Walking up the floor? What kind of plan was that?

[coco]

I think LeBron is getting too much credit.  Yes, he had a great game but the biggest difference maker was our state of mind vs LeBron state of mind from the get go.

In short, when I saw Rondo walking up the floor - instead of attacking - on the first 6 posesions of the game, that was a big bad sign, body language and an alarming alert that our team came out passive from the get go.

The Cavs did get some good calls early and that helped, but our body language was all-wrong from the get go. 

[FatjohnReturns]

I wish Rondo would sprint more. He walks it up way way to much. When he runs it puts alot of pressure on the defenders.

[FallGuy]

I think LeBron is getting too much credit.  Yes, he had a great game but the biggest difference maker was our state of mind vs LeBron state of mind from the get go.

In short, when I saw Rondo walking up the floor - instead of attacking - on the first 6 posesions of the game, that was a big bad sign, body language and an alarming alert that our team came out passive from the get go.

The Cavs did get some good calls early and that helped, but our body language was all-wrong from the get go. 

I'm torn on the opening minutes on offense. On one hand we got a lot of open shots. If we hit them, maybe the game doesn't get out of hand so quickly. On the other hand, I almost think you have to force the issue early to set the tone.

I do agree with you about walking the ball up. Even after made baskets we should look to push or get into what the 80s Celtics used to call the secondary break - not a full-on fastbreak but an aggressive attack early in the shot clock before the defense gets set up.

[Mr October]

Yeah the opening minutes set a terrible tone. This was a classic trap game. You win game 2 in a blowout fashion on the other team's floor, then you come home and get a little too proud of your self.

As others have said, the first 5 minutes in game 4 is going to say a lot.

[Eddie20]

I agree with that. When Parker is covering Rondo you need to put the pressure on him by attacking. Instead, we went into half court sets, with no ball movement to speak of, and had Rondo shoot jumper after jumper when Parker was going under the screen and rolls.

[celticinorlando]

hard to force tempo when you are constantly taking the ball out of bounds b/c the defense cant get stops

[RockinRyA]

remember game 6 against LA back in 08? kobe had it going early, long, fadeaway threes with a hand in his face. facing elimination, you know he is going to be aggressive. but the celtics still won. why? because they never let the fakers win. even with kobe going hot you can feel in the c's body language that they want to win. if kobe wanted to win, they have to go over their dead body.

that's what lacked in that first quarter, or the whole game for that matter.

with that said id say watch out for PP in game 4. i have a feeling theres a volcano waiting to explode.