Why the Celtics Lost Thread

[rjsuperfly66]

1.  Shot Selection

From the third into the fourth, when the Celtics had the lead, the offense went stagnate.  It went totally iso, with little movement or strategy.  It led to several terrible shots which allowed the Lakers to come back.

2.  Defensive Rebounding

Enough said there.

3.  Lack of Transition Offense

Because of lack of 2.

4.  Post Offense

When the Celtics went down loaw, they had several good looks.  Sheed hit several shots from the block.  KG dominated on the block for a while.  But it was almost after that "block" in the middle of the third on KG, the whole offense decided to go to the perimeter.  Throughout the course of the game, the Celts should have attacked more.

What do you guys have?

[jdpapa3]

The Fisher and Artest 3's were absolutely enormous...and the refs putting you at the line so many times when you absolutely can not score any other way besides desperation shots is a huge help.

[rjsuperfly66]

I personally can't blame the officials.

Were they great?

No.

But the Lakers were bringing the heat and charging hard at the Celtics early in the 4th, while the Celts decided to play perimeter ball and not be aggressive. 

Proven fact:  More aggressive team gets the calls.

[Redz]

The Fisher and Artest 3's were absolutely enormous...and the refs putting you at the line so many times when you absolutely can not score any other way besides desperation shots is a huge help.

I think Fisher's shot scraped off the ceiling.

He's a hell of a clutch player.

[Rondo_is_better]

Homecourt advantage, in every sense of the word. Its really tough to win on the road.

[BirdLegend33]

Well they stopped playing aggressively getting points in the paint. That's exactly what the Lakers were doing. They stopped passing the ball and playing team ball. They tried to play hero ball.

[angryguy77]

I personally can't blame the officials.

Were they great?

No.

But the Lakers were bringing the heat and charging hard at the Celtics early in the 4th, while the Celts decided to play perimeter ball and not be aggressive. 

Proven fact:  More aggressive team gets the calls.

I don't know what game you were watching, but that was rediculous

[rjsuperfly66]

I personally can't blame the officials.

Were they great?

No.

But the Lakers were bringing the heat and charging hard at the Celtics early in the 4th, while the Celts decided to play perimeter ball and not be aggressive. 

Proven fact:  More aggressive team gets the calls.

I don't know what game you were watching, but that was rediculous

The Celtics style of play tonight did not dictate any chance at getting to the line.  The Celtics, for 90% of the game, tried to isolate or play from the perimeter.  When you play like that and then try to draw contact, rarely do you get the calls. 

The Lakers played like that for the first two and a half quarters.  But then they went to Gasol and decided to "Attack, Attack, Attack."  Most of the calls I thought they made were spot on.  It has nothing to do with them changing their officiating style.  Just what the tempo of the game dictated.

[jasail]

1) failure to clean up the glass.  Gasol 2x the rebounds of KG
2) rondo did not push the ball in the 4th quarter
3) high post iso's created poor ball movement and shot selection
4) they were not athletic enough to get to the rim
5) ft disparity (both a result of #4 and inconsistent calls)
6) ray allen contributed nothing for 5 straight games
 

[Who]

1) failure to clean up the glass.  Gasol 2x the rebounds of KG

Pau Gasol did not have two times the amount of rebounds as Garnett.

He had six times the number of boards (18) that KG had (3).

A pitiful performance by Garnett on the backboards. One of the main reasons why Boston lost tonight.

[rjsuperfly66]

1) failure to clean up the glass.  Gasol 2x the rebounds of KG

Pau Gasol did not have two times the amount of rebounds as Garnett.

He had six times the number of boards (18) that KG had (3).

A pitiful performance by Garnett on the backboards. One of the main reasons why Boston lost tonight.

It was the Rasheed effect.  On offense, Gasol early in the game had like 4 offensive rebounds on one possession.  On defense, with no true center on block (Sheed up on perimeter), it really opens it up for Gasol to grab boards. 

Offensive rebounding killed, especially late in game.

[Edgar]

homecourt advantage.

period

[jdpapa3]

I don't know if I can criticize KG for his rebounding number. It was clear he was used as a sort of free safety a lot to help with the Defense and it's tough to be 2 places at once...

Doc made a gamble to make the others beat us(including Pau) and I think it was the right move...too bad that Artest and Fish hit some absolute daggers at the right(or wrong) moments.

[PosImpos]

Ultimately, the Celtics lost because of things that plagued them throughout the year.

1) Poor rebounding, especially preventing second chance opportunities for the other team

2) Stagnant / non-existent fourth quarter offense.  No go-to scorer in tight situations

3) Inability to score inside / get to the line consistently.

[FreeGreen]

1.  37 to 17 FT disparity in a low scoring game.  If the game is 140 to 135 maybe that doesn't hurt so much, but in a game that's being played in the low 80's that's an almost insurmountable number of free points.

2.  Abandoning the post game in the 4th quarter.  Sheed and KG in the post was our best offense all night (hell -- Sheed was a our best player tonight.)

3.  Rondo on offense.  He HAS to do something to make teams pay for ignoring him.  In the 4th the Lakers didn't even bother guarding him.  They would hard double team Pierce and Garnett every time they got the ball and leave Rondo open.  He got a few rebounds out of it, but never made them pay enough to abandon the strategy.  He has to develop SOMETHING on the offensive end to make him not such a liability in the half court sets.

People will gripe about the offensive rebounds, but honestly most of them happened in the first quarter (which we won.)  After that they were pretty even for the rest of the game.  

The single deciding factor in this game was the FT disparity.  Eliminate that or even shrink it so say 30 to 20 and the C's win going away.