Why is scoring so hard for us to do while Philly does it at will?

[Celtics18]

Good question...yet Rondo is a great point guard?!?!

How can the PG be great yet this offense stinks to high heaven?!?

Baffling.

  What's baffling is people not seeing what he does for the offense. But we're 5th in the playoffs in fg%, just like we were in the season. He's getting the team a good amount of open shots, our shooting has been fairly off. If Ray and Paul were a little bit healthier and Bass was hitting a few more open shots Rondo's assists per game would probably be double that of any other pg in the playoffs.

What's baffling is people relying on obscure numbers to defend a point guard who simply refuses to run this injury-compromised team correctly.

This game was lost last night - as others have been in this series - to pace.

We cannot win when Rondo is content to walk the ball slowly into the frontcourt and dump it off to the nearest stationary wing, as he was last night.

It is that reason why scoring is so hard for us.

We win, and score at will, when Rondo is engaged, moving the basketball and attacking off the dribble, blasting to the rim - all things he simply made little or no effort to do last night.

So please, don't start cranking out meaningless numbers in a futile attempt to defend Rondo's effort. It was not there last night, and last night wasn't the first. It is abundantly clear how the Celtics must play to win, and with the ball in his hands primarily, the responsibility for executing that effort falls directly on Rondo. Period.

If we cannot get a competent effort out of a point guard in a closeout game, then perhaps I am ready to reconsider the wisdom of shopping this guy for draft picks.

And 1!

This nails it.  How can someone be considered great when the effort is not consistent?

Rondo has given great performances but I reserve the word "great" for the ones who bring max effort night after night...especially in the playoffs.

Then you reserve the word for nobody.

[pearljammer10]

Our defense has been great all series and i would hardly call them scoring at will. Our Offense is atrocious. No movement, no cuts, all iso, and all jump shots. Its terrible to watch.

[crafty213]

Our defense has been great all series and i would hardly call them scoring at will. Our Offense is atrocious. No movement, no cuts, all iso, and all jump shots. Its terrible to watch.

+1
Philly is trapping and the Celtics are holding the ball. In game 5 they hit shots but they also got into the paint at will because they moved the ball when Philly trapped and took advantage of the rotations.  Last night EVERYONE held the ball and stood around way too long.

[looseball]

 Philly gets easy baskets in the open court because they have young legs.  

The Celtics minus Bradley's ball pressure and young legs do not get out into the open court and do not get easy baskets because of it.  Ray Allen obviously isn't Ray Allen at the present time which allows hilly to smother Pierce and KG leaving us no viable option in the half court.

Lots of teams have young legs, but getting easy baskets in the open court begins with all five guys playing agressive defense.
For the first half of the year we were an old team playing .500 ball.  After Ray got hurt, and Bradley stepped in, we became an agressive defensive team and it opened up our transition game, while getting opponents out of their rhythm.
Steamer, Sasha, Petrius, Dooling all contribute to this type of defense, but in the playoffs their minutes get squeezed, and the team suffers for it.
Now, with Bradley out and Ray back in the starting line-up, we lose that edge, and we're back to being the team we were for the first half of the year.

[youcanthandlethetruth113]

pls can anyone explain like i'm a 6-year-old?

Youth + athleticism vs. tired legs and jump shots.

[Geo123]

3 pages on an initial question that is not based on facts and is actually wrong since we've out scored them for the series and neither team is scoring at will... 

[guava_wrench]

The title of this thread makes no sense whatsoever. The series is 3-3.

For those who are math challenged, that means the series is tied.

[guava_wrench]

3 pages on an initial question that is not based on facts and is actually wrong since we've out scored them for the series and neither team is scoring at will... 

I didn't even bother reading the posts since the title made no sense whatsoever.

Just more evidence that our perceptions are highly flawed, especially when emotionally invested in a team.

[TheReaLPuba]

We've had trouble scoring ever since Pierce was taken out of his 4th scoring duties.

Right now we search for offense with no defined scoring roles.

In '08 we used to get Ray going early and dump down to KG, Posey, and Pierce on the block when mismatches presented themselves.

This year we've seen a bunch of pick and pops that when guarded right makes the ball stick and all we get is a contested jumper with the shot clock winding down.

We rarely run anymore isos for Pierce so he can get into a rhythm.

[OmarSekou]

Teams can get points by working together or by having individual players score. The players on Philly aren't as good at working together, but they can score better as individuals. They have more players that can beat their defender when it's 1-on-1. And because they are faster they don't have to be as good at working together anyways.

For our team to score points, we have to do a really good job of working together (that's Rondo's job) or have have 1 of our players get hot (that's been KG's job this year). When Rondo doesn't play well and another player doesn't play really well to make up for it, we don't look very good.

[SHAQATTACK]

We caught a bad bad case of BrickItess .....

its going around on the "C"s team ....was JO seen in the lockerroom recently>

[Senninsage]

The problem for this team is that they stop trusting themselves too many times when their shot doesn't fall. Even rondo can make the mid-range jumper, but gets discouraged from shooting it if he doesn't at least make something early.

Bass does this, too. At least KG keeps taking the shot, which I'm happy about. I personally think we need to toss in some Stiemer mid-range jumpers for this team, too.

Moore and Pavlovic should be able to help us out, too.

[thestackshow]

Were injured. Every single one of our players except KG has an injury that would require weeks and months of rest, the only reason they are playing is because its the playoffs.

[Senninsage]

And no Philly does NOT score at will. They struggle to score more than we do. We just make too many bad decisions and get too many turnovers that basically keep them in the game.

Us missing a lot of our money, wide open shots is also a big no no.