what i don't get is ........... exactly why are the Celts players so disinterested and unmotivated ?? are they just plain tired of playing the game ?
whay would they not care ? it's not like it's a team full of bad character guys. garnett's career has been based on his voracious appetite for playing the game with intensity. paul pierce, for all his struggles with immaaturity in years' past, has been, if nothing else, a warrior. ray allen is as professional as they come and i think perk is a very tough competitor.
the only two i question are rondo and wallace. maybe now that rondo has become maybe the best player in terms of being talented and coming into his prime, he has read too much of how great he is. he just oozes a certain lazy and unearned aarrogance to me - like he doesn't have to play hard if he doesn't want to.
and then there is rasheed wallace - he really has been a head case his entire career and i believe his basic nature is one of laziness and selfishness "the only opinion i care about is the people in my home" - meaning of course his wife and kids. it's not that i think wallace wants to sabotage the Celtics, not at all. it's just that he cannot overcome his basic nature, which other than a couple of seasons, has been his dominant personality theoughout his pro career.
this team was built as a grinder, which two seasons ago, they were so good at - but it's difficult to impossible to keep up that style of play successfully over several seasons.