I blame Doc for this one

[guava_wrench]

3 games in a row and a dense schedule the rest of the way. The bench needs to perform.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Rather than play his normal rotation, he puts in the scrubs very early, essentially signaling to the starters that their night was done.  Instead of having his sights on the game in front of him, he succumbs to the next two games instead.

I know many of you will only blame the players because after all, they play the game.  But doc disrespected the game tonight and sent the wrong message.

The blame for team situations usually can't be pinned on one person, and I'm not gonna overreact to this one loss, but I have to say that I was baffled by Doc's strategy in this game. If he'd decided to totally rest the starters and roll the dice with the bench, I'd expect a loss, but the tradeoff--rest for the starters--would be worth it IMO. Or, you play the starters and follow the regular rotation, and if it turns out to be a blowout by the third or even fourth quarter, then you rest the starters the rest of the way, so you get the win AND a bit of extra rest for the starters.

What Doc did, though, was nonsensical: Pull all the starters before the end of the first quarter, leave them out until nearly the end of the second quarter--so they essentially sat out a whole quarter, making it seem as though he was turning this game over to the subs--then play the starters heavy minutes in the second half so that they end up playing basically their normal amount of minutes but still get the loss. So we end up with NO extra rest for the starters AND a defeat--the worst of both worlds. That I don't get.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I was just reading more posts on this thread and feel I have to add something to my first post: Maybe some blame does fall on the starters, and on the bench, but the starters began the game decently, and the Cs were up 7 at the end of the first, and the bench quickly pushed the lead to 13 near the beginning of the second ... and then Doc torpedoed the rotation, essentially telling the starters that they were done for the night, then changing his mind midstream. I mean, I guess players should always be ready for anything, but if you've basically been told you're done for the night, your mindset completely changes.

If Doc had kept following the rotation, there's a good chance, I think, that the Cs continue to build the lead going into halftime, then turn it into a blowout sometime in the third, and then the bench finishes off a demoralized Raptors squad.

But that's NOT what happened. So outside of any injuries, last night's result was the worst thing that could've happened: no rest for the weary, AND a loss.

[BMark3]

I place the primary responsibility for this loss on RR.  It is now clear what bothers me about him-he is quickly becoming the Wade Boggs of the current Celtics.  What we needed last night was for him to score, and he could have done so at will against the D-league players who were covering him, however, he was more concerned about extending his assist record.  

Yawn...how original to blame rondo and say he should be a scorer in the games we lose...what a knucklehead to try and stick to whats been working!
team loss.

One of the Cs' announcers mentioned last nite that at a certain point (I believe in the thord quarter) that Rondo had no points and no rebounds.  I did say that RR was primarily responsible, not completely responsible.  Certainly it was a team loss.

[BMark3]

I place the primary responsibility for this loss on RR.  It is now clear what bothers me about him-he is quickly becoming the Wade Boggs of the current Celtics.  What we needed last night was for him to score, and he could have done so at will against the D-league players who were covering him, however, he was more concerned about extending his assist record.  

Yawn...how original to blame rondo and say he should be a scorer in the games we lose...what a knucklehead to try and stick to whats been working!
team loss.

One of the Cs' announcers mentioned last nite that at a certain point (I believe in the thord quarter) that Rondo had no points and no rebounds.  I did say that RR was primarily responsible, not completely responsible.  Certainly it was a team loss.

Also, just because something worked in previous games does not mean it will work in every game.  Adjustments need to be made in games all the time.

[LooseCannon]

One of the Cs' announcers mentioned last nite that at a certain point (I believe in the thord quarter) that Rondo had no points and no rebounds.  I did say that RR was primarily responsible, not completely responsible.  Certainly it was a team loss.

Rondo also ended the game with zero turnovers.  Maybe he needs to gamble more on passes.

[BMark3]

One of the Cs' announcers mentioned last nite that at a certain point (I believe in the thord quarter) that Rondo had no points and no rebounds.  I did say that RR was primarily responsible, not completely responsible.  Certainly it was a team loss.

Rondo also ended the game with zero turnovers.  Maybe he needs to gamble more on passes.

LOL One thing RR does not need to do is to gamble more.  The fact he had zero turnovers does suggest he wasn't as aggressive as he normally is.

[hpantazo]

this was in no way Doc's fault. The players took the night off after a long hard fought win streak

[azzenfrost]

We can bounce back from this. Keep faith.