Putrid Defense, Pathetic Offense, and Downright Criminal Officiating

[Rondo_is_better]

I know the title sounds harsh, but its totally accurate. This effort tonight was putrid. In fact, the whole game was putrid. Just abismal. The Warriors are 8 and-- oops, sorry-- NINE and 21 and they just sort of, you know, flipped the switch near the end of the game, buckled down a little on D, and beat us. It was like we were the underachieving, no-D squad that started a former D-Leaguer, and had an undrafted guy and another D leaguer play heavy minutes.

What I saw out there was this:

An attitude and belief held by the Celtics that they are in fact much, much better than they really are, and that it would be fine to coast the whole game. It was unbelievable. It began a few games ago when we were playing terrible teams in our own gym, and then got exposed last night against the Lakers. It was there again tonight, and it made me furious. Since when does our defense just give up easy layups and dunks? Since when does a team outhustle us all game? I guess since last night... offensive rebounds were a huge problem as well, and we really missed Perk.

SMALL BALL SUCKS.


Secondly, there was absolutely criminal officiating. Leon Wood had such an agenda it made me sick. It was a continuation of the Laker's game, which was one of the most poorly officiated games in my memory. The disparity in calls was ENORMOUS. So many offensive fouls on the Celtics. We literally could not drive the lane because there was no hope of getting a foul. That clearly threw the C's off, and made there drives jerky and timid. That made for really awful finishing, and it led to us having our wimpy little floaters erased on a regular basis.

Thirdly, I noticed that our offense is actually pretty much terrible. I was looking for any kind of pattern, rhythm or rhyme to it, and this is what I saw happen every possession, in sequence (at least when we didn't turn it over....get TA out of the game):

Have Paul or Ray seal their man on the wing.

Have KG post.

If that's not open, have KG set a weak pick

Have The wing player go SUPER wide and get pushed off his route by a double team.

Get trapped.

Flail and twist, and either get a bogus travel or offensive foul call, or just barely get the ball back to the top

The guy at the top drives, and takes an impossible shot or a layup in traffic on which he is fouled, but does not receive a call.

That was IT. And it was JUST terrible.

Bottom line, we were ineffective and sluggish, and played with a poor attitude all game. Instead of rising above BS officiating, we just failed miserably and Doc made no adjustments. He didn't even look concerned.

Even if we had won, I wouldn't have been happy. It was downright atrocious.

[KeepDWest]

very harsh . . and i agree with everything you say - i'd also add terrible coaching under the small ball sucks bit

[pearljammer10]

Small ball was awful and powe should have been in the game over eddie house at the end. Terrible coaching for two straight games. No heart, no passion, and no hustle.

[jdpapa3]

It just didn't make sense tonight. We were giving up the ship on defense and were out of sync on offense so we bring in ... Eddie House???

Come on now, Doc. Eddie is awful on defense. I'm 99 percent sure I could shoot over Eddie. I'm leaning more and more towards playing Gabe. Kid is a better ball handler than Eddie and is unreal at defense. This kid can be a lockdown defender and a solid offensive player, but he's stuck behind Eddie.

Not to mention, down by 5-7 and our lineup is Pierce, Rondo, House, Garnett, TA. Only 2 out of those 5 can shoot a 3 and one of them is 6 ft tall. Hate to say it, but this situation called for Scalabrine.

I hope it is the ankle problem lingering for tony. Do I really hope that? I dont know, but he hasn't looked good recently. Hate to call for the backup qb here, but time to give Giddens or Walker a look. If we can round them into rotation form, they could be a nice body to put on Lebron or Kobe in the playoffs. I don't know if TA has the height to hang with those guys.

[LB3533]

Who exactly is Powe supposed to guard.

Even if Powe is in the game, what do the Celtics run?

We weren't pounding the ball into KG down in the post, what makes people think we'd feed Powe?

Eddie was in the game to give us better spacing (and because Ray Allen freaking fouled out)....but he didn't make enough shots, I think he made one 3 pointer late.

The biggest problem right now is not our mediocre BENCH, instead it is our failure to finish off teams and execute down the stretch of ball games.

For the last two games, yes our bench hasn't played well and opposing teams of the Lakers and Warriors's benches both out played our bench, but our STARTERS failed to close out the game.

Failing to win in the clutch is what bothers me more than anything else.

I mean a bench is a bench, if the starters can't pick up the bench then we got a problem.

It seems as though our starters are too busy picking on each other instead of playing the [dang] game.

[Edgar]

Nice use of adjectives.

All over this thread.

[EJPLAYA]

It just didn't make sense tonight. We were giving up the ship on defense and were out of sync on offense so we bring in ... Eddie House???

Come on now, Doc. Eddie is awful on defense. I'm 99 percent sure I could shoot over Eddie. I'm leaning more and more towards playing Gabe. Kid is a better ball handler than Eddie and is unreal at defense. This kid can be a lockdown defender and a solid offensive player, but he's stuck behind Eddie.

Not to mention, down by 5-7 and our lineup is Pierce, Rondo, House, Garnett, TA. Only 2 out of those 5 can shoot a 3 and one of them is 6 ft tall. Hate to say it, but this situation called for Scalabrine.

I hope it is the ankle problem lingering for tony. Do I really hope that? I dont know, but he hasn't looked good recently. Hate to call for the backup qb here, but time to give Giddens or Walker a look. If we can round them into rotation form, they could be a nice body to put on Lebron or Kobe in the playoffs. I don't know if TA has the height to hang with those guys.

Eddie is awful on defense?! Gabe is UNREAL on defense?! Please. Eddie gives more hustle and energy out there on D than anyone not named KG and Perk. Sure he isn't very tall, but he is all over his guy and is great at ball denial. Rarely does a player shoot over the guy. Which of his 180 total minutes played in his NBA career do you use to back that UNREAL statement up?! I think he is a nice defensive player, but you are going way over board with outrageous statements that have no foundation in fact.

[cordobes]

(...)
For the last two games, yes our bench hasn't played well and opposing teams of the Lakers and Warriors's benches both out played our bench, but our STARTERS failed to close out the game.

Failing to win in the clutch is what bothers me more than anything else.
(...)

Hmmm... maybe Hollinger was right after all and NBA teams usually don't keep winning close games forever?

[CoachBo]

Well, small ball only works with the right people, eh?

This team is poorly assembled beyond the starters, and it's been pretty obvious for awhile that we were going to get a dose of adversity because of it. Danny's summer was atrocious, and until it's corrected we're going to be vulnerable.

[albas89]

NO HUSTLE...!!!!!!!

I think this one by itself is enough to describe everything! And it's not only the boards which indicate this lack of hustle!

However, there's still one thing I can't understand... Why didn't PP take more shots?? He was on fire in the 1st period! I really can't understand what Rondo was thinking not giving the ball to anyone and especially Pierce, in order to keep him hot during the 2nd half! Some of his plays nearly p---ed me off... And, of course, I can't understand Pierce in the last minutes of the game! He looked like "Oh, you don't give me the ball... ok then, do whatever you want, I'm out of this!!". I was expecting him to step up and take over, but he not only failed to meet my expectations, to be precise he was never aggressive, he didn't even try to get to the ft line! He's the Captain after all, he should at least have shown them the way...Frustrating... Ray didn't have a good game all night long and then he got a little angry with the foul calls on him! His game though was characteristic of what I'm saying...

NO HUSTLE dudes, so simple, no hustle even from Doc, that was pathetic....

[dj23]

The Celtics look like a bunch of frightened girls on the road. I have no hope of a repeat this year.

[MMacOH]

I expected to see some panic out of Celts fans.  Celtics just took GS for granted.  Probably good for them that they lost.  It will help the team refocus.  Expect another win streak to start next game. 

[ACF]

The Celtics look like a bunch of frightened girls on the road. I have no hope of a repeat this year.

Wait 'til KG reads this! 

[Rondo_is_better]

The Celtics look like a bunch of frightened girls on the road. I have no hope of a repeat this year.

Wait 'til KG reads this! 

I think its important to note that KG is still hustling. He blocked some shots yesterday and played well against the Lakers. Its just tough to have a good team defense when ONE GUY is giving all he's got (physically AND mentally), and the rest of the team just seems disinterested (except Rondo, who somehow managed to come within one rebound of a triple double and still play poorly, and Powe, who was very interested in his own offense last night)

[wdleehi]

Eddie was in the game to give us better spacing (and because Ray Allen freaking fouled out)....but he didn't make enough shots, I think he made one 3 pointer late.

That is an issue.  That is an aspect they have not addresses yet with the loss of Posey. 



The Celtics bench has some talent, but they are missing certain key skills (or size) at key spots.