observations from tonights game....some reasons for optimism

[cman88]

I personally didnt think we would win this with the way we've been playing lately and was thinking of just ignoring it all together, but turning it on in the 2nd quarter I was pleasantly surprised to see that we were within striking distance with the best team in the NBA right now.

1. Paul Pierce looks like he is regaining his form.
2. we won the rebounding battle
3. marquis daniels starting to show some life
4.mikael pietrus is really looking good. like a tony allen with a 3point shot

the bad:

turnovers!! 19turnovers for 24thunder points....if you just cut out just half of those, thats 12points the thunder dont get...and that could be the difference in winning or losing the game

all in all, I have a feeling we arent as bad as our record suggests. we were able to push the best team in the nba against the ropes. and hopefully we can pull it together against the bottom-feeder teams we will be seeing coming up and start to get our stuff together..im not too confident, but it would be nice if we can finally regain our form. I think we're close

[PosImpos]

i agree that we aren't 4-8 bad, and the way the team played tonight showed that.  that kind of effort against most of the teams in the league would result in a win more often than not.

the problem is, that i feel as though we saw the best kind of effort we could hope for from this team as currently constructed and they still couldn't beat a true contender on a night when their opponent didn't play particularly great except for a late flurry of 3's that iced the game.

[SHAQATTACK]

I'm feeling better about a high lottery pick with every game.

I'm not seeing more victorys than I have fingers and toes for this team ...best case.

You can shake it up , and toss this salad anyway ya want, but it still is a loss.

Close ...you know don't count....only "W"'s 

[cman88]

I'm feeling better about a high lottery pick with every game.

I'm not seeing more victorys than I have fingers and toes for this team ...best case.

You can shake it up , and toss this salad anyway ya want, but it still is a loss.

Close ...you know don't count....only "W"'s 

ummm...ok, im just pointing out what I saw from the game...I didnt come away from this loss feeling disgusted like I have the other losses.

I saw a team that at least has potential to get better and pull themselves out of this slump

[vinnie]

Just do this. Find all of the games they play against bad teams.  Thy should win 90 percent of those. Then find all of the games they play against good teems. They may win 10-20 percent of those. Add those up and you have your win tool.

They played really hard tonight. They just aren't good enough. They play more home games in January than any other month. Their second half schedule is fairly brutal. This is not going to be pretty.

I loved the effort tonight. They just aren't good enough.

[Q_FBE]

I'm feeling better about a high lottery pick with every game.

I'm not seeing more victorys than I have fingers and toes for this team ...best case.

You can shake it up , and toss this salad anyway ya want, but it still is a loss.

Close ...you know don't count....only "W"'s 

Dude, this team wins 38 to 41 games and finishes in the 3 to 6 range.

[greenpride32]

I don't think this game was as close as the score might indicate.  Aside from a small lead early, we were playing catchup the entire game.  OKC must have missed on at least 5 3-point shots with a 10 point lead that would have really blew the doors open.  

Too many lazy passes and turnovers for us.  Guys like Pierce and KG keep losing the ball on the dribble which led to 12 steals.  Same thing SAT against the Pacers, 12 steals against us.

I guess the way I look at is we used to be the team that build a the big leads and sometimes let teams scratch and crawl their way back before we dealt them the final blow.  Now we're just on the other end of it.  As someone else said, it's all or nothing; there aren't any  victories given out for being close.

[vinnie]

I'm feeling better about a high lottery pick with every game.

I'm not seeing more victorys than I have fingers and toes for this team ...best case.

You can shake it up , and toss this salad anyway ya want, but it still is a loss.

Close ...you know don't count....only "W"'s 

Dude, this team wins 38 to 41 games and finishes in the 3 to 6 range.

Have you taken a look at their second half schedule? To win 41 games they would have to go 37-17. Sorry, but no way that is happening.

[lightspeed5]

I'm feeling better about a high lottery pick with every game.

I'm not seeing more victorys than I have fingers and toes for this team ...best case.

You can shake it up , and toss this salad anyway ya want, but it still is a loss.

Close ...you know don't count....only "W"'s 

Dude, this team wins 38 to 41 games and finishes in the 3 to 6 range.

Have you taken a look at their second half schedule? To win 41 games they would have to go 37-17. Sorry, but no way that is happening.

it will

[Celtics18]

That was by far my favorite loss of the season.  I loved seeing Paul back.  I think this is what we'll get.  The explosiveness and burst just won't be there anymore from him or KG.  But, at least, show that you can still play the game.  That's what he did tonight and that's what KG's been doing the last few games.  

That looked like a team that can right this ship out there to me tonight.  Pietrus' energy and courage to take the big shots is very encouraging.  

We righted the rebounding situation for this night.  Everybody was helping on the glass and we even got some big offensive boards.

The sloppy turnovers have to go away.  We should be too smart a ball club for that.  The other team will always be faster and more athletic than us, but please be smart with the basketball.  

And, darn it, Russell Westbrook's been playing like junk all season and he decides to have a shooting night like that against us!

I know, these green shades look ridiculous, but I feel it coming.  Let's go get some wins against some bad teams and put ourselves in this thing.  We'll beat a good team eventually.  I just hope we don't have to wait all the way until May.

[Celtics18]

By the way, Pos, love your new avatar signature thing.  I gave you a half Tommy point for that.

[manl_lui]

YAY optimism, I love it

yes i watched this game and also thought the same thing

Pierce is slowly coming back and playing like the Pierce of old. Yes KG took 19 shots but w/e, I guess Doc told him to be more aggressive and try to be KG of the old which he haven't done in a while (I'm being optimistic too ok, sue me!)

our bench will come soon enough, like Perk said, we'll do just fine in the long run,

Lets go Celtics!

[EJPLAYA]

I'm feeling better about a high lottery pick with every game.

I'm not seeing more victorys than I have fingers and toes for this team ...best case.

You can shake it up , and toss this salad anyway ya want, but it still is a loss.

Close ...you know don't count....only "W"'s 

Dude, this team wins 38 to 41 games and finishes in the 3 to 6 range.

Not sure where your math is, but 38-41 wins is definitely not going to put someone in the 3 spot. If you had said 6-8 spot then maybe. Unfortunately what we saw tonight is probably what we will see against all of the better teams this year. Down in a hole. A run to make it semi interesting. a 7-12 pt loss by the time it is all over. Sure we are going to squeak out a win here and there against the better teams, but we will also lose a few to the worse teams to take that away.

We are on pace to win 21-22 games. That doesn't put us anywhere NEAR the playoffs. Even if we make a pretty good improvement we aren't looking at more than 30-35 wins max. That is an eighth seed at best and a first round sweep out the door. I for one would rather see more PT from the younger guys because when all is said and done, it ain't going to matter!

[EJPLAYA]

YAY optimism, I love it

yes i watched this game and also thought the same thing

Pierce is slowly coming back and playing like the Pierce of old. Yes KG took 19 shots but w/e, I guess Doc told him to be more aggressive and try to be KG of the old which he haven't done in a while (I'm being optimistic too ok, sue me!)

our bench will come soon enough, like Perk said, we'll do just fine in the long run,

Lets go Celtics!

The KG of old played nasty physical defense and rebounded the ball at a decent clip. He can get hot on a night and make a good portion of those shots, however I think what Doc wanted was on the other end of the floor. Pierce showed some signs of something left in the tank tonight (although that is typical for an old guy out there to have an on night every 4-5 games so I'm not convinced), but KG is shot. The poor guy's got about 45k minutes on that body of his. It's not his fault, but it is reality.

[Celtics18]

YAY optimism, I love it

yes i watched this game and also thought the same thing

Pierce is slowly coming back and playing like the Pierce of old. Yes KG took 19 shots but w/e, I guess Doc told him to be more aggressive and try to be KG of the old which he haven't done in a while (I'm being optimistic too ok, sue me!)

our bench will come soon enough, like Perk said, we'll do just fine in the long run,

Lets go Celtics!

The KG of old played nasty physical defense and rebounded the ball at a decent clip. He can get hot on a night and make a good portion of those shots, however I think what Doc wanted was on the other end of the floor. Pierce showed some signs of something left in the tank tonight (although that is typical for an old guy out there to have an on night every 4-5 games so I'm not convinced), but KG is shot. The poor guy's got about 45k minutes on that body of his. It's not his fault, but it is reality.

Nah.  Just bring the old man game.  Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki haven't gotten of the floor for years.

Paul's been working on that old man game for years.  Looks like it's time for him to go to it full time. 

Who'd a thunk we'd ever see the day where Ray Allen is the most athletic of the big three?