blame on yesterday's big loss is on Stevens

[chambers]

BS inexperienced really showed last night.

We will see what happens next when we play teams that emulate what the Rockets did to kill us or against another elite big.

The raptors actually did the same thing against us to win both times (congest the perimeter). BS has not yet figured out a way to get around this.

No, Stevens was actually really good- our roster is built to lose those games unless we hit 35%+ from three and get lucky.
They have two bonafied top 10 players on their team. We have a top 30 player in Rondo.
If anything, the refs probably went the Rockets way particularly protecting Howard from Sully.
It was weird because they let Zeller basically manhandle Howard, but if Sully went near him the whistle blew immediately.

[Tr1boy]

1- lineup needed a big change after the 1st
2- the rockets were taking away the three pt line. Congesting the perimeter
3- defensively AB and Rondo were both doing a poor job on canaan and harden. Harden got into the paint too many times and got to the line way many times

Solution i would of liked to see

1. Put in zeller vs howard(should of been done quicker, instead of having sully have to try to stop him)

2.  Have KO or Sully out with Zeller and keep feeding the ball into the post(vs smaller tjones).  Score or pass the ball back out for an open three or pass to the cutter

3. Have marcus smart also post up canaan. Pass out the ball for the open three. Pass to cutter

4. Have a more physical bigger smart guard harden. AB was on him like most of the night and it was not working

On the defensive end by the 2nd, you have smart on harden. Let him feed it to howard. If he drives in, zeller can rotate to try to alter.

BS just looks like he just stuck with what got us a nice win vs the nets instead of adjusting and trying to throw the rockets game off asap.

Regardless of coming up with a quicker solution/disrupt what the rockets wanted to do, we could of still lost. But at least it would of not been a blowout

They didn't put Smart on Harden because he would have torched Smart in the pick and roll.

I thought Stevens actually made the correct adjustments- we just couldn't hit a lick and that's what happens when you have a 3 point shooting team that isn't great at 3 point shooting.

 Stevens became much more aggressive on defense and started feeding the ball down low to Sullinger to get to the line and hopefully open up some three point shots.

He put Avery up on Cannon with full court pressure to try and spark a defensive run by the Celtics but Harden was too good.

The biggest problem for us was a lack of rebounding in the first half- they destroyed us in the paint. We are undersized and it was always going to be hard to stop Howard inside, Harden driving and Jones stepping out to leave Howard in isolation.

It wasn't a hard game for Stevens to adjust to coaching wise- he's a better coach than McHale, McHale just has far better players on his roster and that usually wins.

The adj was too late. The game was out of reach. 
Also he hasn't seen tapes of Marcus Smart operating from the post ?? He has the ability to punish smaller defenders .

This was also a game where AB should't have been glued to Harden. The guy is so quick to the basket and has very advanced ball handling skills.  You have to let him beat you with the jump shot as the blazers did last playoffs.  Also make him go to his right.

We have a good system going on , on both ends. You can tell they been practicing it a thousand times in practice. But if a team knows how to pick it apart, we witnessed the horror last night.

BS needs to make quicker adj, call timeout sooner.  Then have the team go to plan 2 or 3 (for example plan 2, bc on the offensive end they are guarding the perimeter tightly, have sully and smart operate from the post. Feed them the ball continuously. Put out 2 of our best jump shooters out on the floor).   Plan 3 put out KO, Zeller, Wallace and make a guy like Harden think twice before driving in. 

Instead of KO is not doing the job. So let me try my luck with Bass.  It's not working with Jeff Green, so let me try my luck with Turner.   

[Tr1boy]

BS inexperienced really showed last night.

We will see what happens next when we play teams that emulate what the Rockets did to kill us or against another elite big.

The raptors actually did the same thing against us to win both times (congest the perimeter). BS has not yet figured out a way to get around this.

No, Stevens was actually really good- our roster is built to lose those games unless we hit 35%+ from three and get lucky.
They have two bonafied top 10 players on their team. We have a top 30 player in Rondo.
If anything, the refs probably went the Rockets way particularly protecting Howard from Sully.
It was weird because they let Zeller basically manhandle Howard, but if Sully went near him the whistle blew immediately.

There are some teams who have similar talent like us that are able to beat teams like the Rockets (or at least not get killed).    It's not always about needing three all starts in order to beat a team like the Rockets.  Remember when the lakers had Dhoward, Gasol, Kobe etc.  We came alot of closer to win those game.  Strategy , matchup adv, knowing how to prevent a guy from doing the same thing on the court (beating you the same way) is something a coach needs to know how to do

[mr. dee]

Free throw disparity and off shooting night is what killed us. They actually attacked the paint and tried to draw fouls but the refs said "you're not a star so no call".

Like they said if they hit those 3 pointers, it would have been a different game.

If you actually looked around, they did actually a decent job on Harden and Howard. Dwight was limited to 14 points and Harden was 5/14 in FG% which is not really that bad. Harden have the refs on his side and nothing much we can do. The other problem is their teammates stepped up. Terrence Jones and Jason Terry lit us up. Guarding both Harden and Howard probably opened the opportunity for the other guys.

[Celtics4ever]

Plenty of blame to go around, however, I think very little is on Stevens.   We simply are not a super talented team and we played a team with two all stars of high caliber and Jones looked like one last night.  A team with good bigs are going to kill us get used to it.   Our bigs are shoddy on D.

[chambers]

BS inexperienced really showed last night.

We will see what happens next when we play teams that emulate what the Rockets did to kill us or against another elite big.

The raptors actually did the same thing against us to win both times (congest the perimeter). BS has not yet figured out a way to get around this.

No, Stevens was actually really good- our roster is built to lose those games unless we hit 35%+ from three and get lucky.
They have two bonafied top 10 players on their team. We have a top 30 player in Rondo.
If anything, the refs probably went the Rockets way particularly protecting Howard from Sully.
It was weird because they let Zeller basically manhandle Howard, but if Sully went near him the whistle blew immediately.

There are some teams who have similar talent like us that are able to beat teams like the Rockets (or at least not get killed).    It's not always about needing three all starts in order to beat a team like the Rockets.  Remember when the lakers had Dhoward, Gasol, Kobe etc.  We came alot of closer to win those game.  Strategy , matchup adv, knowing how to prevent a guy from doing the same thing on the court (beating you the same way) is something a coach needs to know how to do

I don't think we'd usually get killed by the Rockets, but we'd usually lose.
Stevens' strategy was good and he adjusted well in the second half- unfortunately when a team misses wide open three point shots and picks up fouls that quickly there's not really any team that can win in that situation.

The reason we lost? Our players didn't make shots, couldn't defend the paint without fouling, and couldn't defend the pick and roll whenever Harden was involved.
It will be a similar story for most of the season with some really good wins here and there, but we'll get killed by most playoff teams in the paint..unfortunately we aren't that great outside of the paint either lol.
 Add that it was a road game making it even harder.

[Celtics18]

BS inexperienced really showed last night.

We will see what happens next when we play teams that emulate what the Rockets did to kill us or against another elite big.

The raptors actually did the same thing against us to win both times (congest the perimeter). BS has not yet figured out a way to get around this.

No, Stevens was actually really good- our roster is built to lose those games unless we hit 35%+ from three and get lucky.
They have two bonafied top 10 players on their team. We have a top 30 player in Rondo.
If anything, the refs probably went the Rockets way particularly protecting Howard from Sully.
It was weird because they let Zeller basically manhandle Howard, but if Sully went near him the whistle blew immediately.

Yesterday's complete anomaly aside, I think this team can be expected to hit 35% or above from deep for the rest of the season. 

[inverselock]

BS inexperienced really showed last night.

We will see what happens next when we play teams that emulate what the Rockets did to kill us or against another elite big.

The raptors actually did the same thing against us to win both times (congest the perimeter). BS has not yet figured out a way to get around this.

No, Stevens was actually really good- our roster is built to lose those games unless we hit 35%+ from three and get lucky.
They have two bonafied top 10 players on their team. We have a top 30 player in Rondo.
If anything, the refs probably went the Rockets way particularly protecting Howard from Sully.
It was weird because they let Zeller basically manhandle Howard, but if Sully went near him the whistle blew immediately.

Yesterday's complete anomaly aside, I think this team can be expected to hit 35% or above from deep for the rest of the season.

Even last year's team hit 33% from 3.  Hopefully 1/25 never happens again.

[chambers]

BS inexperienced really showed last night.

We will see what happens next when we play teams that emulate what the Rockets did to kill us or against another elite big.

The raptors actually did the same thing against us to win both times (congest the perimeter). BS has not yet figured out a way to get around this.

No, Stevens was actually really good- our roster is built to lose those games unless we hit 35%+ from three and get lucky.
They have two bonafied top 10 players on their team. We have a top 30 player in Rondo.
If anything, the refs probably went the Rockets way particularly protecting Howard from Sully.
It was weird because they let Zeller basically manhandle Howard, but if Sully went near him the whistle blew immediately.

Yesterday's complete anomaly aside, I think this team can be expected to hit 35% or above from deep for the rest of the season.

Even last year's team hit 33% from 3.  Hopefully 1/25 never happens again.

I agree, I didn't mean we'd have to get lucky to hit 35%, but that we needed to shoot 35% from three AND get lucky to win games vs those top 10 teams.

[Beat LA]

Why not, instead of blaming people and looking for scapegoats, we use that time and energy to FIX THE PROBLEM?  That goes for you, too, Congress .  I don't particularly care whose fault it was, because we should be focusing our efforts on finding a solution instead of throwing guy(s) under the bus.  Geez people .

[ScoobyDoo]

I wouldn't necessarily blame Stevens, but I do get your point and agree that adjustments needed to be made defensively. I also agree with whoever posted that going 6-25 from three land versus 1-25 2would have made a huge difference.

I wasn't actually bothered much by this game - because:

1. I thought the Celts were overly ramped up  for this game and there shots were just flying all over the place. They were just "off". My sense was it was a very good western conference team, the Celts were coming off a big win and they didn't want to stink up this game - and they did exactly that. It looked like a first playoff game where nothing goes right because the team is too amped and can't get settled - game two looks like a different team... which is why I expect a much more poised team tonight in Dallas.

2. I'm more interested in how they respond tonight than how they lost in Houston.

All that being said, I would have made some early adjustments defensively - and "very" early on.

A) I probably would have gone with either Smart or Green on Harden - probably Green, he'd get more calls and the length would have bothered Harden.

B) I would have put Bass on Terrence Jones. Olynyk was too slow. Bass is both strong and quick enough to get into it with Jones.

C) Would have brought Zeller in sooner to bang a little with Howard - he woudl lose that battle of course, but I would put the bigger guy on Howard just to change it up with Sully.

Bradley was getting abused early by Harden - another night Bradley may have done fine with Harden, but you could see it wasn't his night defensively in that match up right away.

Another thing that was bothering me was the snarky, cocky attitude of Hardcen and Jones - they were showboating and taunting just a little bit early on there. I would; have put the bigger, more physical guys on them and told my guys don't be afraid to rake the arms hard on a jumper - give a couple hard, but clean fouls.     

[fairweatherfan]

Why not, instead of blaming people and looking for scapegoats, we use that time and energy to FIX THE PROBLEM?  That goes for you, too, Congress .  I don't particularly care whose fault it was, because we should be focusing our efforts on finding a solution instead of throwing guy(s) under the bus.  Geez people .

Assume we as a blog find the appropriate way to fix these problems.  How would we implement them? 

The beauty of being a fan is that whether you're right, wrong, or in the middle, you have no influence whatsoever over how the team goes about its business. 

[Billz401]

Contrary to what many have said, we didnt get killed in the paint like we should have, we actually scored more in the paint than houston. The biggest thing that pops out to me is the rebound differential, the free throw discrepancy, and all of the threes they chucked up..

The free throws were killing me that game. Now before everyone jumps on me, im not saying its what made us lose but it sure didnt help our cause. Especially after 3 quarters it was 34-5 houston and they seemed to call alot of ticky tacky stuff on us but swallowed the whistle for us all night.. quite frustrating but also expected when facing a "super team."

The rebound differential is expected when facing Dwight but i would have liked a little more team rebounding on defense. Obviously Rondo got the memo with his 10 boards but avery and jeff gotta help a little more.

The threes that we were chucking up early in the clock were painful to say the least. After you're 0 for 8 in the first 3 minutes of the game i would expect more aggressive offense not just settling for contested 3s early in the shot clock. You can blame coach stevens for this to an extent but most players should realize they werent falling. Its also the system Stevens is running with alot of space and his love for the 3 pointer statistics that has them chucking as well. Alot of bad shots but about half were wide open shots that just didnt fall for us, wont be like that every night.

Biggest thing i look at though is the fact with everything going bad for us we were still down 11 with the ball at one point against a top tier team out west. This is a pretty young team so theres always good to take out of these games but most importantly they need to focus on one game at a time and not let wins/losses effect the next game.

[Beat LA]

Why not, instead of blaming people and looking for scapegoats, we use that time and energy to FIX THE PROBLEM?  That goes for you, too, Congress .  I don't particularly care whose fault it was, because we should be focusing our efforts on finding a solution instead of throwing guy(s) under the bus.  Geez people .

Assume we as a blog find the appropriate way to fix these problems.  How would we implement them? 

The beauty of being a fan is that whether you're right, wrong, or in the middle, you have no influence whatsoever over how the team goes about its business.

Carrier Pigeon, smoke signals - basically what AT&T customers have had to resort to in order to communicate with the outside world (sarcasm) .

All kidding aside, I was really talking about the overall attitude of everyone here, including myself.  I'd just be more interested in hearing people's various alternatives to what happened as opposed to just throwing dudes under the bus, lol.  That's all.

[Tr1boy]

Why not, instead of blaming people and looking for scapegoats, we use that time and energy to FIX THE PROBLEM?  That goes for you, too, Congress .  I don't particularly care whose fault it was, because we should be focusing our efforts on finding a solution instead of throwing guy(s) under the bus.  Geez people .

Assume we as a blog find the appropriate way to fix these problems.  How would we implement them? 

The beauty of being a fan is that whether you're right, wrong, or in the middle, you have no influence whatsoever over how the team goes about its business.

Carrier Pigeon, smoke signals - basically what AT&T customers have had to resort to in order to communicate with the outside world (sarcasm) .

All kidding aside, I was really talking about the overall attitude of everyone here, including myself.  I'd just be more interested in hearing people's various alternatives to what happened as opposed to just throwing dudes under the bus, lol.  That's all.

We are. Nobody is calling BS dumb, idiot... the end.

Ppl are coming up with alternative strategies, game plan that could of kept the game closer. 

Tonight is another big test.