Key factors to losing vs the Knicks down the stretch:

[chambers]

1) Not having Paul Pierce.
We struggled mightily at the start, searching for offense, relying on Bass and Rondo to keep us in the game. Luckily for us, Bass will be an enormous upgrade over baby because of his jumpshooting- he's almost like David West coming off the bench. We got VERY lucky to get this guy for Baby+Wafer.

2)Ray made some rookie errors in the 4th quarter ie: *Fading/leaning jump shot in the bottom corner (contested)with 24 seconds left.
*Gets rebound again on bottom left corner and decides to go inside with two Knicks in front, loses handle, Knicks get ball.
Very weird by Ray, who is usually calm and collected and thinking like a coach in these situations. Doc will be chatting to him tonight.

3)The Refs. Joey Crawford was ok for most of the game, but then he just got way too involved.
*The tech's on Jermaine (something may have been said I supposed). Then the foul and following tech on Pavlovic. Quite absurd.
*the foul on Marquis against Melo at the end with 5 on the shot clock.

4) Melo was great, but he was also untouchable in the refs eyes tonight. If he got the ball in the post or baseline area, and made any kind of contact with a defender he was getting a favorable call. Just hideous at times. I mean he had 8-10 points from fouls against Sasha and Marquis PLUS techincal free throws that basically gave the Knicks the game.

Please add if I've missed anything.
To me, Ray's mistakes were the most annoying.
Bass was brilliant, as was Rondo (shooting attitude/form have both changed for the better).
Refs were hideous when it counted.

I'm happy with this as a first game and our defense was excellent. We crush these guys with Pierce and Pietrus.

[jr_3421]

2)Ray made some rookie errors in the 4th quarter ie: *Fading/leaning jump shot in the bottom corner (contested)with 24 seconds left.

With any other player I would agree with you but how many times have we seen Ray knock down that shot fading on the left side?? I know a lot of people hated that shot but that's a shot Ray takes and makes with regularity so I can't hold it against him.

[chambers]

2)Ray made some rookie errors in the 4th quarter ie: *Fading/leaning jump shot in the bottom corner (contested)with 24 seconds left.

With any other player I would agree with you but how many times have we seen Ray knock down that shot fading on the left side?? I know a lot of people hated that shot but that's a shot Ray takes and makes with regularity so I can't hold it against him.

Ray has done too much for me to every get mega p---ed at him, but these two decisions were rookie mistakes. We had over 20 seconds on the clock, there is no need for this shot.
It was rushed, off balance and gave the Knicks an opportunity to get a fast break going while he is falling into the crowd.
Just dumb.

[Carhole]

Rondo was great but I wouldnt bank on his shooting wows being solved it was one game and he had at least 5 layups off of lazy transition d by the knicks.

Rondo carried them and kept them in the game pushing them all the way to a 10 point lead. My question and concern is still the same however. Where did he go in the last 6 minutes when we needed to finish the game out?

The celtics have had the same problem for the past two years, icing leads, we have blown an inordinate amount of leads bc our offense goes into witness protection the last half of the 4th quarter. That is when he needs to shoot or get to the line.

one 24 footer and no fts as the lead slips away in unacceptable from the guy who was the best player on the court for the first 40+ minutes.

A player can pile up all the stats they want while the game is free and open but it is what you do with the game in the balance that makes you great/cornerstone type of player. 

[cman88]

the phantom foul is what essentially killed us...if someone makes a nice shot and wins the game you can take it. but losing because of a phantom call and 2 freethrows just hurts and is rediculous.

but, i guess welcome to the NBA!

if we at least had peitrus I think we couldve kept Melo in check more. quis is better guarding sgs imo

[Lord of Mikawa]

the phantom foul is what essentially killed us...if someone makes a nice shot and wins the game you can take it. but losing because of a phantom call and 2 freethrows just hurts and is rediculous.

but, i guess welcome to the NBA!

if we at least had peitrus I think we couldve kept Melo in check more. quis is better guarding sgs imo

If Q would have got that steal clean, the game would have been over cause we probably would have scored. But you can count on the refs to be a part of building the credibility of new teams.

[Sketch5]

Yeah lets blame Rondo "the none shooter on the team" for not shooting enough in the 4th... He only kept the teams head above water the entire game.

Remember he played a lot of minutes, in the shorten preseason he dosen't have legs at the end of the game, even a shooter would have a hard time with shots. KG's shots started to hit the front of the rim.

 He also got hit pretty good by Melo. I actually thought he wasn't going to stay in the game at first.

 And he was setting the RIGHT people for the job up at the end of the game. KG was hitting shots. He was trying to get it to Ray as well. The D was closing the lanes so he couldn't get there as well as he did in the first few quarters, so it was smart basketball not forcing it and trying to get it to the guys who could knock down shots.

You know what the biggest issue was? Melo went off and the C's played bad D on him at the end. When one guy gets as much as your team does in the quarter, rarely you will win the game. Doc even said that was the problem.

[Jon Niednagel]

Not having PP hurt for two reasons: 1) his defense on Mello would have been huge, and 2) he would have forced Mellow to actually play some defense on the other end. Mellow had it way too easy tonight with Quisy and Pavs. That was the difference in tonight's game from my perspective.

[pearljammer10]

2)Ray made some rookie errors in the 4th quarter ie: *Fading/leaning jump shot in the bottom corner (contested)with 24 seconds left.
*Gets rebound again on bottom left corner and decides to go inside with two Knicks in front, loses handle, Knicks get ball.
Very weird by Ray, who is usually calm and collected and thinking like a coach in these situations. Doc will be chatting to him tonight.

These were the two downfalls right there... Sorry Ray, but those were two plays that really put the dagger in us.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Joey Crawford.

Doc putting the wrong players on the floor, like Bradley.

Ray making some poor decisicions.

Daniels doing absolutely nothing, particularly when being guarded by Carmelo who was in foul trouble.

Rondo not running the offense effectively, doing some poor play calls.

KG not protecting the basket as he should, leaving Chandler for one open under the basket unnecessarily.

[bfrombleacher]

Yeah lets blame Rondo "the none shooter on the team" for not shooting enough in the 4th... He only kept the teams head above water the entire game.

Remember he played a lot of minutes, in the shorten preseason he dosen't have legs at the end of the game, even a shooter would have a hard time with shots. KG's shots started to hit the front of the rim.

I do realize this game is huge for morale among other things but I'm still questioning Doc's lineup management. Even for one game having our vets and Rondo play for too long will come back and bite you. Look at the Knicks, who apparently have less depth than us, have all their stars play less than 37. KG, Ray and Rondo all played 37+ with Rondo playing 41. Even for an uphill battle that is worrying. Is our 4th quarter woes that much of a mystery?  

[slamtheking]

2)Ray made some rookie errors in the 4th quarter ie: *Fading/leaning jump shot in the bottom corner (contested)with 24 seconds left.
*Gets rebound again on bottom left corner and decides to go inside with two Knicks in front, loses handle, Knicks get ball.
Very weird by Ray, who is usually calm and collected and thinking like a coach in these situations. Doc will be chatting to him tonight.

These were the two downfalls right there... Sorry Ray, but those were two plays that really put the dagger in us.

agreed, it was a dumb play by Ray.  If he had been set better for the shot, no problem with him taking it but he was forcing a shot he didn't need to rush.

I think the key factors were the poor play to start the game and end the game.  The middle of the game was beautiful.  If the C's start the game without their heads up their butts, they aren't in that immense hole when they make their run.  They then build a lead big enough to hold on to in the fourth regardless of Melo and Crawford.

[diconzo]

Rondo was great but I wouldnt bank on his shooting wows being solved it was one game and he had at least 5 layups off of lazy transition d by the knicks.

Rondo carried them and kept them in the game pushing them all the way to a 10 point lead. My question and concern is still the same however. Where did he go in the last 6 minutes when we needed to finish the game out?

The celtics have had the same problem for the past two years, icing leads, we have blown an inordinate amount of leads bc our offense goes into witness protection the last half of the 4th quarter. That is when he needs to shoot or get to the line.

one 24 footer and no fts as the lead slips away in unacceptable from the guy who was the best player on the court for the first 40+ minutes.

A player can pile up all the stats they want while the game is free and open but it is what you do with the game in the balance that makes you great/cornerstone type of player. 

Rondo isnt really a shooter, but Im hoping his scoring tenacity has improved. Also his FT%. I dont care if its 3's or layups as long as hes taking some of the scoring load off the big 3. That could be huge for getting everyone healthy for playoffs.

[Redz]

Doc having to put KG and Ray back in at the 10 minute mark of the 4th was big too.  Those two played the rest of the way and were clearly not at their peak for the last couple of minutes.  It's going to be hard to do, but they need their rest and can't be relied on at the end of games if they're logging 37-38 minutes.

A healthy Pierce will go a long way towards this though.

[Tgro]

Rondo carried them and kept them in the game pushing them all the way to a 10 point lead. My question and concern is still the same however. Where did he go in the last 6 minutes when we needed to finish the game out?

The celtics have had the same problem for the past two years, icing leads, we have blown an inordinate amount of leads bc our offense goes into witness protection the last half of the 4th quarter. That is when he needs to shoot or get to the line.

one 24 footer and no fts as the lead slips away in unacceptable from the guy who was the best player on the court for the first 40+ minutes.

That was the biggest thing to me. I'm not down on Rondo here. In fact, he was perhaps the biggest shock of the game to me. (Him and Bass) I thought Rondo played lights out most of the game. The problem was he looked like he did at the end of last season as we saw games slipping away late in the 4th quarter. Instead of pushing the ball forward and creating plays or taking quick shots or going to the basket himself like he had the 1st 3 and 1/2 quarters, he basically just started bringing the ball up the court slowly and setting a half quart offense that wasn't nearly as effective as it was when he was just balls out pushing it up the floor and mowing them down in transition. The game felt too eerily like the end of last season.

Look at the point totals by quarter and you'll see what I mean. The 4th was our lowest output and we stopped pushing the ball up the floor and just set half courts that looked disoriented. I think Pierce would have helped a ton no doubt but once they started slowing down late in the 4th it never felt like the Knicks weren't on their heels anymore. Instead it felt like we were and just like the end of last season, those were the moments that robbed us of victories we should have had.