Yet another late game offensive failure

[Celtics18]

This blog is great to read after the losses. Posters always come up with brand new explanations to the losses, refusing to just let it go and say that the team was outplayed.
The truth is Celtics didn't play good enough to lose the game in just a late-game offensive collapse. That offensive failure was apparent beginning from early in the second quarter, where Hawks held Celtics without a FG for a good number of minutes.
And Hawks are good defensively. I don't know why some of the posters emphasize the point that we lost to the Hawks team, as if they're the Bobcats or Wizards.

And for your note, Celtics, Lakers, Pacers and Sixers all went into last night leading their series 3-1 and looking to close it out. Only Pacers completed the feat.
Anyone thinking that a team is going to win a series without serious effort must be out of his/her mind, provided they have a relatively competitive opposition. So far, only the Jazz failed to provide that.

I'm more concerned with Paul's health than anything else at the moment. We're not going to anywhere without Paul Pierce. Same goes for Ray as well.
Other than that, it was a bad game overall. I see no reason to try nitpicking.

Nice job putting it in to perspective.  Things get tough in the playoffs.  I don't know why everybody expects it to be a cake walk.

[thestackshow]

We had no timeouts man.

It was a scramble play that nobody expected.

We cant say "We had possession and had a play ran up we just failed"

We didnt, it was a scramble luck play, we didnt deserve to win the game anyways. Hortford was the best player on the floor by far.

[No Nickname]

Rondo's job was to get the ball to Pierce, KG or Allen. He blew it dribbling away along with awful nite shooting and 5 turn overs.

I've been critical of Rondo's defense in the past, but he was very tuned-in last night on Teague.  I love it when he plays defense like that.  Wish he'd do it every night, but I guess everyone has nights where you don't have that "drive."

As for the last possession.  It was a great steal, with no timeouts left, and he had a mismatch with Josh Smith covering him.  He used the pick from Garnett to get an even better mismatch when Horford switched on him.  Seriously, who would not take your PG going against a PF in that situation?

The trouble was, Horford had quicker feet than I think anyone ever realized.  Rondo perhaps should have continued going baseline on him, but he probably thought he could use his step-back.  Again, great defense by Horford.

Now if Rondo tried that against Teague, I might have questioned it.  But he played it the "smart" way in my opinion.  Horford was just better.

[pearljammer10]

Rondo's job was to get the ball to Pierce, KG or Allen. He blew it dribbling away along with awful nite shooting and 5 turn overs.

Allen was not is the game.

[celts55]

Rondo's job was to get the ball to Pierce, KG or Allen. He blew it dribbling away along with awful nite shooting and 5 turn overs.

Allen was not is the game.

Stop nitpicking... It was Rondo's job to get him the ball anyway

While I agree he didn't have his best game to blame this loss on hin is just plain silly. You could just as well blame Pierce for missing a wide open lay up and little jumper, or Ray for missing 3 free throws (when he was actually in the game), Bradley for scoring all of 2 points, Bass for missing a number of open shots and consistantly losing his man on D.

[bostonman1]

Last night's offensive failure in the last 2:40 wasn't an aberration, it's actually something that has happened far too often with these Celtics.

Being in a tie game with under 3 minutes to go is an ideal situation in a road playoff game.  To see the supposedly weak minded Hawks execute more effectively in 2 games of this series has been surprising.  Crunch time is when a team coached by Doc and with Rondo, KG, Paul and Ray on the floor that they are supposed to thrive.

An interesting tidbit from Hollinger regarding the notion that this team closes out games well.  It was talking about the C's in relation to the Heat who are perceived as chokers late games ---

In a great article about the prowess of Rajon Rondo, it was pointed out that the Celtics are incredibly efficient in crunch time, especially as compared to the Heat.

I cringed as I read it.

The Celtics have created a huge bundle of great late-game plays, and run some of the league's most beautiful sets. But our eyes deceive us on these things all the time, and though people hate to hear it, the numbers almost never support the persistent idea that the Heat are terrible at much of anything.

Sure enough, as it happened the Celtics closed a game last night with some of the poorest execution imaginable.

Which, it turns out, is not as out of character as you might think. NBA.com's new stats site, tells us, essentially that the Heat crush the Celtics by every relevant measure late in games. In games either team was tied or trailing closely with 3 minutes left, the Celtics finished this season with a 5-11 record, which is not good by any measure, even compared to the Heat, who were 9-8. The Heat had the league's fifth most efficient offense, with the second-best true shooting percentage late in those games. The Celtics, meanwhile, had the 26th most efficient offense, with the 27th best true shooting percentage.

And as it happened, with the game on the line against the Hawks, Boston's big opportunity ended with the opposite of efficient execution. Rondo went on a dribble-odyssey to nowhere, capped by a too-late desperation pass that was tipped and sailed out of bounds at the final horn.

[bostonman1]

After tonight's complete failure offensively once again in crunch time this thread title fits perfectly to be brought back up for discussion.

Many keep dismissing these failures but once again it came up in horrific fashion tonight.

For all the struggles in this game Boston was up 1 point with the ball and a chance to finally take over for good.

The play looked to be for Ray but Philly defended it well.  Instead of calling something else Rondo just stood there and waved his arms, and stood there, and stood there until finally the shot clock was winding down and he threw up a horrible jumper that wasn't close. 

Why did Rondo not go to the basket when seeing the initial play covered?  On 2 previous possessions just minutes ago he made an easy layup then fed KG for an alley oop by being aggressive in going to the basket.  But for some reason he just waited and waited instead of making some type of move.  It's one thing for him to miss a shot there but at least get a better one than forcing up a long jumper.

Then down 1 on the next possession the offense again broke down.  Once again it appeared the ONLY play was getting Ray coming off a screen.  The play took a while to develop as Philly was right on it and the C's wind up with a contested Ray jumper.

Cannot fathom why on the two biggest possessions of the game Doc appeared to have one play option.  When that broke down Rondo looked clueless of what to do next.  Feeding KG was the only set working well for much of the 4th quarter yet he wasn't even involved late.

The offense was pathetic for most of the game however.  Rondo, Pierce, Bass, all deserve plenty of criticism.  Would also LOVE to hear what Doc says about taking Pietrus out so early and bringing back Pierce.  Pietrus had FINALLY hit 2 straight 3's and gotten the crowd pumped up.  Amazingly he didn't get ONE shot after that brief spell and was taken out of the game for Pierce who played the rest of the quarter.  At the very least Doc has to run a couple more sets for Pietrus to shoot as he is known to absolutely go wild at times.  To see ONE player finally step up offensively and then get taken out of the game definitely calls Doc's decision making into question.


However in crunch time the Celtics are supposed to perform better.  With Doc, Ray, Rondo, KG and Pierce on the court they are built to shine late in games.  There is excuse to see a medicore, inexperienced Philly team with no closer out play Boston with the game on the line.

Doc said it himself in the Atlanta series yet the team still cannot figure out how to consistently execute in crunch time ---

Doc Rivers 5/8/12 --- " I told them after the game -- we talk about it every night and every day in practice -- end-of-the-game execution is going to win or lose playoff games for you."
 

[Celtics18]

Doc wasn't on the court late in the game.

[bostonman1]

Doc wasn't on the court late in the game.

Sorry for not putting a comma after Doc to make it obvious that the sentence meant with Doc (him being "with" the team as coach) -- figured that would be understood by most but guess not sorry.

Didn't include AB as the point was with Doc and his experience with KG, Ray, Rondo and Pierce that such deplorable late game offensive is tough to rationalize so often.

[Celtics18]

Doc wasn't on the court late in the game.

Sorry for not putting a comma after Doc to make it obvious that the sentence meant with Doc (him being "with" the team as coach) -- figured that would be understood by most but guess not sorry.

Didn't include AB as the point was with Doc and his experience with KG, Ray, Rondo and Pierce that such deplorable late game offensive is tough to rationalize so often.

You did put a comma after Doc.  Anyway, sorry to grammar police you.  I'm just trying to keep it light after a tough loss.

[CoachBo]

Kudos to Hollinger for pointing out how the basketball stops more often than not with this team in crunch time, whether it's Pierce on the iso or Rondo turning down clear passing lanes to the wing tonight in the lost possession with a minute left that crippled the game.

No excuses tonight. The ball was stopped all night, and that possession with a minute left was inexcusably bad.

The bottom line is this: We are not remotely approaching a level of offensive efficiency that makes discussion of another banner anything but worthy of a horselaugh right now.

The basketball is not moving, and no one except KG is remotely efficient offensively, and even Garnett tonight wasn't at his best.

You simply cannot be as bad as we were offensively tonight - and for stretches Saturday night - and harbor any realistic hopes of a title.

Not until the basketball starts moving in the halfcourt, and it most assuredly did not tonight. The ball will find a good shot all the time if you move it, and the hail of lazy, forced jumpers tonight is proof of a putrid, equally lazy job of distributing the basketball.

We will not survive this series unless Doc can impress upon his ballhandlers the need to get the ball moving EVERY possession.

[MBz]

Late game?  We scored 13 pts in the 2nd quarter and 11 pts in the 3rd quarter.  That's where the problem was.  Rondo, Pierce and Bass were pathetic tonight.

[CoachBo]

The second and third quarters were putrid for the exact same reasons that we fell apart - again - in the late game halfcourt offense.

No ball movement. For a team supposedly with title asperations, the basketball stops a lot in the halfcourt with this group.

Guarantee you there won't be a title until that changes.

And spare me the alibis tonight. The ball could have been moved and should have been moved, all night long. With the game on the line, the offense went back to what stopped it midgame. Thirty-two points mean nothing when you pound one possession away and set a clear moving screen on another. Just move the ball and execute.

Lazy, unnmotivated, apathetic offensive basketball - just throw it to Garnett and get out of the way or fire up a bomb.


Doc should break something in the locker room. Really disappointing to see a veteran team play as lazily and stupidly in the halfcourt as we did tonight.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Late-game failure? They scored 32 in the fourth and only 11 in the third. They had big problems long before the end of the game.

[CoachBo]

And 32 wasn't enough, was it? Because one posssession was inexplicably pounded away at the top of the key and another lost to a clear illegal screen.

This group simply doesn't acknowledge the importance of moving the basketball. Probably too late for that to change and it'll kill the season.

What happened in the mid-game is only relevant in the preview it provided of how this offense would freeze up - again - in the final minutes, as it has all season. The game was there to be won, second and third quarters notwithstandng, and it was lost the same way many others have been this year.

Make that 5-12 after being tied inside three minutes.