You be the coach/Posey for Perk down stretch

[wdleehi]

P.S.  Good call playing only 3 big men. 

[flexilexi]

also-major props to Doc for fouling at the end and not letting the Pistons tie with a 3.   

[Frontierboy]

also-major props to Doc for fouling at the end and not letting the Pistons tie with a 3.   

yeah, excellent choice both times.... especially putting a rookie on the line and he cooperated by missing a freethrow and then hitting one that he should have purposely missed.

[fairweatherfan]

also-major props to Doc for fouling at the end and not letting the Pistons tie with a 3.   

yeah, excellent choice both times.... especially putting a rookie on the line and he cooperated by missing a freethrow and then hitting one that he should have purposely missed.

Doubly so with the Pistons having no timeouts - to me, that's the ideal time to do the "foul while up 3" move.  Stretched the game and thus my anxiety out quite a bit, but worked out nicely in the end.

[Chris]

Anyone else second guess Doc's small ball line-up at the end of the game? I was beside myself for a minute. Perkins was playing well. I was drooling over thought of Garnett grinding up Prince for three minutes. The two free throws following that alley-oop attempt being exhibit A.

Fear of Wallace on the perimeter?

Still a win is a win, aahhh.

I don't question the move defensively since they never took advantage of it offensively.



The question is, why didn't the post up Prince? 

Prince isn't a great post-up player (Billups and Hamilton are both better in the post).  Not to mention, i am pretty sure Posey was covering Prince (Pierce was on Stuckey, Rondo was on Billups, and Ray was on Hamilton), and although it would be easier to post up Posey than Garnett, its not like it was actually a mismatch.

[wdleehi]

Anyone else second guess Doc's small ball line-up at the end of the game? I was beside myself for a minute. Perkins was playing well. I was drooling over thought of Garnett grinding up Prince for three minutes. The two free throws following that alley-oop attempt being exhibit A.

Fear of Wallace on the perimeter?

Still a win is a win, aahhh.

I don't question the move defensively since they never took advantage of it offensively.



The question is, why didn't the post up Prince? 

Prince isn't a great post-up player (Billups and Hamilton are both better in the post).  Not to mention, i am pretty sure Posey was covering Prince (Pierce was on Stuckey, Rondo was on Billups, and Ray was on Hamilton), and although it would be easier to post up Posey than Garnett, its not like it was actually a mismatch.

No.  I mean why didn't KG (or Perkins) post up Prince. 

[Roy Hobbs]

Anyone else second guess Doc's small ball line-up at the end of the game?

Yeah, Posey was ineffective out there all night, really.  He didn't help much in the fourth, but at that point, Perk was gassed, and I guess Doc didn't want to rotate in anybody who had been sitting on the bench all night.

As for the "foul instead of letting them shoot" strategy, I agree that it's a good one, but it's not like it's something that Doc thought up on his own.  Any coach that allows the other team to go for a three there is a moron (and some of them do). 

(The strategy would have looked even better if Rondo hadn't fouled so early.  Good thought, poor execution).

[Bankshot]

Does anyone understand that move?  No trying to bash Doc after a great win, because I thought he did a good job (except for that last substitution).  Maybe that was the right move and I'm just not understanding it, but I couldn't figure out why he would want Posey over Perk down the stretch when Perk was arguable the best player on the floor for a large part of the game and Posey hadn't been doing anything (except for one 3 pointer).  Perk outscored, outhustled, outrebounded Posey, so what was Posey's purpose in the 4th?  With the way Perk was playing there was no way I would have taken Perk out of the game.  I thought we needed Perk down the stretch for defense and key rebounds.  Luckily the Celtics held on.

Was using Posey down the stretch the right move and why?  I don't like it and hope not to see it anymore in the playoffs.

[wdleehi]

Does anyone understand that move?  No trying to bash Doc after a great win, because I thought he did a good job (except for that last substitution).  Maybe that was the right move and I'm just not understanding it, but I couldn't figure out why he would want Posey over Perk down the stretch when Perk was arguable the best player on the floor for a large part of the game and Posey hadn't been doing anything (except for one 3 pointer).  Perk outscored, outhustled, outrebounded Posey, so what was Posey's purpose in the 4th?  With the way Perk was playing there was no way I would have taken Perk out of the game.  I thought we needed Perk down the stretch for defense and key rebounds.  Luckily the Celtics held on.

Was using Posey down the stretch the right move and why?  I don't like it and hope not to see it anymore in the playoffs.

I think it is the right move if you are not going to take advantage of the size on offense. 

If the Celtics did what they should of, (post up Prince every time down the floor) and were making those baskets; then the move would have been bad.


But since they were still running the pick and roll, the speed issue on the defensive end was a bad matchup for the Celtics.

[nickagneta]

My understanding of the Posey substitution had absolutely nothing to do with small ball. Perkins was the worse free throw shooter on the court and Doc simply removed him because he didn't want Detroit to start purposely fouling Perk off the ball to send him to the line.

It was obvious that it was going to get into a free throw shooting contest very quickly and I thought the move was good. Besides, Wallace was playing out at the three point line on the Detroit offensive sets late so we really only needed one big in anyways.

I thought it was a smart move, looked at in the context that I saw it.

[Roy Hobbs]

My understanding of the Posey substitution had absolutely nothing to do with small ball. Perkins was the worse free throw shooter on the court and Doc simply removed him because he didn't want Detroit to start purposely fouling Perk off the ball to send him to the line.

It was obvious that it was going to get into a free throw shooting contest very quickly and I thought the move was good. Besides, Wallace was playing out at the three point line on the Detroit offensive sets late so we really only needed one big in anyways.

I thought it was a smart move, looked at in the context that I saw it.

I think with two minutes left, it was probably too early for that particular strategy.  Perk shoots around 65% from the line; I'll take that over the empty possessions the Celts were coming away with at the end of the game.

But again, I don't blame Doc for trying to get Perk some rest at the beginning of the fourth, or for taking him out at the end.  He didn't score a point or grab a rebound in the 7 minutes he played in the fourth, and he committed two fouls and had a tech.  He had a great game, but he was losing his touch a bit at the end.

I truly appreciate Doc playing the starters heavy minutes this game.  For Game 6, though, I think he has to find brief moments of rest for some of the guys, particularly Perk and Rondo.  Not much, but a little more than in Game 5.  I'd suggest giving those spot minutes to Eddie and Powe.  Overall, though, the strategy of riding our starters is a good one.

[Scintan]

My understanding of the Posey substitution had absolutely nothing to do with small ball. Perkins was the worse free throw shooter on the court and Doc simply removed him because he didn't want Detroit to start purposely fouling Perk off the ball to send him to the line.

It was obvious that it was going to get into a free throw shooting contest very quickly and I thought the move was good. Besides, Wallace was playing out at the three point line on the Detroit offensive sets late so we really only needed one big in anyways.

I thought it was a smart move, looked at in the context that I saw it.

I think with two minutes left, it was probably too early for that particular strategy.  Perk shoots around 65% from the line; I'll take that over the empty possessions the Celts were coming away with at the end of the game.

But again, I don't blame Doc for trying to get Perk some rest at the beginning of the fourth, or for taking him out at the end.  He didn't score a point or grab a rebound in the 7 minutes he played in the fourth, and he committed two fouls and had a tech.  He had a great game, but he was losing his touch a bit at the end.

I truly appreciate Doc playing the starters heavy minutes this game.  For Game 6, though, I think he has to find brief moments of rest for some of the guys, particularly Perk and Rondo.  Not much, but a little more than in Game 5.  I'd suggest giving those spot minutes to Eddie and Powe.  Overall, though, the strategy of riding our starters is a good one.

I thought that Boston changing the offense in the second half, and completely ignoring Perkins, was a huge mistake.  He went from dominating the Pistons to being a non-factor.  How much of that was Perkins being tired, how much was Rivers deliberate strategy, and how much was the other players just not getting him the ball is something I'd be very interested in hearing about.

[jhog3411]

I think Posey substituted for Perk because, as has been said, he is a poor free throw shooter.  Also Perk was gassed.  He was too fired up (the technical) and did not have a single point or rebound in the fourth so he was ineffective.  I though the whole team was tired at the end of the fourth.  All the starters played 39+ minutes, including Pierce with 44 and Rondo 46, in an intense physical game.  They had to play that much to take control of the game but it didn't leave them with much at the end.  I'm glad they had just enough to hang on.

[Chris]

Anyone else second guess Doc's small ball line-up at the end of the game? I was beside myself for a minute. Perkins was playing well. I was drooling over thought of Garnett grinding up Prince for three minutes. The two free throws following that alley-oop attempt being exhibit A.

Fear of Wallace on the perimeter?

Still a win is a win, aahhh.

I don't question the move defensively since they never took advantage of it offensively.



The question is, why didn't the post up Prince? 

Prince isn't a great post-up player (Billups and Hamilton are both better in the post).  Not to mention, i am pretty sure Posey was covering Prince (Pierce was on Stuckey, Rondo was on Billups, and Ray was on Hamilton), and although it would be easier to post up Posey than Garnett, its not like it was actually a mismatch.

No.  I mean why didn't KG (or Perkins) post up Prince. 

OOOHHH, I think that had more to do with execution than planning.  Detroits trapping really took the C's out of their offense, and they were spending their time just trying to get the ball to anyone who was not trapped in a corner, rather than actually trying to get a good shot.

[CT34]

I was at the game and I was actaully sitting a row behind Perk's girl friend and little Perk at the time. We all was like why is Doc taking Perk out because if we miss a shot who was going to get the rebound.  Perk was getting rebound and I question the move because Perk was play so good and they had Prince in the game at Center.  I would have went at Prince.  Doc got away with making a questionable move only because the Cs won the game, it was still a bad move on Doc part.