Why it was silly to panic

[Drucci]

This thread is not made to be a "I told you so" thread but it just sums up why I was staying optimistic (among others posters) about the team and our chances in the playoffs. Neither it is an overreaction thread after a great win, but it just highlights the points I was talking about during our slump, and which were all in display tonight :

1. Our losses are due to a lack of focus and a lack of rest. We get both the focus and the rest in the playoffs and we saw it tonight from the team against the best team in the league. The focus was just on a whole different level and the two days of rest helped too.

2. It was silly to assume Rondo would keep playing like crap. The guy is a competitor in the KG vein and he probably had his best game of the season so far. You can expect similar performances in the playoffs.

3. JO's presence will be huge. He had a great game tonight and his impact was felt way beyond the boxscore, his lone presence and good timing in the paint prevented a lot of easy layups or drives like Parker got in the first half at will.

4. And this is new to me : I thought Green's impact was huge tonight, beyond his scoring and defense (which was a lot better than usual) in that it allowed Pierce to rest and come back fresh and on fire in the 4th. This will be a huge asset in the playoffs for our usual scoring droughts in the 4th.

Obviously there are some still question marks about this team (mostly health and whether Rondo can carry us through the entire playoffs) but to me the reasons to be optimistic always outlined the negative reasons and tonight's game showed why. Even if we had lost this one I would have felt very good.

[Cman]

TP, well written.

If there was one thing I could change about tonight (without changing the outcome) it would be less minutes for Rondo, which goes to something you say in your last paragraph.

(well, two things to change, the other being no injury to Krstic).

[Greenbean]

Great points Drucci especially about Green keeping Pierce fresh to close the game out.

Even though I never panicked!

[Drucci]

TP, well written.

If there was one thing I could change about tonight (without changing the outcome) it would be less minutes for Rondo, which goes to something you say in your last paragraph.

(well, two things to change, the other being no injury to Krstic).

Agreed, Rondo was litterally gassed after his amazing run in the 3rd quarter. Hopefully Delonte's improving health should help him to get more productive and thus give more rest to Rondo.

I would also prefer to play Ray less minutes. Which makes me realize we also were able to win by 10 points while basically getting nothing out of Ray (except a timely 3), which is another positive because we can win when one of the Big Four is off, while we couldn't in that situation last year.

[vinnie]

Agreed,but it still is just one win.

[Jon]

Well, while I agree it was silly to panic, it's probably equally silly to say that one good game means everything's OK.  

However, everything was very encouraging tonight.  I had hopes that JO could be our backup center in the playoffs, playing 15 mpg prior to this game.  Now I think he could do even more.  

[Drucci]

Agreed,but it still is just one win.

Of course, but like I said it's not so much the win in itself but what the game showed : it could have been a loss for all I care, I would have come out of this game feeling really good (OK, not so good of course since it would be a loss) simply because this game showed what we can expect in the playoffs.

[Megatron]

Celtics have a switch that turns on for the playoffs and against good teams.

I thought we all knew that by now. Dont know why people are surprised.

[LB3533]

Baby haters need to realize that Baby hadn't played well in our recent losses either.

So it was just lack of focus or lack of rest or poor play from our Big 4....Baby wasn't playing well either.

When Baby plays well we are a much better team....look at how we were pre-all star game, when Baby was basically leading the league as 6th man of the year.

[Chris]

I'll be sure to bump this thread tomorrow night, when the C's look listless, and get beat by the Hawks.  Thats when these reminders are going to be needed.

[Megatron]

I'll be sure to bump this thread tomorrow night, when the C's look listless, and get beat by the Hawks.  Thats when these reminders are going to be needed.

Hawks suck and its a second night of a back to back, everyone expects a loss, and the Celtics wont try hard vs a weak opponent.

Tonight showed that the celtics only care about winning when the team is good, or if its the playoffs.

[Drucci]

I'll be sure to bump this thread tomorrow night, when the C's look listless, and get beat by the Hawks.  Thats when these reminders are going to be needed.

Well I'm expecting a loss tomorrow and a disappointing game considering we won't get any rest and probably no focus either (or very limited) since the Hawks are not an elite team. That still doesn't change the point of this thread!

[Cinzilla]

The Celtics won this game because Rondo, Garnett and Davis went 19-25 their shots out of 10ft. That's an efficiency above 75% in long 2s.

If it wasn't for that, it would have been another lackluster performance, very similar to the past ones. Similar in the boards, similar inability to get high percentage shots, similar shot-selection, similar defense. Even a heavily perimeter oriented team like this season Spurs beat them in points in the paint.

Anyone who expects similar performances in the playoffs is going to be sorely disappointed because there's no way such efficiency in long 2s is sustainable.

OP is seeing things that didn't happen and only wrote this post because of the final score. Had they been normal in those long jumpers and lost another game this thread wouldn't exist.

[Drucci]

The Celtics won this game because Rondo, Garnett and Davis went 19-25 their shots out of 10ft. That's an efficiency above 75% in long 2s.

If it wasn't for that, it would have been another lackluster performance, very similar to the past ones. Similar in the boards, similar inability to get high percentage shots, similar shot-selection, similar defense. Even a heavily perimeter oriented team like this season Spurs beat them in points in the paint.

Anyone who expects similar performances in the playoffs is going to be sorely disappointed because there's no way such efficiency in long 2s is sustainable.

OP is seeing things that didn't happen and only wrote this post because of the final score. Had they been normal in those long jumpers and lost another game this thread wouldn't exist.

You're assuming the efficiency on long 2's is unsustainable but the Celtics have proved all season long that when they're healthy and well rested they do have the best shooting percentage in the league. It's not a fluke or a one game thing, it's their trademark and it's due to proper rest and focus, two things which are a big part of the playoffs.

Also, we got outrebounded badly in the 1st half but stopped the bleeding (kinda) in the 2nd half. Once again, this is a well known weakness of our team (yet it will improve with Shaq's return to clog the middle) but we've seen time and time again that it doesn't prevent us for winning, far from it actually.

[samantha28]

It's funny that Atlanta is not an elite team (it's true), but I always consider them sort of on the cusp of eliteness. They played very well last year, remember when they swept us?