I imagine we'll all be up, well past the witching hour, following tonight's game, either celebrating or mourning.
In fact, witchcraft is as good an answer as any for why the Celtics have played so well at home and so poorly on the road.
Is it time for a talisman? A good luck charm? Or is that superstition stuff just another excuse?
Well, one thing is for sure, Celtic Nation is getting restless. Call it impatience, frustration, or exasperation; even the usually hard boiled press corps seems to be doubting this teams heart...perhaps reflecting their collective embarrassment in being drawn in, emotionally, from the season's historic success.
Here is Marc Murphy, veteran scribe for the Herald, in this morning's edition, quoting Paul Pierce and adding a bit of his own uncharacteristic sarcasm
“We all need this win on the road,” Pierce said. “It’s become like a gorilla on our back. The whole state of Massachusetts is waiting for it. But it was definitely worse once we looked at the tape."
“I didn’t even recognize our team.”
Now Pierce understands how the viewing public feels.
So what can the coach and players do to break through this perplexing indisposition?
Doc ran them through a tough "training camp like" practice yesterday and we can be sure that ball movement on offense and quicker rotations on defense were stressed.
For the players, everyone is looking for more intensity, but I think Paul Pierce has it right, as quoted in Steve Bulpett's Herald column today(note the tag of irony,in Steve's closing sentence).
“When we get down, we tend to rush things and get out of the flow of some of the things that we’re trying to do. We looked at that today and we said, ‘Hey, when we get down, we’ve just got to trust our stuff.’ The tendency is one guy says they can get us back in it. But if we can just move the ball, run our offense and just have patience in it, I think we’ll be fine.”
To pull that off, they’ll need to lean on each other at both ends of the floor. The other way doesn’t work. After all, none of the Celtics All-Stars had to worry about the playoffs last year on their own.
If the Celtics do not win tonight, it means they will all have to tramp back to Cleveland for game 6 and from what I'm hearing, they'll have to endure the press corps watching the game with bags over their heads.
In any event, the Celtics Stuff Live team will be on board, even into the early morning hours, to do our part in this "Ubuntu" thing. We hope you will join us.
If you have a question for our guest or the show you can call our toll free number (1.866.751.9649), send us an e-mail to CSL@CelticsBlog.com, or join us in the “pit” (chat room) during the broadcast.
Topic: Celtics Stuff Live! Tonight-Post game. (Read 1784 times)