Doc: Don't expect Celts to flip the switch

[LarBrd33]

Alright... you convinced me, Roy.  I give up.  It's borderline moronic to put hope in some overweight 39 year old to turn this team around.  We're toast.  Not even sure if I'll watch the Knicks series... it's going to be depressing to watch us get knocked around by those scrubs. 

It's over.  Here's looking towards 2012.  KG and Ray are gone... Doc's going to win championships as the Heat coach...  Jeff Green is trade fodder... we'll pick up the pieces after the lockout and build around a flawed borderline allstar with attitude problems named Rajon Rondo.  2012 is going to make the Pierce/Walker Celtics look like heaven.

Danny Ainge is a gambling addict who lucked out in 2008... then put all his winnings on Jeff Green and destroyed a franchise.  Maybe the team will get sold and move to Seattle.  I think we should all just consider being Laker fans.  If you can't beat em... join em.  Is it possible to change my screenname to MagJhsn32 ?

Haha.  Now that the world has returned to normal on CelticsBlog, maybe it can in the Celtics lockerroom.

I'm serious... I think Shaq is a double agent who came here purposely with the intention of stringing along the Celtics brass into thinking he was healthy... so that they'd trade Perk and he could get back on the good sides of his Lakers brothers.  I blame Shaq.  Never sign a former Laker champion to the Celtics.  We toyed with teh basketball gods and we are suffering the consequences.  Knicks in six. 

[Jon]

I feel like this is minds games by Doc.  Last year he was so disgusted that most of us thought this was his last year.  Now he's saying he's disgusted this year and that last year was all a ruse. 

I wouldn't read too much into it. 

Doesn't mean you shouldn't be disgusted with the C's play; however, it also doesn't mean that all hope is lost. 

And let's remember again: Kendrick Perkins played on the team last year that went 27-27, so any romanticizing of the past that says that this team would be immune from tanking if Kendrick was here is just plain false. 

But of course that doesn't mean that we won't miss him in the playoffs...

[Who]

I feel like this is minds games by Doc. 

I wouldn't read too much into it. 

Definitely

[Kuberski33]

Seems to me I was expecting the Celtics to go out in Round 1 a year ago. Same crapola as this year...they'd play pretty well for a quarter and then fall apart.

Only difference a year ago was they had Perk & Tony Allen for toughness and Sheed literally did flip a switch.

This year there is no toughness unless we get Shaq back. 

[Mike-Dub]

What are we just suppose to expect them to just continue to play like you know what.  This is all talk by Doc they will come out on fire in the playoffs.

[anotherbanner]

So Doc admits last year he had a plan. Maybe his plan this year is to try to make people think he doesn't have one.
Personally, I expect us to kick butt in this year's playoffs, and bring the NBA championship trophy back home where it belongs.
#18.

[Mike-Dub]

Personally, I expect us to kick butt in this year's playoffs, and bring the NBA championship trophy back home where it belongs.
#18.

Amen to that brotha.

[Senninsage]

Personally, I think even talks of the Celtics making it out of the first round are incredibly premature.

The Celtics are struggling to score the ball at a time when we are on a collision course, for the first round of the playoffs, against a team that has absolutely no issue scoring the ball, the New York Knicks.

Some are talking about homecourt advantage against the Heat. Heat this, heat that. How do people even know the Celtics will make it past the Knicks, who are playing great basketball right now, even if they do tend to be a bit loose on the defensive side of things?

It's not as simple as the Celtics will play this or that in the second round. People need to start contemplating the very real possibility that this Celtics may not escape out of the first round.

I'm currently paying attention to this Wizards game. We started out with like a 23-12 advantage, and the Wizards,the Wizards, managed to shut us down for a bit and close the gap entirely, leading into the Second Quarter.

The same exact thing we did with our advantage against the Heat last night, which contributed greatly to our later game struggles against the Heat. The Celtics lately have been treating early game leads as if they are the type of thing that can be easily built back up whenever they please.

If we managed to hold our advantage better, we would have still been in the thick of things late in the game, when the Heat were really hitting their stride.

[Roy H.]

I'm currently paying attention to this Wizards game. We started out with like a 23-12 advantage, and the Wizards,the Wizards, managed to shut us down for a bit and close the gap entirely, leading into the Second Quarter.

How closely are you watching?  I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from a game where Rondo, Ray, Paul, and KG are all sitting.

I'm not particularly encouraged by the Celts, either, but this Wizards game means nothing.

[Mike-Dub]

I'm currently paying attention to this Wizards game. We started out with like a 23-12 advantage, and the Wizards,the Wizards, managed to shut us down for a bit and close the gap entirely, leading into the Second Quarter.

How closely are you watching?  I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from a game where Rondo, Ray, Paul, and KG are all sitting.

I'm not particularly encouraged by the Celts, either, but this Wizards game means nothing.

Means zip zero... That's why I'm watching the Red Sox right now and will watch the C's Wiz game tmrw during the day.

[Chris]

Doc is really doing everything he can to try to get through to these guys. 

Even though he says last season was different, he was not saying it was all part of the plan last year.  This is just a motivational tool right now, or selective memory.  Yes, they were resting guys, but that wasn't the real problem.  When the guys were on the floor, they were in full cruise control just like this year.  That was not part of the plan last year, just like it is not part of the plan this year.

The problem is, since it worked last year, the players have it in their head thinking they can do it again.  Doc is doing everything he can to convince his guys its not that easy, because he knows they caught lightning in a bottle last year, and the chances of that happening again are very slim. 

[Onslaught]

I just hope they don't try and flip the switch agains't the Heat or Bulls and find that the breakers thrown.

[jambr380]

Will Roy H. be the happy if the Celtics get knocked out it early in the playoffs this season? It's becoming a real question to me. 

I'll chalk this up to Doc playing "Phil like" head games.

... are you seriously questioning the faith of someone who spends most of his spare time on a blog about the Celtics ... in the most ungrateful job in the world? :p Mods get flak for everything, spat at, etc. Nah, he won't be happy. He'll be sad, just like all of us.

And yes, I did realize there was a winking smiley in that post :p Still, wanted that said.

Ontopic: this is crazy. I love how they "mapped it out" last year, that perfectly. Shows once more how awesome of a coaching staff we have.

I honestly believe, that (if anyone) it will be Doc Rivers who finds a solution to the current issues. He's been 44 kinds of awesome for us since the big 3. I'm not high on drinking too much of the green stuff -hence my current reluctance to join conversations on the blog/forums- but man, if anyone...

Pull through Doc. Help us get that banner.

I WANT number 18.

THIS year.

I think questions like these just arise from the fact that people are still very upset by the loss of Perk. Of course Roy (or any Celtics diehard) would be upset if we lost in the playoffs, but it would justify their opinion that trading Perk was a horrible idea. We'll never know for sure how this team would have played had there been no trade and I think that is the most frustrating part for all of us. I just wish everyone was a little happier...

[Roy H.]

I think questions like these just arise from the fact that people are still very upset by the loss of Perk. Of course Roy (or any Celtics diehard) would be upset if we lost in the playoffs, but it would justify their opinion that trading Perk was a horrible idea. We'll never know for sure how this team would have played had there been no trade and I think that is the most frustrating part for all of us. I just wish everyone was a little happier...

I think most of the anti-trade folks would be very happy to be wrong.

[Chris]

I think questions like these just arise from the fact that people are still very upset by the loss of Perk. Of course Roy (or any Celtics diehard) would be upset if we lost in the playoffs, but it would justify their opinion that trading Perk was a horrible idea. We'll never know for sure how this team would have played had there been no trade and I think that is the most frustrating part for all of us. I just wish everyone was a little happier...

I think most of the anti-trade folks would be very happy to be wrong.

What you mean is that they would prefer to make the argument that the C's would have won the championship more easily with Perk, rather than having to just scrape it out without him