Why does the Celtics' offense seems to fixate on guys who aren't making shots?

[MBunge]

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that Boston's offense has a weird habit of locking in on a guy who isn't making shots and then giving him lots and lots of opportunities to demonstrate that he can't score.  In the past it's often been Baby or KG or even Ray where it seems like the whole team just decides this one guy is going to carry the scoring load, no matter how many shots he misses.  We saw it last Friday against the Bulls where, after scrambling back into the game with a diversified attack, they locked in on Pierce to win it at the end.  And even though Pierce had played like crap that game and the previous game and even after he botched his first couple of attempts, they kept giving him the ball.

I've seen teams where one guy, like Kobe, will just dominate the ball and take all the shots he wants.  But Boston appears to actually runs plays to get guys shots, even though they haven't hit the broad side of a barn the whole game long.

I don't really understand the mindset, either from Doc or on the court, that puts all the burden on one guy to score when that guy isn't playing well offensively.

Mike

[Q_FBE]

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that Boston's offense has a weird habit of locking in on a guy who isn't making shots and then giving him lots and lots of opportunities to demonstrate that he can't score.  In the past it's often been Baby or KG or even Ray where it seems like the whole team just decides this one guy is going to carry the scoring load, no matter how many shots he misses.  We saw it last Friday against the Bulls where, after scrambling back into the game with a diversified attack, they locked in on Pierce to win it at the end.  And even though Pierce had played like crap that game and the previous game and even after he botched his first couple of attempts, they kept giving him the ball.

I've seen teams where one guy, like Kobe, will just dominate the ball and take all the shots he wants.  But Boston appears to actually runs plays to get guys shots, even though they haven't hit the broad side of a barn the whole game long.

I don't really understand the mindset, either from Doc or on the court, that puts all the burden on one guy to score when that guy isn't playing well offensively.

Mike

When the whole team goes into a shooting slump, it seems everyone is taking too many shots.

[clover]

Ha ha--there does seem to be a "We've got to get so-and-so going" play the cold hand dynamic sometimes at work.

[Marcus13]

Who knows.  We concentrate on "Team basketball" to a fault.  I've never seen a team go away from a hot player as much as this one does.  Ray Allen's been so under-utilized  the last three seasons, it leaves me at a loss for words.

You just saw against Chicago Ray and Rondo lead us back within one point, just to see Doc take them out and our chance at the game sink faster than the Titanic.  Doc must not understand rhythym shooting

[Chris]

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that Boston's offense has a weird habit of locking in on a guy who isn't making shots and then giving him lots and lots of opportunities to demonstrate that he can't score.  In the past it's often been Baby or KG or even Ray where it seems like the whole team just decides this one guy is going to carry the scoring load, no matter how many shots he misses.  We saw it last Friday against the Bulls where, after scrambling back into the game with a diversified attack, they locked in on Pierce to win it at the end.  And even though Pierce had played like crap that game and the previous game and even after he botched his first couple of attempts, they kept giving him the ball.

I've seen teams where one guy, like Kobe, will just dominate the ball and take all the shots he wants.  But Boston appears to actually runs plays to get guys shots, even though they haven't hit the broad side of a barn the whole game long.

I don't really understand the mindset, either from Doc or on the court, that puts all the burden on one guy to score when that guy isn't playing well offensively.

Mike

When the whole team goes into a shooting slump, it seems everyone is taking too many shots.

Yup.  Plus, defenses also notice when a guy can't score...and they can funnel to ball to that player.  That is what we saw a lot with Big Baby in particular.

[Sketch5]

Well the problem is only two guys Allen and Rondo are hitting their shots every one else is in a slump.

Allen and Rondo have to sit some times, and they can't really shoot 50 shots a piece so it kinda looks like they are going to the guys that can't shoot.

[greenpride32]

Well the problem is only two guys Allen and Rondo are hitting their shots every one else is in a slump.

Allen and Rondo have to sit some times, and they can't really shoot 50 shots a piece so it kinda looks like they are going to the guys that can't shoot.

Ray logged 41 minutes that game, and Rondo logged 40.  I think it's fair to the say the team/coaches did try to ride them to win the game.  If they're going to shoot 50% while everyone else is doing 30% it's not going to cut it.  Ray and Rondo are also taking mostly quality shots.  If you wanted them to carry all the shooting load it would mean forcing up lower percentage shots and thus their efficiency would decrease.

[RAYTHREE]

Because it's all about getting Doc's favorites shots(KG, Paul, Brandon), we only have the best shooter in the history of the NBA and he doesn't even get double digit shots while he plays 35 minutes a night.  If you ask me pretty smart coaching, not really, just kidding.  Oh well, same crap different day with the Celtics, I am just begging that Ray Allen gets traded to a contender and he doesn't have to play with Paul Pierce anymore.  I really think the Bulls could use him playing the shooting guard!!

[PosImpos]

Part of it is that you've got guys like KG and Rondo who at the end of games hate to take shots, so Ray, Pierce, and Bass are left to take a lot of shots, even when they're not open.

I also agree that sometimes it seems like Doc is determined to get a certain guy "going."

With Pierce I think part of it is that the team still defers to him in crunch time as if he can still just dominate the ball and make something happen on every possession (the Pierce-iso offense), which he just can't do anymore.

[BballTim]

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that Boston's offense has a weird habit of locking in on a guy who isn't making shots and then giving him lots and lots of opportunities to demonstrate that he can't score.  In the past it's often been Baby or KG or even Ray where it seems like the whole team just decides this one guy is going to carry the scoring load, no matter how many shots he misses.  We saw it last Friday against the Bulls where, after scrambling back into the game with a diversified attack, they locked in on Pierce to win it at the end.  And even though Pierce had played like crap that game and the previous game and even after he botched his first couple of attempts, they kept giving him the ball.

I've seen teams where one guy, like Kobe, will just dominate the ball and take all the shots he wants.  But Boston appears to actually runs plays to get guys shots, even though they haven't hit the broad side of a barn the whole game long.

I don't really understand the mindset, either from Doc or on the court, that puts all the burden on one guy to score when that guy isn't playing well offensively.

Mike

  You have to consider the scorer mentality. If Paul or Ray are 3-15 they still need to shoot every shot like the next one's going in, and the team needs to trust them enough to pass them the ball for the shot. If you don't go to Paul because he's cold then he'll never heat up. If Ray's not going to be taking shots when he's open he might as well not be on the court.

[Tgro]

Sometimes I really wish we had a Kobe Bryant type of player who is going to hog the ball and get his, game in and game out, so we'd at least know we have a shooter night in and night out.

But when the Celtics have their team ball working, it can be an extremely pretty sight all its own. The problem is, it ain't working this year and it feels like no one is shooting it well enough to win games for us by themselves so we need to get others going each and every game we play. There always needs to be more than one guy making (or at least taking) shots.

We just aren't getting enough guys shooting well enough to win on any given night.

[guava_wrench]

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that Boston's offense has a weird habit of locking in on a guy who isn't making shots and then giving him lots and lots of opportunities to demonstrate that he can't score.  In the past it's often been Baby or KG or even Ray where it seems like the whole team just decides this one guy is going to carry the scoring load, no matter how many shots he misses.  We saw it last Friday against the Bulls where, after scrambling back into the game with a diversified attack, they locked in on Pierce to win it at the end.  And even though Pierce had played like crap that game and the previous game and even after he botched his first couple of attempts, they kept giving him the ball.

I've seen teams where one guy, like Kobe, will just dominate the ball and take all the shots he wants.  But Boston appears to actually runs plays to get guys shots, even though they haven't hit the broad side of a barn the whole game long.

I don't really understand the mindset, either from Doc or on the court, that puts all the burden on one guy to score when that guy isn't playing well offensively.

Mike

The offense doesn't. Time travel is not (yet) possible, so you don't know who will miss until they take a shot.

We do have the problem of KG giving up easy 7 footers to pass to a covered JO underneath which is part of the problem, but the OP is kinda like saying 'isn't it a wonderful coincidence that are legs are just the right length to reach the floor'.

Kobe also has embarrassing shooting nights.