Celtics (23-21) at Hawks (26-19) 3/19

[2short]

yep, the offense slow-down possessions topped off each time with a Paul Pierce Iso Special is a disaster waiting to happen.

does Doc and the players just not notice how ineffective that usually is ?? it's as if they only remember the rare occasions when Pierce makes a big shot and they forget all the times he is forced into a stumbling fallaway 22-footer with his defender all over him and a shot that has no chance.

Well, Pierce kept getting Zaza switched on to him.  The iso's could have worked a lot better, but Pierce just didn't have a lot of burst tonight.

i'm not talking about a Pierce Iso that develops naturally off ball movement - i'm talking about the slow-down possessions when Pierce stands out front with the ball dribbling seconds off the clock, then predictably begins a weak assault on the basket with too little time left and nowhere to go but a weak fallaway under heavy pressure.

yeah this season we've gone away from the team concept a bit whereas we used to pick the best matchup and exploit it
too many times we are trying to get paul or ray shots when they just aren't there
more ball movement & better rebounding would make a world of difference with this team

[ACF]

Same old.  Only the result differs, Hoping the Brain Trust does not think the winning combination, the secret forumale, the magic elixer, the Rune of Red....

Agreed.  Funny/Sad that people who didn't watch the game and check the box score or see SportsCenter are going to have no clue what really happened tonight

I'm one of those people. To me it seems the Celts put the ball in the basket more frequently than the Hawks and thus, won the game  A win is a win.

[thestackshow]

yep, the offense slow-down possessions topped off each time with a Paul Pierce Iso Special is a disaster waiting to happen.

does Doc and the players just not notice how ineffective that usually is ?? it's as if they only remember the rare occasions when Pierce makes a big shot and they forget all the times he is forced into a stumbling fallaway 22-footer with his defender all over him and a shot that has no chance.

Well, Pierce kept getting Zaza switched on to him.  The iso's could have worked a lot better, but Pierce just didn't have a lot of burst tonight.

i'm not talking about a Pierce Iso that develops naturally off ball movement - i'm talking about the slow-down possessions when Pierce stands out front with the ball dribbling seconds off the clock, then predictably begins a weak assault on the basket with too little time left and nowhere to go but a weak fallaway under heavy pressure.

yeah this season we've gone away from the team concept a bit whereas we used to pick the best matchup and exploit it
too many times we are trying to get paul or ray shots when they just aren't there
more ball movement & better rebounding would make a world of difference with this team

Yea were definately at a weird spot right now.

Before it was "this team passes too much and is too unselfish, so we cant score" then it was "this teams too selfish, we cant win playing hero ball" now its "this team is too old and doesent have the energy to be agressive, and were passing too much" hence the ugly ugly play lately.

[azzenfrost]

Hats off to Stiemsma. Had 4 blocks this game.

[j804]

I can't believe we won this game it was ugly. That score or the huge lead was never comfortable and we only won because of consecutive threes so happened to fall.

[Celtics4ever]

A win is a win and I will take it.

[Employee8]

Great win.  Granted the game didn't end the way we wanted it to but it's the classic case of milking the clock instead of going hard to the hoop.  And Joe Johnson was out of this world in the last couple minutes- played like Kobe circa 2000s with those 3 pointers.  But awesome win.  Great rebounding.  I'm not sure if we had more or less than the Hawks but the effort was definitely there.

I'm really coming around to Pietrus.  He plays way better D than I expected.

[RyNye]

Players.

The crux of the matter: I feel like Doc is too nice a guy to actually lose his mind and dig into the guys, imploring them to actually run the offense in key moments and/or play within a system...Not that that would be a winning strategy, as KG, Pierce, Ray, and Rondo would have none of being exhorted or criticized. Essentially, this is a deeply flawed team with ego issues.

Doc is actually rather well known for not caring about the egos of his players, and digging into them when they screw up.

Seriously, where are these ego issues? Rondo is the only one who is anything close to a headcase, and even then, all the mutterings on the Internet about how difficult he is are extremely overblown. KG and Ray are both well known for being team-first (KG to the point of an obsession). And Paul Pierce was once known as a selfish player, but has visibly and publicly matured since the Big 3 era.

Honestly, where are you getting this armchair psychology from?

[GreenFaith1819]

Thought this was funny from KG last night. Found this via hoopshype.com by way of A. Sherrod Blakely's tweet:

A. Sherrod Blakely

 Also In Basketball
#CelticsTalk: #Celtics Kevin Garnett, when asked if the dunk by #Hawks guard Jeff Teague fired up the team. "I don't know who you talking about. That guy's a nobody."

I only saw the highlights last night, and when I saw Teague dunk over Ray, I knew that Ray would go off.

And he did, evidently.

The way I read the flow of the game in the thread and from the box scores on ESPN, Ray basically shot us to victory - right after the screaming and posing of Teague.

Good for Ray (and BOS). Great win vs a playoff team.

[Celtics18]

Same old.  Only the result differs, Hoping the Brain Trust does not think the winning combination, the secret forumale, the magic elixer, the Rune of Red....

Agreed.  Funny/Sad that people who didn't watch the game and check the box score or see SportsCenter are going to have no clue what really happened tonight

I watched the game.  What I saw was a great win.