The sky is not falling...yet

[birdwatcher]

I know we all had our hearts ripped out in the fourth quarter last night, and we've all had enough of these squandered opportunities, but the season is not over yet. We lost to the best team in the league last night after owning them in the first half. Doc pushed our best player for 48 minutes, and with his penetration stopped and only Ray Allen left to take shots, we ran out of answers. Call it an excuse, but our top scorer was out. Pierce is also the biggest guy who is the most capable to try and slow Lebron down. Lebron didn't have to play defense last night--without pierce on the floor he played safety, and just ran where ever the ball was. Pierce would have made a huge difference--just his presence on the floor would have stretched the defense enough for Rondo to keep penetrating. And we're quick to judge Nate before he's really had a chance to practice and figure out what his role is on this team. We're hurt, we're long in the tooth, but we are far from done.

[makaveli]

It's easy to love this team and it's players but on the other hand, you ask yourself WHY do we blow leads, we are not a young unexperienced team with rooks and sophs playing mayor minutes, this is/was a proven team that took care of home court and now we have a better away score witch is unimaginable for a Celtics fan/player/coach.
I believe it's all about motivation and state of mind.

[Evantime34]

I have not pronounced this team dead yet. As long as we get hot before the end of the season I think we can carry it over to the playoffs. Unfortunetly with ever 2nd half collapse it seems less and less likely we will get hot.

[youcanthandlethetruth113]

I know we all had our hearts ripped out in the fourth quarter last night, and we've all had enough of these squandered opportunities, but the season is not over yet. We lost to the best team in the league last night after owning them in the first half. Doc pushed our best player for 48 minutes, and with his penetration stopped and only Ray Allen left to take shots, we ran out of answers. Call it an excuse, but our top scorer was out. Pierce is also the biggest guy who is the most capable to try and slow Lebron down. Lebron didn't have to play defense last night--without pierce on the floor he played safety, and just ran where ever the ball was. Pierce would have made a huge difference--just his presence on the floor would have stretched the defense enough for Rondo to keep penetrating. And we're quick to judge Nate before he's really had a chance to practice and figure out what his role is on this team. We're hurt, we're long in the tooth, but we are far from done.

Kudos for the enthusiasm and positivity.

[birdwatcher]

Thanks. Living and working in Boston makes it harder to be a positive fan. We're spoiled by years of success, titles and MVP caliber players across three of our four major sports franchises and if you get sucked into WEEI every morning like I do you begin to wonder if half of this town really wants to win--they'd rather just have something to Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. about.

[Jon]

I still don't get why everyone is so paranoid.  The expectation on this board 24 hours ago is that Cleveland was going to kill us since PP was out. 

Then, Boston goes out there shorthanded, shocks the Cavs for a 2 1/2 quarters, and then basically starts playing like everyone thought they would with PP out. 

So why all the doom and gloom? 

If anything, I'm somewhat encouraged by the game.  It proved to me that this team obviously can hang with Cleveland when they're 100%.  It's just that we're not right now.  It proved that Rondo (when he's on and not run into the ground) can dominate Mo Williams.  It also showed some encouraging spring in KG's legs. 

I don't know.  I think it was the tease that's got everyone going.  No one would be blinking an eye if Cleveland had just blown out a PP-less Celtics.  However, since we played better than we should've for a half, the season is now apparently over. 

[bdsulliv]

Well said Jon.

Seriously, how awesome was it to watch the first half, knowing that when the team cares, they could put a whupping on the Cavs? Jamison got swallowed up by KG. Mo got owned by Rondo. Shaq was largely ineffective. The entire game turned, and the only glimmer of hope the Cavs had, was when Varejao came in the game and started playing with crazy energy. (I hate that guy).

Anyway, once this Celtics team knows it is better than an opponent, everyone chills out, having satisfied their competitive instinct. You can see it in their faces in 3rd quarters. Wait until the playoffs when they actually care, will be relatively rested between games, and have long t.v. timeouts to spare them. Things will get much better.

I don't see how the Hawks, Orlando, or Cleveland would beat a healthy, motivated Celtics team.