Where is the defense on the road? Where is the leadership on the road?

[Hondo]

Intensity, motivation keep coming up in these discussions.  I don't think either is the problem here.  I my opinion it is execution, and largely offensive execution.   I don't believe these players lack for either motivation or intensity and their effort for basically every game of the regular season should attest to that. 

When you are on the road your execution needs to be two clicks higher then at home for a number of reasons, officiating be one of the big ones.  The home team always gets a few momentum breaking calls against the opposition.   Last nights game our offensive efficiency was so poor in the first quarter it caused some of the breakdowns on defense.  If you consistently come up empty on the offensive end you then take unnecessary chances on the defensive end.  The other team plays with more confidence and every missed rebound and stupid foul is magnified. 

Factor in that a 7 game series allows for teams to make adjustments against the other teams defense, then it becomes even more important to adjust and execute yourself offensively on the road. 

The final problem this series on the road is going to be Lebron on Pierce.  One of the announcers made reference to this during one of the games.  Pierce is used to having a physical advantage of most of the players guarding him and with Lebron he doesn't.  So our best attacking player is not going to be as effective as usual.  Somehow we need to find a way to force someone else to switch on him.     

[bopna]

Everyone keeps asking where is our DEFENSE on the road, well in my observations, the defense is actually decent...not excellent but decent, in fact, we did not actually allow the Cavs to score 105.

not bad because of two things...they are feeding off the energy from the crowd, enough for guys like Joe Smith to go 7/7 from the field with a hand in his face, he wont be doing that in Boston...so does Wally and so does West..these two combined for what 38 points totally outplaying our geriatric Allstar of Allen, and Pierce Combine...so what is the deal here...lets all face it and even KG is right..Atlanta and the Cavs are no pushovers in their home court and that is the whole problem with this series.

I think the right question would be is, why is our OFFENSE sputtering on the Road...I feel that in order to win on the road, just play our normal man to man defense..allow LBJ to score gazziliion points but at the same tme never allow the likes of West, Wally and Big Z to dominate in this series...AND PLEASE lets just flat out score...I think taht should be the agenda on the road...OUTSCORE the opponent...I have heard DOC time and again say that our offense will take care of itself well NEWSFLASH....in all of our defeats on the Road, we barely ave. 100 points and that is a shame as this is a team that boasts of three allstars, spending too much energy on defense will not work as i have said before...the HOME TEAM feeds off its home crowd, that is enough for a guy like West, Wally and even Big Ben to score and believe me they will...no amount of defense can stop them from penetrating at will as they sense they will get the calls anyway....the BEST way to WIN ON THE ROAD is to OUTSCORE the opponent....Our offense on the road need to wake up  NOT out Defense.

[Who]

Everyone keeps asking where is our DEFENSE on the road, well in my observations, the defense is actually decent...not excellent but decent, in fact, we did not actually allow the Cavs to score 105.

Yes I agree. I don't understand all the crying out about the defense. The defense has been solid and is still better than most teams play. It's hard to have an excellent defense when you keep missing shots and give the other team confidence and oppotunities to run back at you.

I think the right question would be is, why is our OFFENSE sputtering on the Road.

100 points and that is a shame as this is a team that boasts of three allstars, spending too much energy on defense will not work as i have said before

Our offense on the road need to wake up  NOT out Defense.

The offense is the biggest problem on the road. It's been terrible.

More than anything it's full of stupidity. That part ticks me off the most. KG not going the ball in the post. Ray not getting enough plays or touches below the three point line. Pierce not coming off curls. Sam not getting a bunch of isos to work the smaller point in the post. Not re-working the same play that just worked before or twice in the last three minutes. Going away from the hot hand. Just dumb play. Poor recognition. Poor point of attacks. Just dumb play. They're done this so much that I'm not sure how easy it is to fix, heck they've even done it in several of their wins this postseason too. I'm not sure they get it, especially Rondo.

The Celtics need to get it in gear. Their offense has been so terrible that anything less than a perfect game in every other area results in a loss. Their offense is killing them on the road, it's dragging them down.

[wdleehi]

The thing is, the offense on the road is scoring within the same ranges as at home in each series.(90-100 atlanta, 75-90 Cleveland)


The difference is the defense is allowing 25 more points on the road.


Put it in this perspective, if Cleveland scored the highest amount of points Boston has allowed in the playoffs last night, Boston wins with that offense. (except the one game Atlanta scored 85, 1 more point.  But then again, Boston wouldn't have pulled the key players when they did and probably score 4 to 6 more points)




Defense is the number 1 problem right now. 


It would be nice if the offense played better, but the Celtics can play defense well enough that it doesn't matter. 

[wdleehi]

Look at the playoff teams scores.



Find one other team still playing that's defense is that inconsistent home vs. away.

[Hondo]

The assumption is that even though we barely won game one with Lebron playing the worst game of his life, we just have to play with the same offensive consistency and the defense will take care of everything.  Factor in game two where we were behind big early and needed an inspired bench effort in the 2nd quarter to right the ship.  Do you wish to put a wager down on if Lebron is going to have 4 terrible games in Boston during these playoffs, because if things stay the same that is what it is going to take. 

Let me also ask you this.  Any coincidence that Doc runs the offense and constantly puts all the emphasis on how they did defensively? 

We all know defense is important, but there is two sides to the court.

 

[wdleehi]

The assumption is that even though we barely won game one with Lebron playing the worst game of his life, we just have to play with the same offensive consistency and the defense will take care of everything.  Factor in game two where we were behind big early and needed an inspired bench effort in the 2nd quarter to right the ship.  Do you wish to put a wager down on if Lebron is going to have 4 terrible games in Boston during these playoffs, because if things stay the same that is what it is going to take. 

Let me also ask you this.  Any coincidence that Doc runs the offense and constantly puts all the emphasis on how they did defensively? 

We all know defense is important, but there is two sides to the court.

 

And if the Celtics play the same defense last night as they had at home, Cleveland loses because they haven't scored 80 points against that defense. 


the offense has it's issues I would like to see be worked out, but at least it is pretty consistant.


The defense has been great at home.  Amazing actually.  The defense on the road is allowing over 100 points a game.  It is junk.  Pure junk for the talent the team has. 

[WedmanIsMyHero]

That's a solid point, but it is road scoring that is *way*, way down compared to the regular season.  In the regular season the Celtics averaged 100 points per game on the road but in the playoffs they are averaging around 92 or so.  That is pathetic + it is the area of the game Doc, in theory, is responsible for.

The assumption is that even though we barely won game one with Lebron playing the worst game of his life, we just have to play with the same offensive consistency and the defense will take care of everything.  Factor in game two where we were behind big early and needed an inspired bench effort in the 2nd quarter to right the ship.  Do you wish to put a wager down on if Lebron is going to have 4 terrible games in Boston during these playoffs, because if things stay the same that is what it is going to take. 

Let me also ask you this.  Any coincidence that Doc runs the offense and constantly puts all the emphasis on how they did defensively? 

We all know defense is important, but there is two sides to the court.

 

And if the Celtics play the same defense last night as they had at home, Cleveland loses because they haven't scored 80 points against that defense. 


the offense has it's issues I would like to see be worked out, but at least it is pretty consistant.


The defense has been great at home.  Amazing actually.  The defense on the road is allowing over 100 points a game.  It is junk.  Pure junk for the talent the team has. 

[wdleehi]

That's a solid point, but it is road scoring that is *way*, way down compared to the regular season.  In the regular season the Celtics averaged 100 points per game on the road but in the playoffs they are averaging around 92 or so.  That is pathetic + it is the area of the game Doc, in theory, is responsible for.

The assumption is that even though we barely won game one with Lebron playing the worst game of his life, we just have to play with the same offensive consistency and the defense will take care of everything.  Factor in game two where we were behind big early and needed an inspired bench effort in the 2nd quarter to right the ship.  Do you wish to put a wager down on if Lebron is going to have 4 terrible games in Boston during these playoffs, because if things stay the same that is what it is going to take. 

Let me also ask you this.  Any coincidence that Doc runs the offense and constantly puts all the emphasis on how they did defensively? 

We all know defense is important, but there is two sides to the court.

 

And if the Celtics play the same defense last night as they had at home, Cleveland loses because they haven't scored 80 points against that defense. 


the offense has it's issues I would like to see be worked out, but at least it is pretty consistant.


The defense has been great at home.  Amazing actually.  The defense on the road is allowing over 100 points a game.  It is junk.  Pure junk for the talent the team has. 

I don't have as much problems with the offense against Cleveland.  They are playing high playoff level defense. 

It could (and should be better), but it has been good enough to win even if the Celtics defense allowed 10 more points on the road vs home (which is still to much of a point differential)

[WedmanIsMyHero]

That's a good point.  Truth is, all of these things probably matter to some extent.  So if the Celtics lose this series, does Doc get fired?  I am not asking if he should, but will he?

[wdleehi]

That's a good point.  Truth is, all of these things probably matter to some extent.  So if the Celtics lose this series, does Doc get fired?  I am not asking if he should, but will he?

Honestly, I don't care right now.  I just want to see the Celtics start playing with some consistency and win. 

[guava_wrench]

Better defense also means better looks on offense due to opportunities to get good shots before the defense sets up.

On the other hand, poor offense and ugly turnovers makes it harder for us to set up our defense.

In other words, enough with the bickering. There are clearly bad choices being made on offense and there were also defensive breakdowns in the first half with Clev guys ending up with open dunks in their half court offense.

It was a game 3. Game 3's are tough. Celts need to step up for game 4.

[BASSTHUMPER]

step up...celtics need to step up....naw...doc needs to put players in thats gonna wanna play...we cant wait on our big 3...doc should not want to go down with the ship...

[BigAlTheFuture]

The Celtics are a completely different team on the road. I don't know why they look so lost when they are not at home. They need to step it up.

[Hondo]

Can you just rely on your defense on the road?

1.  Isn't it a given that the home team will probably shoot better in their own gym.

2.  Isn't it also a given that the probably will get more calls at home resulting in more free-throw attempts.

Watched part of the LA game today.  LA is a good defensive team, but it was their offense that gave them a chance to win this game today. 

We had 13 points at the end of the first quarter, and 35 at half.  We spent the whole game playing uphill.  You almost can't play good enough defense at that point to give yourself a chance.

Last problem I have with this method.  We seem to be playing to try to win close games on the road.  We would sub ourselves out of leads in the Hawk series and then try to win it in the final 2 minutes.  Unfortunately we haven't been able to execute all that well in the final two minutes and the opponents have. 

I haven't seen any other coach in the playoffs sit their starting players for such extended minutes.  Not the Lakers coach, Not SA coach, Not the Utah coach, heck not even the Cleveland Coach.  Somehow I think those coaches may know something about coaching in general and playoff coaching in particular.