Who do you blame for Pistons loss???

[danglertx]

I blame the Coach and to a lesser extent, IT and Turner. 

I blame Stevens because he sits people too long.  He cools off more hot players than Francona.  I'm not against playing a complete second unit, but they don't need to play almost two quarters.  The bigs need more shorter breaks than the guys who handle the ball a lot.  Give them five minutes real time then get them back in there and adjust as foul situations require.

I blame ET and IT in the sense that we don't play the same in the third as we do in the first.  The game turns into ISO Turner and/or IT doing it all in the third quarter when we are up.  Almost like it is time for them to get theirs.

That said, IT, ET (as usual), Crowder, and Smart couldn't throw it in the ocean from three point range to... well win a basketball game.  If even one of them shoots decently I think we hold on to win that game.

[BballTim]

  We shot poorly, especially in the second half. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

[fairweatherfan]

James Naismith.

  We shot poorly, especially in the second half. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

And this.  Outside of Smart (who was atrocious on offense), the shot selection was fine, the shots just did not drop.  We don't have the talent to power through a bad shooting night against a solid team, especially when it's concentrated toward the end of the game.

[BballTim]

James Naismith.

  We shot poorly, especially in the second half. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

And this.  Outside of Smart (who was atrocious on offense), the shot selection was fine, the shots just did not drop.  We don't have the talent to power through a bad shooting night against a solid team, especially when it's concentrated toward the end of the game.

  Thomas seemed pretty attached to dribbling into crowds with his head down and no real plan last night. He was good near the end of the game (aside from FTs) but before that he wasn't helping much.

[Snakehead]

I thought there was a settling for jump shots in addition to poor shooting in the second half.  Thomas was awful shooting and it's hard for us to survive many of those games.  Thomas has his draw backs as good as he can be sometimes.  He can struggle with lots of defensive attention and he has some really off games where sometimes he can catch fire right at the end and almost make you forget.



Our team doesn't have the studs to rely on so we rely on many players pitching in.  Problem is if a couple of those players are off you lose games.

James Naismith.

  We shot poorly, especially in the second half. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

And this.  Outside of Smart (who was atrocious on offense), the shot selection was fine, the shots just did not drop.  We don't have the talent to power through a bad shooting night against a solid team, especially when it's concentrated toward the end of the game.

  Thomas seemed pretty attached to dribbling into crowds with his head down and no real plan last night. He was good near the end of the game (aside from FTs) but before that he wasn't helping much.

I agree.

Then calling out rotations at the end  as the issue... come on.

[BudweiserCeltic]

James Naismith.

  We shot poorly, especially in the second half. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

And this.  Outside of Smart (who was atrocious on offense), the shot selection was fine, the shots just did not drop.  We don't have the talent to power through a bad shooting night against a solid team, especially when it's concentrated toward the end of the game.

  Thomas seemed pretty attached to dribbling into crowds with his head down and no real plan last night. He was good near the end of the game (aside from FTs) but before that he wasn't helping much.

Many of those dribble into crowds with his head down (and subsequent misses) turned into Amir scores. So the net effect was a positive one in those instances. So in much of those misses Thomas shooting poorly wasn't much of a problem because his activity on the floor was making things happen.

[Snakehead]

James Naismith.

  We shot poorly, especially in the second half. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

And this.  Outside of Smart (who was atrocious on offense), the shot selection was fine, the shots just did not drop.  We don't have the talent to power through a bad shooting night against a solid team, especially when it's concentrated toward the end of the game.

  Thomas seemed pretty attached to dribbling into crowds with his head down and no real plan last night. He was good near the end of the game (aside from FTs) but before that he wasn't helping much.

Many of those dribble into crowds with his head down (and subsequent misses) turned into Amir scores. So the net effect was a positive one in those instances. So in much of those misses Thomas shooting poorly wasn't much of a problem because his activity on the floor was making things happen.

The ball could not have bounced our way.

Don't get me wrong, IT is one of the guys on the team we need to make plays no matter if it's not so efficient because we need that with our other players weakness in that area (same thing we need from Turner and once did from Jordan Crawford).   I try to give those guys a long leash because we are asking them to do stuff much better players do for their team.  But IT was still was not playing well and you have to give Amir credit for his effort.

I also think Crowder is getting by a bit like he is some stud when he has hot shooting for stretches but overall I think he still hopefully improves by slashing more which would help the team greatly.  That will be when he actually becomes a good offensive player.

As good as IT can be he can struggle with defensive attention I think.  He needs help to take attention off of him.

[fairweatherfan]

James Naismith.

  We shot poorly, especially in the second half. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

And this.  Outside of Smart (who was atrocious on offense), the shot selection was fine, the shots just did not drop.  We don't have the talent to power through a bad shooting night against a solid team, especially when it's concentrated toward the end of the game.

  Thomas seemed pretty attached to dribbling into crowds with his head down and no real plan last night. He was good near the end of the game (aside from FTs) but before that he wasn't helping much.

Many of those dribble into crowds with his head down (and subsequent misses) turned into Amir scores. So the net effect was a positive one in those instances. So in much of those misses Thomas shooting poorly wasn't much of a problem because his activity on the floor was making things happen.

IT drew a lot of fouls on drives like that too, though again the shots weren't falling there.  But I will say that a lot of stuff worked well in the first quarter or two that we kept trying to go to after the Pistons adjusted.  IT storming the lane was one of em. 

[PhoSita]

James Naismith.

  We shot poorly, especially in the second half. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

And this.  Outside of Smart (who was atrocious on offense), the shot selection was fine, the shots just did not drop.  We don't have the talent to power through a bad shooting night against a solid team, especially when it's concentrated toward the end of the game.

  Thomas seemed pretty attached to dribbling into crowds with his head down and no real plan last night. He was good near the end of the game (aside from FTs) but before that he wasn't helping much.

He really seems to have a tendency to go into "Gonna win this myself" mode when the team is struggling.

[celts55]

I would have to blame Detroit. Had they not scored more points, the Celtics would have won.

[Quetzalcoatl]

We're an overachieving team of role players in a strong conference.  Our team is like 90% trade pieces and we can't even roster all the draft picks coming in this upcoming year.  Just because Jae is surprising everyone doesn't mean we're a championship contender.

Right now, we're getting a team to tank for us while we get to watch semi-entertaining basketball.  It's the best of both worlds and yet everyone is complaining.  I get to follow the draft and watch Celtics games at the same time!  It's great! 

We can't deal with any team with a good PF and/or C.  That's how it's going to be until we make some moves.  Even then, we can get chippy and pull one out here and there.  I congratulate Ainge and Stevens for making a team of Isaiah / Smart / Crowder / Amir / Kelly Olynyk good enough that we're disappointed when they lose to a team lead by one of the two best centers in the league.  If we were coached by Randy Wittman, Steve Clifford, Derek Fisher or Sam Mitchell, we'd be 14-23 like the Bucks are right now.  Stop being so negative about it and enjoy the fact that we're going to in all likelihood be drafting 6th and seated 7th. 

[DesertDweller]

After reading all the responses to my question it seems like a mixed bag of who is to blame. there is one thing that is scary and I really hope it's not true.
how many of you think the crew has taken over the ship???  it would answer the question of guys that are shooting real hot sitting too long and cooling off. it would also answer the question of some bad rotations.
and like some one said, if you are looking for a spark because no one can find the rim, why did he not try Zeller???

[CelticSince83]

James Naismith.

  We shot poorly, especially in the second half. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

And this.  Outside of Smart (who was atrocious on offense), the shot selection was fine, the shots just did not drop.  We don't have the talent to power through a bad shooting night against a solid team, especially when it's concentrated toward the end of the game.

  Thomas seemed pretty attached to dribbling into crowds with his head down and no real plan last night. He was good near the end of the game (aside from FTs) but before that he wasn't helping much.

He really seems to have a tendency to go into "Gonna win this myself" mode when the team is struggling.

Can't really blame him.  Wouldn't you if you had his supporting cast?  Especially with Bradley out.

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

THE ENTIRE TEAM. Sometimes I blame a player or CBS to see what the responses will be but I don't really mean it. There are too many things that go on for one person to lose a game with so many offensive/defensive possessions. You can't even blame a superstar for losses and you shouldn't give them all the credit for wins. Yes, sometimes a player (coach) can make it more difficult to win but there are always 9 other people on the court doing something that affects the outcome. Every one of them will have to come together to figure this out and that goes for DA/owners on down.

[Denis998]

David Lee