Just two comments; we looked old, and about Eddie.....

[ScoobyDoo]

TP to Guava wrench. We in fact did look old against a number of younger, more athletic teams in 2008, among them:

Atlanta
Charlotte
Washington
and a few others...
Phoenix beat us with speed and energy.

While that trend continues, as Guawva wrench mentiones it is nothing new.

Key thing is, how to address it.

First of all I would have put Pierce at when M Williams was playing there and I would have put Rondo on Jamaal Crawford to get up under him.

But more importantly, and which Doc pointed out amny times while being miked up...

With younger, athletic guys you have to put a body on them and turn it into a fist fight or they'll crawl all over you all night.

Atlanta did, Phoenix did as well.

We didn't make the game physical enough. We do that we win easily.

[footey]

I think that the offensive rebounding by ATL is what killed us.  They were going after the ball more aggressively. It also prevented us from getting out on the break for easy transition buckets.  Against a young team, you can't fall into the trap of slowing it down every time. We need Rondo to push it up fast. When he does, our older guys are forced to run up faster, and it creates more high percentage shots.

[Neurotic Guy]

Eddie is getting dangerously close to being the only rotation player who has yet to be productive during relevant minutes.  He has hit 13 (I think) 3's this year, but I can't recall a single one coming at an important moment.  And I don't mean in the last 5 minutes when I kno he isn't playing. I just mean when the game is still in question and the subs are doing there thing.  He has missed open shots and has not yet amazed me this year as he did so often last year. If Eddie can't be explosive with the shot, exactly what good does he do for this team?

I am not saying he's done -- I am just saying that its getting close to a point where he needs to produce.  If not in the next 5 games, then why not give Lester a chance.  He won't be worse on the defensive end or bringing the ball up. 

You need to work on you memory than. He has had 3s in close games this year. Don't blame House for bad memory or inattentiveness.

He has been horrible though the last few.

At first I was going to simply blame my age for my poor memory and apologize -- then thought I'd check a little.  Now, you still may be correct as I could not determine the times in the games that all  his points occured, but I'll present the following while reasserting my premise that he hasn't been very productive during relevant minutes:

10 of his 13 threes this year have occured during blowouts.  
5 of the C's last 7 games were not blowouts, in these games, Eddie has shot 4 for 22.  
In the 2 blowouts in the last 7 games (Philly and Utah), Eddie was 6 for 12.
He did have a solid 2-game stretch this year -- he was 12 for 20 (5-11 fm 3) in back to back wins vs. Charlotte and Chicago -- these were games the C's won by a combined 61 points.

I am not claiming a good memory, lord knows, but I don't think my memory of Eddie's work this year was too far off.