Age, Coaching, Leadership

[jchamorro]

Age:
Ray allen has been exposed for what he is,  an old jump shooter with no defense.  He reminded me of Reggie Miller in the twilight of his career when he would flagrantly foul opposing players an regularly get away with it.  Ray cannot guard Johnson.  I'd much rather see Tony Allen out there in crunch time for his D.

Perkins, and Rondo have played like it's their first time in the playoffs, tentative and shaky.  Baby and Powe have played admirably, bull by the horns.

Coaching:
The final 25 seconds of the game last night showed what type of coach rivers is in the crunch. He's got no control over Pierce and Allen and Garnett defers to almost everyone.
It feels like Rivers is being Reactive instead of Proactive,  you're the best team in the league and you're double-teaming Joe Johnson?  Explain to To TAllen he needs to be a defensive stopper. Stop Johnson and make the other 4 hawks beat you.

Adjustments are part of the game Doc,  take Ray out if he's not performing.

What happened to your rotation guys during the regular season.  Get back to House, TA, RA, Baby and Posey early in the second quarter.  For god sake,  do something unexpected,  ready your team Doc.


Leadership:
The riddle of Garnett is solved. With around 6 minutes left,  Garnett had the ball near the top of the paint, back to the basket.  Instead of bulling his way in, he tried a pass to cassel or rondo at the top of the key. The pass was intercepted and the hawks went down and scored.

Garnett isn't a crunch time leader. He has deferred too often in this series and past playoffs to show he's the man come playoff time.  A fantastic complementary player, along the lines of Nowitzki,  but not THE MAN.

Ray Allen still thinks he's the leader the same way John Starks thought he should keep shooting in the NBA Finals a decade ago.

It basically comes down to Pierce grabbing the reigns and willing them to the second round only I've seen Pierce settle for a 3 too often,  or drive to the lane and get stripped or fouled only to miss the free throws one too many to know what game 7 holds for him.
I'm thinking positively tho.



I really can't see them losing on Sunday, regardless of what's happened up to this point. The better team always wins a best of 7 series, period.

[Frontierboy]

I really can't see them losing on Sunday, regardless of what's happened up to this point. The better team always wins a best of 7 series, period.

But right now, the better team is Atlanta

[Redz]

I really can't see them losing on Sunday, regardless of what's happened up to this point. The better team always wins a best of 7 series, period.

But right now, the better team is Atlanta

How can you say the better team is Atlanta?  I understand we all expected this series to be over sooner, but if you look at it from the point of view that both teams started out the series 0-0, you'd have to say the Celtics have played better in the games they've won and they've both won the same amount of games.  How could you possibly figure from those results that Atlanta is better?

[reggie35]

I really can't see them losing on Sunday, regardless of what's happened up to this point. The better team always wins a best of 7 series, period.

But right now, the better team is Atlanta

How can you say the better team is Atlanta?  I understand we all expected this series to be over sooner, but if you look at it from the point of view that both teams started out the series 0-0, you'd have to say the Celtics have played better in the games they've won and they've both won the same amount of games.  How could you possibly figure from those results that Atlanta is better?

They're better in close games under pressure. Game 7 is the ultimate pressure situation. The C's have been choking all series long.

[vinnie]

I agree 100 percent with Reggie.  The Celtics have shown no evidence in this series that they can win a close game in crunch time.  If it comes down to that tomorrow, I really worry as to what will happen.  I still can't get the image out of my head of Rondo bringing the ball up the court with 7 seconds left and being hung out to day as no one came to the ball.  That is not the image of a championship team.

[wdleehi]

I think it might be time to roll Rays minutes back 5-8 minutes and give them to Posey.



Ray has to save less energy per game. 



Posey allows either him or Pierce (both better defenders) more time on JJ. 



I don't know if it will help Ray be more efficient during his time on the court, but more defense can not hurt the Celtics.

[lobstermobster]

How can you say the better team is Atlanta?

How do you say the better team is Boston?  We're getting outplayed, outcoached, and outhustled by a vastly less talented group of players.  I wouldn't call Woodson an outstanding coach, but i'd take him, or any other NBA coach over Doc in a heartbeat.  Especially in the post season.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at Doc's playoff coaching success and be real worried about game 7 no matter where it's being played.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at Garnett playing like he just got neutered or Paul losing his mind in crunch time and not be worried about game 7.

[WedmanIsMyHero]

Ding, ding, ding we have a winner.  No winning playoff experience and enough losing experience to be nervous and tight. . .

How can you say the better team is Atlanta?

How do you say the better team is Boston?  We're getting outplayed, outcoached, and outhustled by a vastly less talented group of players.  I wouldn't call Woodson an outstanding coach, but i'd take him, or any other NBA coach over Doc in a heartbeat.  Especially in the post season.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at Doc's playoff coaching success and be real worried about game 7 no matter where it's being played.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at Garnett playing like he just got neutered or Paul losing his mind in crunch time and not be worried about game 7.

[clover]

You're right, Wedman.  The quality of experience matters, and there is such a thing as bad experience.

[Redz]

So falling apart completely and getting smoked by large margins is not a sign of a teams deficiencies, but choking in the clutch is?

I'm not saying I'm pleased with the Celtics overall performance in this series, but I just don't see how you can discount a team getting crushed for 3 games and not count that against them somehow. 

The series is tied 3-3.  I'll buy the argument that the teams have played evenly since that's the bottom line.

Have the Celtics underperformed? Yes.  Have the Hawks over performed? Yes.  But taken at an arbitrary level from the start of the series, there's no way you can say as a whole the Hawks have outplayed the Celtics (well, I guess you can, I just don't think you're looking at it from an even perspective - you're handicapping).

Anyhow, it's all semantics.  We'll find out who the better team is tomorrow.  It kinda sucks that we needed to watch 7 games to determine who the better team is, but to this point we've determined nothing.

[winsomme]

i think we need to acknowledge that Atlanta is simply a difficult matchup for us. i know that people want to talk about how terrible the Hawks are based on their record, but they are better IMO than Philly and maybe even TOR and they are the type of team that gives us problems.

when they are playing at home, their whole team is making shots. last night, Willams, Childress, Horford, Bibby were all making shots and it made it hard to key on JJ down the stretch. and Pachulia seems to woken up out a season long comma and is now like he played last year which was pretty darn good.

but they are also young and we are the better team which is why i think we have been beating them at home so easily. but all bets are off at this point and game 7 is going to be an emotional battle.

i expect the Cs to play well and hope that they aren't letting the embarrassment and news reporting get to them because if they can close out this series, i think we will be right back into contention for a Title....

this is a tremendous team, but no team is without their foibles....

i am a little worried about Pierce's back, but i still expect big things from this team.

here's hoping anyway.