Super Shortened Rotation

[winsomme]

He did a good job in the 2nd half.  Keeping Rondo in for the entire 2nd half kept the Celtics energy up. 

Got a little lucky to.  Davis stepped up big (though I would have like to see Perkins come back in when Big Z did)

maybe a little lucky in the second quarter that CLE didn't build a bigger lead, but the way the Cs came out of the half and executed in the third was a really motivated team that was not afraid to lose that game and i think you have to give Doc credit for getting their heads on straight.....

the shackles came off and they played offense like they had all season.

[wdleehi]

He did a good job in the 2nd half.  Keeping Rondo in for the entire 2nd half kept the Celtics energy up. 

Got a little lucky to.  Davis stepped up big (though I would have like to see Perkins come back in when Big Z did)

see what I mean!

LOL.

Thanks for proving my point, wd.

BTW, Baby was huge tonight, in every way possible.

You have to agree that you scratched your head to when Doc used Davis as the 1st big off the bench.  Playing all three bench big men hasn't worked all post season. 

[Redz]

He did a good job in the 2nd half.  Keeping Rondo in for the entire 2nd half kept the Celtics energy up. 

Got a little lucky to.  Davis stepped up big (though I would have like to see Perkins come back in when Big Z did)

see what I mean!

LOL.

Thanks for proving my point, wd.

BTW, Baby was huge tonight, in every way possible.

I did a whole lot of eyeballing the clock while Big Baby was in there.  I couldn't believe how much time he bought himself tonight. 

Actually I pretty much was eyeballing the clock the whole 4th quarter wishing it would go faster.

[EJPLAYA]

BBD played well, but let's not crown him as the best big off the bench yet. He is 0-4 the rest of this series and looked pretty bad out there until tonight. That was his year all year. He'd come in and look great one game and disappear the next 5. Powe is probably the more consistent one and typically comes up with a big game after BBD does. Look for him to play well also in Cleveland. I sure hope BBD can string a few together though. We could use that against them.

[winsomme]

He did a good job in the 2nd half.  Keeping Rondo in for the entire 2nd half kept the Celtics energy up. 

Got a little lucky to.  Davis stepped up big (though I would have like to see Perkins come back in when Big Z did)

see what I mean!

LOL.

Thanks for proving my point, wd.

BTW, Baby was huge tonight, in every way possible.

You have to agree that you scratched your head to when Doc used Davis as the 1st big off the bench.  Playing all three bench big men hasn't worked all post season. 

why is it a head scratcher?

who is better to neutralize the energy and size of Varejao?

[wdleehi]

He did a good job in the 2nd half.  Keeping Rondo in for the entire 2nd half kept the Celtics energy up. 

Got a little lucky to.  Davis stepped up big (though I would have like to see Perkins come back in when Big Z did)

see what I mean!

LOL.

Thanks for proving my point, wd.

BTW, Baby was huge tonight, in every way possible.

You have to agree that you scratched your head to when Doc used Davis as the 1st big off the bench.  Playing all three bench big men hasn't worked all post season. 

why is it a head scratcher?

who is better to neutralize the energy and size of Varejao?

Read the post above yours.

[PerkinsERA43]

I am not sure about playing Rondo the entire 2nd half every night, but he doesn't need long rests.

No, you can't expect that every night, but it was totally necessary tonight.  As we saw at the very end it was important to keep the foot on the throttle and Rondo was doing that.

I think Doc realized the importance of this game, and didn't worry himself over "preserving" the starters. It was all well and good during the regular season, but if we weren't saving them for the playoffs, what exactly were we sitting them for???

[winsomme]

BBD played well, but let's not crown him as the best big off the bench yet. He is 0-4 the rest of this series and looked pretty bad out there until tonight. That was his year all year. He'd come in and look great one game and disappear the next 5. Powe is probably the more consistent one and typically comes up with a big game after BBD does. Look for him to play well also in Cleveland. I sure hope BBD can string a few together though. We could use that against them.

again, this is about matchups and not really about playing well or not playing well.....

it doesn't mean that Powe or PJ is all of a sudden useless to us. we are just trying to find the best players to go against what CLE is putting out there.

Varejao has been a total pain and he is too big for Powe and too fast for PJ.

BBD is just the right matchup.

now CLE has to worry about him the same way we were worrying about Varejao...

[winsomme]

He did a good job in the 2nd half.  Keeping Rondo in for the entire 2nd half kept the Celtics energy up. 

Got a little lucky to.  Davis stepped up big (though I would have like to see Perkins come back in when Big Z did)

see what I mean!

LOL.

Thanks for proving my point, wd.

BTW, Baby was huge tonight, in every way possible.

You have to agree that you scratched your head to when Doc used Davis as the 1st big off the bench.  Playing all three bench big men hasn't worked all post season. 

why is it a head scratcher?

who is better to neutralize the energy and size of Varejao?

Read the post above yours.

i assume that means Powe, but CLEs bigs are just too big for him.

[get_banners]

powe's the better player, but the match-up issue is why baby got minutes at the end. powe doesn't match up too well against the cleveland bigs, mostly because they're pretty big and strong, and the refs are letting them get away with a lot of contact inside. honestly, as long as he plays decent, baby might be the best bet for backup minutes at the 4 over powe for the rest of the series.

[vinnie]

I still believe Doc is between a mediocre and bad coach.  However, the way he coached tonight, and if he has finally learned some lessons, he could quickly become an adequate or better coach.  Doc stopped being Doc tonight.  He was not predictable.  He played Rondo the entire second half.  He got Garnett in the game more quickly in the fourth quarter than normal.  He appeared to change up the offense giving Pierce some more isolations (although it almost killed us in the end with Pierce's sloppy handle).  The other thing I do not understand is why they took the ball out of Rondo's hands the last four minutes.  I know he is not a great foul shooter, but it nearly cost us the game with the turnovers by Pierce and Allen leading to easy baskets or free throws for the Cavs.  I would give Doc an A- tonight and hope he does not fall back into Doc being Doc.

[nickagneta]

He did a good job in the 2nd half.  Keeping Rondo in for the entire 2nd half kept the Celtics energy up. 

Got a little lucky to.  Davis stepped up big (though I would have like to see Perkins come back in when Big Z did)

see what I mean!

LOL.

Thanks for proving my point, wd.

BTW, Baby was huge tonight, in every way possible.

You have to agree that you scratched your head to when Doc used Davis as the 1st big off the bench.  Playing all three bench big men hasn't worked all post season. 

The point I was making was what I said here:

Doc is criticized for not making in game adjustments, but when he does and it doesn't work out he's an idiot. When he does and it does work out, then he got lucky or it was so simplistic anyone could have done it. Or say say the Doc naysayers.

You basically did exactly what I said a Doc detractor would do.

And no I wasn't scratching my head because his other option was Leon who in Game 4 and in the first half of last night's game was a no show. Doc adjusted in both second halves, something you and others have said he doesn't do, and tried to go with Baby. One night the adjustment worked because Davis played well. The other night it didn't work out well because Davis was awful.

But as EJ said, that has been BBD all year. He plays great one game and then looks bad for 4 or five games before coming out with another flash of what we all hope will be his everyday future. That makes things awfully tough on Doc, but last night the call paid off.

[jay_jay54]

BBD played well, but let's not crown him as the best big off the bench yet. He is 0-4 the rest of this series and looked pretty bad out there until tonight. That was his year all year. He'd come in and look great one game and disappear the next 5. Powe is probably the more consistent one and typically comes up with a big game after BBD does. Look for him to play well also in Cleveland. I sure hope BBD can string a few together though. We could use that against them.

EJ,last night,i had a flashback of a regular season game aganist Detroit,when BBD came in the game,played in rhythm with the starters,gave us a lift,when we needed it.The timing was right,and similar to that game aganist Detroit.

[acieEarl]

24 second half minutes by Rondo.  40+ minutes for all of the starters except for Perk.  Sometimes the best bench is no bench.  Can we give Doc a wee bit of credit for this?  Solved the whole Cassell/House issue.  Sit em both down.  All Rondo, all the time!  Big Baby led the bench with 6 points tonight, but this had to have been the most minutes we've seen from the starters all year (for a non OT game)

I'll give Doc a little credit. I woulda smashed my TV last night if I saw Rondo on the bench to start the 4th last night. No complaints with the rotation last night. Good to see Big Baby getting some minutes early too. Someone must of total Doc that this is the playoffs and if he need his starters to play 40+ minutes than that's what he needs to do. Had he played Rondo in the 4th of Game4 vs the Hawks, that series would have gone 6 maybe 5 games.

[acieEarl]

I still believe Doc is between a mediocre and bad coach.  However, the way he coached tonight, and if he has finally learned some lessons, he could quickly become an adequate or better coach.  Doc stopped being Doc tonight.  He was not predictable.  He played Rondo the entire second half.  He got Garnett in the game more quickly in the fourth quarter than normal.  He appeared to change up the offense giving Pierce some more isolations (although it almost killed us in the end with Pierce's sloppy handle).  The other thing I do not understand is why they took the ball out of Rondo's hands the last four minutes.  I know he is not a great foul shooter, but it nearly cost us the game with the turnovers by Pierce and Allen leading to easy baskets or free throws for the Cavs.  I would give Doc an A- tonight and hope he does not fall back into Doc being Doc.

Good points Vinnie.

I was a little confused why Pierce kept bringing the ball up when Rondo was right next to him, which lead to a couple bad Pierce turnovers. I don't trust Doc but he did a good job last night. The players were going to win or loss that game.