Ray allen's confidence is shot...

[cman88]

I know he's got bone spurs in his ankle and is gutting it out, but I dont think theres any other reason to explain why he's shooting 60% free throws in the playoffs.

even van gundy said it last night. He still should be able to hit his free throws. shots, I can understand.

honestly if all we are going to get from ray allen is 6ppg, then we need to start pietrus or sasha

[Donoghus]

His confidence isn't shot.

His body is letting him down.

[esel1000]

His confidence isn't shot.

His body is letting him down.

I think its a mix. The missed 3s and jumpers are clearly ankle issues. Missed fts are in his head in my opinion. Sure bone spurs could affect fts but ray isn't the type of player to use his lower body to a large extent when shooting a ft. When he went to shoot the 3, he missed the first and it affected him mentally on the 2nd. He snapped out of it and hit the 3rd.

I dont think his shooting is going to improve much, but he shouldnt be missing fts

[mctyson]

His confidence isn't shot.

His body is letting him down.

I disagree.  The shots he had in Game 1 were not ugly, complete misses like he had in Game 7 against Philly or in some of the other games this postseason.  His first two 3's against Miami rimmed in and out.

Like Ray said, it is timing.  Sure his ankles are hurting that, but it is also the fact that he can't practice or workout like he wants to, go as hard around screens as he has in the past, or lift.  But he is still getting to the spots, getting open, and getting great looks.  He is just off.

What leads me to believe his confidence is shot are the FT problems.  I don't care if he has bone spurs, shooting FTs requires no lift.  And his FTs don't look terrible.  He just doesn't have the same rhythm, and I blame that on a lack of practice.

[Q_FBE]

What a time for Ray Allen to go into a shooting slump. We don't have the capability to overcome his lack of point production. Please find your shooting stroke soon, Raymond.

[Donoghus]

I refuse to believe that Ray Allen's confidence is shot. 

We've all seen this guy goes through slumps before and he's one of the most mentally tough guys you will ever see on a basketball court. This time its different.

I'll repeat, it's physical.  Nothing is telling me that he is having flailing confidence;  the guy is still taking shots.  He's slumping and I believe its being exacerbated by his physical limitations.

[CelticSteve]

I don't think Ray's confidence is shot, it's his legs- specifically his ankles. It's hard enough when you don't have your legs at full strength, but it is nearly impossible to have any consistency when you don't have your legs at a predictable/stable strength. Ray doesn't have it, and he should be playing vastly reduced minutes. That means more Pietrus, who if healthy at least gives us defense, or even playing Moore- which at this point is an upgrade offensively. I don't like to say it, because Ray is a terrific Celtic and a terrific man, but he needs to play sparingly for the remainder of the year.  He's killing the team on offense and defense. I don't believe that at his current level an injured Ray is better than a combined Pietrus/Moore. 

[Frontierboy]

Confidence is huge in basketball.... reminds me of nick anderson who use to be a very good free throw shooter, then all of a sudden turned into Shaq

[Celtics4ever]

I think it's more that his finely tuned mechanics are affected by his injury than confidence.

[Celtics18]

I hope it's just his confidence that's shot.  He can get that back.  Good ankles will be harder to find.

[ManUp]

His ankles are shot not his confidence.

Here's my theory, for a real shooter your arms just guide the ball and your legs are where the energy to get it to the rim really comes from. His jumper is off because he can't get enough lift. So if his legs aren't pushing the ball where it needs to go his arms are compensating. So basically he's not able to shoot the way he practices and is not much better than a chucker  right now. The poor free throw shooting might be a result of changes in his jumper following him to the line.

[Celtics4ever]

I concur TP Manup!

[Roy H.]

His confidence isn't shot.

His body is letting him down.

With any other player, I'd agree.

However, with Ray, I think there could be something with his confidence, or at least his routine, that is off.  Ray has been described as having "borderline OCD", and I wonder if his routine has been irreparably broken by the injuries + coming off the bench, and then being put back into the starting lineup.

But yes, injuries also play a major role here.

[lightspeed5]

His ankles are shot not his confidence.

Here's my theory, for a real shooter your arms just guide the ball and your legs are where the energy to get it to the rim really comes from. His jumper is off because he can't get enough lift. So if his legs aren't pushing the ball where it needs to go his arms are compensating. So basically he's not able to shoot the way he practices and is not much better than a chucker  right now. The poor free throw shooting might be a result of changes in his jumper following him to the line.

never thought of it like that

[Donoghus]

Many instances of late where his shot is coming off flat.  That's physical.