Atlanta is dangerous right now

[winsomme]

Mike Woodson needs to take control of that team because they are not playing basketball right now.

they are misunderstanding the meaning of hard-nosed playoff basketball are just out there potentially hurting someone on the Cs.

Horford and Joe Johnson specifically are being very reckless. they may think that they are just being physical, but they are going too far.

it would be one thing if they were actually in these games, but IMO when you are behind, you need to be focusing on PLAYING better and not trying to give hard fouls.

i think Woodson needs to make this plain for his team because right now they are embarrassing themselves.

they have a bright future with a lot of young talent, but if you are going to be flirting with that line of injuring someone (hopefully Paul is okay), you need to first be playing good basketball.

and if you are not playing good ball, you shouldn't be substituting dangerous ball for that.

i hope they will get back to playing ball and we will have a competitive hard-fought game 3 because game 2 from Atlanta was just not something that i would think they would be proud of...

[Celtic]

I agree with your points, but in my opinion it's not up to Woodson, it's up to the league. When Paul went down, of course it should have been a hard foul, and he probably should have received the same treatment Stern's boyfriend Lebron got. It's up to the league to protect their players by keeping the game safe, and removing players that are on the court for no other reason than to hurt others, which makes me wonder why Bruce Bowen is still in the league.

[winsomme]

I agree with your points, but in my opinion it's not up to Woodson, it's up to the league. When Paul went down, of course it should have been a hard foul, and he probably should have received the same treatment Stern's boyfriend Lebron got. It's up to the league to protect their players by keeping the game safe, and removing players that are on the court for no other reason than to hurt others, which makes me wonder why Bruce Bowen is still in the league.

i was watching the post game stuff and they were talking about how Josh Smith was just trying to block shots like he always does, but Josh Smith was not the problem with that play.

i actually think that Smith was one of the only guy on Atlanta that was trying to play tonight.

Joe Johnson was the reason Paul got hurt on that play. he clotheslined Pierce if you look at the replay and was making no play on the ball.

so yeah, i agree that the officials need to take control too, but Woodson is the coach of a  very young team and he needs to let them know that what they are doing is bad for the game - especially with the quality of ball they are playing right now.

[casCELTIC]

i don't really agree with this.  as much as i am a celtics fan, i feel that this year the c's have joined detroit in the class of  eastern conference teams allowed to mug opponents.

atlanta was simply reacting to the physicality.  yes, the are younger and not used to playoff play.  regardless, the outcry of "flagrant" on this blog tonight is a little overboard.

i was at the game and i really thought that the foul on Pierce was hard, but not intentionally/maliciously hard.  I don't see a "clothesline"; the majority of the fall was caused by the defender jumping over and landing on pierce (who got about 2 inches off the ground)

[guava_wrench]

Perk said that the Celtics were the instigators and the Hawks were just reacting.

The Pierce foul doesn't really compare to the Lebron one because Hayward had no play on Lebron and just shoved him while he was very high in the air out of frustration. The Hawks are just trying to match our physical play. And don't forget, Heyward didn't even get a suspension.

Also, Pierce got hurt by Smith falling on him, and Smith didn't do that on purpose.

Even Doc says it seemed people just got tangled and his complaint was calling a Tech on Posey and not on the Hawks when they fouled Paul.

If the league were to crack down on hard fouls, we would be in trouble.

[Andy Jick]

atlanta sucks...this series is as good as over.  what you're witnessing is a professional team taking care of business against a bunch of kid punks that don't get it.

boston sweeps this series...

[winsomme]

Perk said that the Celtics were the instigators and the Hawks were just reacting.

The Pierce foul doesn't really compare to the Lebron one because Hayward had no play on Lebron and just shoved him while he was very high in the air out of frustration. The Hawks are just trying to match our physical play. And don't forget, Heyward didn't even get a suspension.

Also, Pierce got hurt by Smith falling on him, and Smith didn't do that on purpose.

Even Doc says it seemed people just got tangled and his complaint was calling a Tech on Posey and not on the Hawks when they fouled Paul.

If the league were to crack down on hard fouls, we would be in trouble.

Atlanta may be reacting to Boston's physical play, but they need to react to the caliber of play first.

the only thing they are reacting to is the level of physicality and nothing more.

they need to start playing basketball because someone could get hurt out there the way things are going IMO.

personally, i think it would be better for their franchise in the long run to focus on playing better because for me, last night they were not competing out there...

let's see what they do in game 3.

[nickagneta]

It's playoff basketball time. A team is going to do what it feels it needs to do to advance to the ultimate goal of winning a championship. The idea that Atlanta is purposely trying to hurt the Celtics could be true or it could not, but it doesn't really matter.

They are an inferior team and they know it. They need to do something to overcome the huge deficit they have in talent and experience. If that means some hard fouls and possible flagrant stuff, so be it. It's not like it would be the first time in history that that type of ball was used. See SA/PHX 2007, DET 1987-1991, NY/MIA in the 90's, BOS/LA 1984.

Not to mention your whole premise is based on the idea that Woodson has a problem with that style of play. How do know that Woodson hasn't instructed them to play like this and to take liberties at trying to remove the GPA from the game or future games?

No, it is not up to Woodson to instruct his team to play a style of ball that is more passive than they are currently playing in the name of saving face for the league or in the name of better basketball. It is up to Woodson to do everything he can to assist his team in winning. And playing a less physical brand of ball while the C's are beating them up on the defensive end and running their offense to perfection is not the way for Woodson to increase his team's chances of winning this series.

If you have a gripe it is with the league and refs who's jobs are to police this type of play, not a coach who just might be telling his team to play the way they are.

[guava_wrench]

Perk said that the Celtics were the instigators and the Hawks were just reacting.

The Pierce foul doesn't really compare to the Lebron one because Hayward had no play on Lebron and just shoved him while he was very high in the air out of frustration. The Hawks are just trying to match our physical play. And don't forget, Heyward didn't even get a suspension.

Also, Pierce got hurt by Smith falling on him, and Smith didn't do that on purpose.

Even Doc says it seemed people just got tangled and his complaint was calling a Tech on Posey and not on the Hawks when they fouled Paul.

If the league were to crack down on hard fouls, we would be in trouble.

Atlanta may be reacting to Boston's physical play, but they need to react to the caliber of play first.

the only thing they are reacting to is the level of physicality and nothing more.

they need to start playing basketball because someone could get hurt out there the way things are going IMO.

personally, i think it would be better for their franchise in the long run to focus on playing better because for me, last night they were not competing out there...

let's see what they do in game 3.

You missed my point. We still play more physical than they do. No Celtics player is complaining, because they do the same thing. It was just bad luck when Josh Smith landed on Pierce.

The Hawks are not 'focusing' on being physical. They have no choice but to be physical like all the other playoff teams. I see no reason to conclude that they are trying to overcome the talent gap by being more physical. They aren't even matching our level of physicality.

[guava_wrench]

If you have a gripe it is with the league and refs who's jobs are to police this type of play, not a coach who just might be telling his team to play the way they are.

Good point.

The problem with complaining is that the players and coaches won't agree. They will say it's just part of the game, esp the playoff veteran teams like the Spurs and Det.

[crownsy]

i don't really agree with this.  as much as i am a celtics fan, i feel that this year the c's have joined detroit in the class of  eastern conference teams allowed to mug opponents.

atlanta was simply reacting to the physicality.  yes, the are younger and not used to playoff play.  regardless, the outcry of "flagrant" on this blog tonight is a little overboard.

i was at the game and i really thought that the foul on Pierce was hard, but not intentionally/maliciously hard.  I don't see a "clothesline"; the majority of the fall was caused by the defender jumping over and landing on pierce (who got about 2 inches off the ground)

it,s not that they "get away with mugging people" its that they have a rep as a defeinsive team. in every contact sport, if thats your perception, you get the benifit of 50/0 calls. The steelers and ravens rotinly win the 50/50 calls when there safties lower the boom on a guy catching the ball becuase there precived as "defensive specilists."

in the NHL, the bruins got away with a ton during the season because there a physical team (unfortunaly montreal got the flop calls in the playoffs)

there's nothing wrong with being physical on defense like we are. When you upgrade it to clothslineing peopel as joe did, or intentonaly rolling off over a guys head while getting up.

[coco]

Yeah, I agree.  We better watch out.  ATL players like to throw their body around and loose their compousure when things get chippi.

keep an eye on AHofford.  He has already taken out TJFord...and knew what he was doing.

[EJPLAYA]

Everyone is making good points here, but I think we are missing the crucial one. Why on earth did Doc have starters in the game with 6 min to go and a 20 point lead?! PP didn't come out until about the 3 min mark and KG shortly after. The game was clearly in hand, the Hawks were getting nasty and only trying to play tough guys. If they wanted to get tough they should have done so with PJ, BBD, TA, House, and Sam on the floor. Not KG PP and Ray.

Horford is becoming a little whiny ''witch'' isn't he?!

[Andy Jick]

this is the playoffs...you take no chances.

besides, they get the next two days to rest.

i know it's been awhile since we've played games that really matter, but the playoffs are played and coached entirely different...it's do or die.  doc is making good decisions.  the last thing that needs to happen is putting the bench in the game and watching a 20 point lead get trimmed down to 10 with, say, 2-3 minutes left to play.

then we'd have a thread started about how stupid doc was, wouldn't we?

[crownsy]

Everyone is making good points here, but I think we are missing the crucial one. Why on earth did Doc have starters in the game with 6 min to go and a 20 point lead?! PP didn't come out until about the 3 min mark and KG shortly after. The game was clearly in hand, the Hawks were getting nasty and only trying to play tough guys. If they wanted to get tough they should have done so with PJ, BBD, TA, House, and Sam on the floor. Not KG PP and Ray.

Horford is becoming a little whiny ''witch'' isn't he?!

yea im with you there EJ, espcially on pierce. I mean, i know paul says its no big deal, but why run him those last 8 minutes? I mean, games out of reach, TA can play the 3 if you want to sit pose, and while i am totally on board with doc's reluctance to have TA on the floor do to his inconsitance, we were up 20. tell him "play defense and pass the ball off"

I hope, and i know this goes against paul's warrior nature, that if he feels a slight twinge in the back friday, he sits saterday. Get healthy paul, we've got these clowns without you if need be 

as to atlanta wihtilling down a 20 point lead with 10 to play, we had timeouts. if they go on a 5-0 run, call TO and put paul back in.

how long they all played is still ridculous, playoffs or not. KG and ray were out there up 22 with 3 minutes to go. i don't care if your the 96 bulls with bill russell as your center, your not making up 22 points in 3 minutes with a shot clock. its mathmaticly impossable.

Edit: i apologize for the spelling in this post, im a bad "fast typer" and when im at work i have to bang out posts ASAP hehe.