The Good News

[Who]

There's a couple of problems the Celtics have to fix but it wasn't all bad, here's some positive news on yesterday's game.

Let's see .... the three biggest advantages Cleveland had coming into this series was (1) LeBron (2) Z (3) Rebounding

• LeBron James shot only 5-16 from the floor. He hit 3 three pointers, one in the paint and hit only 1-9 from 2 point jump shots. The defense worked very well stopping James once again
• Big Z had his worst scoring game of the series scoring 12 points (5-10) and pulling them 8 rebounds.
• That's the Cavs two leading scorers combined for 33 points. They're averaging 36ppg on the series. The Big Three can outscore that (40ppg this series) and Boston have a stronger supporting cast.
  
• The Cavaliers barely won the rebounding battle. They won 36-33. The Celtics had more offensive rebounds 12-11. The only reason the Cavs won the rebounding battle was because the Celtics shooting was so poor in comparison to the Cavs missing 12 extra shots and that's why the Cavs won the rebounding battle

That's really good news.

C'mon who really expects their supporting cast to play like this four times out of five games? (down 0-2, they have to win 4 out of 5) Which the supporting cast will have to do if Bron keeps struggling. That's favourable odds.

[kenmaine]

Agreed, for the most part.
Yes, Delonte and Wally shouldn't go off like that again, but LeBron and Z will have better games, so that might be a wash.
Not too worried about this series, but getting #17 isn't going to be as easy as some of us thought. I guess I got spoiled during the regular season when everything seemed so easy.

[celticmaestro]

yeah i can't see their lesser players going off like that again. i think realistically this has to be a wake up call for the c's and we'll close it out in 5. i never make predictions, but i'm confident.

[wdleehi]

I agree that I wouldn't expect to see the supporting cast continue to shoot like this.




But the defense on the road is unacceptable.  They play tired on the road.


Hands are down allowing crisper passes.  Crisper passes makes it to hard to close out on the shooters.  Open shots for the shooters equals a high %.


If the Celtics come out with energy on defense, Celtics win. 

[Celtic]

The good points obviously weren't good enough to get a win but there is lots to learn from them. I think the main reason they looked so bad last night was they continued to double Lebron very well and deny him good shooting opportunities, however, the did not continue to rotate back to open shooters and play any semblance of help defense.

[SShoreFan]

I agree that I wouldn't expect to see the supporting cast continue to shoot like this.




But the defense on the road is unacceptable.  They play tired on the road.


Hands are down allowing crisper passes.  Crisper passes makes it to hard to close out on the shooters.  Open shots for the shooters equals a high %.


If the Celtics come out with energy on defense, Celtics win. 

Not debating this, but rather asking a question in the form of a statement.

I think perhaps there's too much energy on both ends of the court for the Celtics and not enough matter-of-fact-this-is-a-business-and-we-are-[dang]-good-at-this-business approach.

I would say the offense is equally unacceptable if not more so.  Poor shooting, ball handling and passing on the offensive end has been leading to easier points for the opponent and thus leading to an unneeded sense of urgency from the Celts which leads to more of the same.

The Celts are playing their opponents relatively even for 38 minutes a game, but obviously they need to do so for 48.


Jumping sports here for a second, I think the Celtics team would be smart to take a page out of Manny's approach in last year's playoffs.  Remember when the Sox were down to the Indians and the press asked Manny about it and he basically said losing wouldn't be the end of the world --- and then proceeded to go out and kick the Indians tail and run away with the series.  Not winning for so long, perhaps the 3 veterans on the Celtics look at this as the end of the world as opposed to hey, it's a business and we are the best company around.

I say the Celts need to leave the emotional energy at the hotel and focus on the mundane execution on both ends of the court. 

[wdleehi]

I agree that I wouldn't expect to see the supporting cast continue to shoot like this.




But the defense on the road is unacceptable.  They play tired on the road.


Hands are down allowing crisper passes.  Crisper passes makes it to hard to close out on the shooters.  Open shots for the shooters equals a high %.


If the Celtics come out with energy on defense, Celtics win. 

Not debating this, but rather asking a question in the form of a statement.

I think perhaps there's too much energy on both ends of the court for the Celtics and not enough matter-of-fact-this-is-a-business-and-we-are-[dang]-good-at-this-business approach.

I would say the offense is equally unacceptable if not more so.  Poor shooting, ball handling and passing on the offensive end has been leading to easier points for the opponent and thus leading to an unneeded sense of urgency from the Celts which leads to more of the same.

The Celts are playing their opponents relatively even for 38 minutes a game, but obviously they need to do so for 48.


Jumping sports here for a second, I think the Celtics team would be smart to take a page out of Manny's approach in last year's playoffs.  Remember when the Sox were down to the Indians and the press asked Manny about it and he basically said losing wouldn't be the end of the world --- and then proceeded to go out and kick the Indians tail and run away with the series.  Not winning for so long, perhaps the 3 veterans on the Celtics look at this as the end of the world as opposed to hey, it's a business and we are the best company around.

I say the Celts need to leave the emotional energy at the hotel and focus on the mundane execution on both ends of the court. 

When I mention low energy, I am not talking about the over hyping the players seem to like to do (but if doing that on the road gets them to play like at home, I am all for it)


I am talking about simple energy on defense.  Energy to keep your arms up to make passing hard (with more arc).  Energy to rotate in time and to close out in time. 

[SShoreFan]

I agree that I wouldn't expect to see the supporting cast continue to shoot like this.




But the defense on the road is unacceptable.  They play tired on the road.


Hands are down allowing crisper passes.  Crisper passes makes it to hard to close out on the shooters.  Open shots for the shooters equals a high %.


If the Celtics come out with energy on defense, Celtics win. 

Not debating this, but rather asking a question in the form of a statement.

I think perhaps there's too much energy on both ends of the court for the Celtics and not enough matter-of-fact-this-is-a-business-and-we-are-[dang]-good-at-this-business approach.

I would say the offense is equally unacceptable if not more so.  Poor shooting, ball handling and passing on the offensive end has been leading to easier points for the opponent and thus leading to an unneeded sense of urgency from the Celts which leads to more of the same.

The Celts are playing their opponents relatively even for 38 minutes a game, but obviously they need to do so for 48.


Jumping sports here for a second, I think the Celtics team would be smart to take a page out of Manny's approach in last year's playoffs.  Remember when the Sox were down to the Indians and the press asked Manny about it and he basically said losing wouldn't be the end of the world --- and then proceeded to go out and kick the Indians tail and run away with the series.  Not winning for so long, perhaps the 3 veterans on the Celtics look at this as the end of the world as opposed to hey, it's a business and we are the best company around.

I say the Celts need to leave the emotional energy at the hotel and focus on the mundane execution on both ends of the court. 

When I mention low energy, I am not talking about the over hyping the players seem to like to do (but if doing that on the road gets them to play like at home, I am all for it)


I am talking about simple energy on defense.  Energy to keep your arms up to make passing hard (with more arc).  Energy to rotate in time and to close out in time. 

I don't have the video, but I believe I saw that energy for opening minutes and the middle two quarters (the fourth was garbage), I think they do exactly what you are saying in crucial (head scratching) spurts and I am not sure if it's energy or them being flustered.

BTW:  congrats on the 400+ TP mark.

[Woodstock Libertarian]

Circling the wagons around the home court is a failed strategy, and it will fail for the celtics, too.

It's just a matter of time before they bugger one at home.

[SShoreFan]

Circling the wagons around the home court is a failed strategy, and it will fail for the celtics, too.

It's just a matter of time before they bugger one at home.

I love the word bugger!!!  I am still laughing - TP

[sns0274]

While I like the positives that were pointed out, there are a couple of major issues when we play on the road, with the offense leading the way. Perfect example would be Perks 11 foot fall away, while I do believe all of us know, I think perk also knows that this is not his offense at all. He took the shot for a couple of reasons 1) time was running down on the shot clock and 2) every other Celtic player on the floor, was standing and watching. There was absolutely nobody moving towards the ball, in fact they were all moving away from it. When this team becomes complacent on the offensive end, we settle for jumpers and forget what got us to where we are no...attacking the rim. The C's have to play an inside out game to be effective on the offensive end and when the shots aren't falling they need to attack even harder. Fact is when we build a lead (something that didn't happen last night) we revert to jumpers and lose the lead as fast as we got it. When we start with jumpers, it ends up looking like last night.