't need to be psychologically manipulated sometimes when they are having doubts. And all players have doubts at points, no matter how good they are.

I think that's what separates the really great coaches from the average ones. Knowing how to keep the players focused and poised under duress. I think Phil Jackson and Popovich are two of the best at it.

To me, when the pressure is on, Doc often times looks like a deer in the head lights.

I  agree with you there on Doc looking lost,and it really spills over to the players.They only can follow by what he projects.

[Celtic]

The problem with the parallels is that Indy was a much better team than Atlanta is, and the Celtics a re vastly superior to the Celtics of yesterday. I understand the idea that despite these things the parallels may still hold true, but I don't think they do. I think by the nature of the talent of these two teams, the situation is unique. The Celtics are having a tough time with a team that plays a very different type of basketball than they do. The Celtics are very capable of counteracting this with a reinforcement of their style of play, they simply need to play team defense and attack the basket.