Start winning the 1st and 3rd Quarters

[EJPLAYA]

A key difference in this years team and last years team was the intensity of our guys in the first and third quarters. We consistently would come out and put teams away in these two periods and coast the rest of the game. This year we come out sluggish and taking poor shots and quickly find ourselves in 10-12 point deficits to start out the game. Or a close game gets broken open by the other team early in the second half.

This is completely about "want to". We have an arrogance about us that starts at the PG position and trickles into the rest of the team that we quite honestly can't back up. We need to come out of that locker room with the fire to play aggressive defense for 10-12 minutes at the start of each half and set OUR tempo versus letting the other team gain confidence and then us having to claw back. Had we done that tonight we would be sitting there up 1-0 instead of wondering what could have been. Unless we change this we likely won't have to worry about Lebron...

[yagru]

my biggest peeve with this team the whole year has been the seemingly lack of effort through stretches of games.. they just look so unfocussed at times. I do think some of it stems from Rondos maturity.. and i dont know whether pierce is just indifferent at times or just tired

[vinnie]

I agree with the OP on the intensity in Q1 and Q3. Regarding Pierce, if anyone thinks the minutes this season have not worn him down, just watch how many layups he misses each game. He has NO lift.

[twinbree]

My twin keeps saying that game 4 was the worst thing to happen to this team because it numbed them to the importance of starting strong. This is the 3rd time in a row they've come out slow against the Magic and unsuccessfully tried a come back. I realize the team is tired and shorthanded now but this problem has been here all season.