Not Liking the "No Pressure" Comment

[ballin]

Frankly, I'm not a fan of those "no pressure" comments either.

It's representative of the sort of lackadaisical approach the team took to the regular season. While the playoffs aren't completely analogous to the regular season, I think everybody would agree that you play how you practice and at this point in the season a team basically is what it is. The "switch-flipping" argument is mostly a a myth. So if the Celtics think they can walk into this series with "no pressure" and then pull out a win, I think they're sadly mistaken.

Sure, the talent is still there. But what's going to motivate them to go extra hard for the rebounds, charges, and other hustle plays that make or break a championship team if there isn't any "pressure"?

This team lacks the intensity of the 2008 team, so naturally I'm going to dislike any comments that remind me of that plain fact.

[RAcker]

Redz, I just read this as more of a "There's a lot more pressure on them than there is on us" type of comment.  In that way, he's right.

If Cleveland loses one of these first two games at home and LeBron is acting less than 100%, the C's will smell blood and they will be very hard to beat.

I agree that Boston needs to come out with a fire in their bellies, but I think there is definitely more pressure from Cleveland's standpoint up until they get a significant lead in the series (like 2-0) if that happens.  That's when the pressure would really be on us.

[Eja117]

I guess at least it's a factual statement.

The Cs are old. They got their rings. They got their money.

Lebron has nothing yet and is in the final year of his contract.

plus the last time they were facing a game seven type scenario the players actually did show up and seemed to not be feeling any pressure at all, so maybe it's for the best

[BudweiserCeltic]

I think it simply means that they don't feel outside pressure. The pressure they put on themselves to perform well for themselves, their teammates, coach, owners are quite enough for them to play as they should. At times, outside pressure is more volatile and harder to manage.