Celtics v. Heat Game 6 Wrap Up: Unmitigated Disaster

Cue to the 22 Second Mark...That was the Celtics last night.

Open shot after open shot, after open shot. All led to brick, after brick, after brick. This wasn't about the refs, this wasn't even about Lebron, who was brilliant (seriously, that's as good as a game as an individual can have. The amount of "OH MY GODDD's from the Maestro last night was off the charts. I chose to express myself through explitives). This was about the C's coming out flat. 

They didn't run, they didn't shoot, they didn't pass. And it was team wide. Pierce took a few shots that I swear never got about the rim, just clanking underneath the front of the rim. Pietrus was back to his usual self, though the fans in my section must've all been newbies because they all for some reason anticipated a make whenever he chucked up a three...newsflash guys, he sucks. Allen was a non-factor. Rondo had the best game on the team and even he didn't play particularly well. Didn't help that he had absolutely no one to run with. Bass, actually Bass played ok. He shot well enough, but we didn't see much of him late. And then there's KG....Apparently Coach Olestra reads my blogs because they fronted him from the first quarter on and he was a shadow of himself as a result. No in-game adjustment for Doc on that, which is shocking. 

So now they're heading back to MIA in a do or die. I still take the C's, but that's only because I'm a homer.

Celtics Lose Game 2, Blame the Play Calling

Video of the Dunk...The Most Degrading Highlight of All Time

That's right, blame the play calling.  Doc's handling of the team has beennnn...suspect, to say the least as of late, and last night was really no different. 

Now, let me say this by prefacing that I understand the C's aren't the deepest team in the league, we're playing Ryan Hollins and Greg Stiemsma regular minutes, so it's understood that our bench is in shambles...that said, Doc has used it HORRIBLY these past three games. 

Make no mistake, the Celts had been lucky, very lucky, to win the previous two games. Doc is experimenting with lineups for 4, 5, 6 minutes at a time, that I only saw play together in garbage time. Take for instance Keyon Dooling...This team has an all-world point guard in Rondo, and a very suitable backup in Avery Bradley, yet inexplicably Keyon "Wouldn't Know an Assist if it Hit him in the Face" Dooling is running the for 5 or so minutes a night, mostly in the 4th quarter. It's inexcusable...and that'd be bad enough if that was the only egregious substituion, but it's not.   You know who Keyon's running mates are? Ryan Hollins, Mickael Pietrus, Marquis Daniels, and one of Pierce or Ray Allen...or as I like to call it, 4 guys that are lucky not to be in the D-League, plus an all-star. 

Now, that's a problem that Doc directly affects and should take all the blame for, but wasn't the real problem last night...the real problem last night was game plan and execution. Bottom line is there are players that are performing right now, and there are players that aren't, and that needs to be recognized by the team, and it needs to be the head coach to lays it all out for them. 

Paul Pierce has negative lift on his shots right now. They're not flat, they're hardly reaching the front rim. I love that he's out there trying, and frankly he's still better than Sasha Pavlovic and Mickael Pietrus, but still, he can't be the focal point in the early, middle, or late stages of the game.  Brandon Bass is a black hole in the truest sense of the word. The ball goes to him, and it immediately goes back to the other team. He doesn't pass, he doesn't hit shots, and his defense has been non-existant. Frankly, it might be time to bench him. He's shooting a horrendous 40% for the playoffs, which would be bad enough on it's own, till you consider that last night, he took 15 shots. KG, who's been the teams best scorer, took 12...and only had 4 coming into the 4th quarter. That's a crime against good basketball.

If I'm Doc right now, I'm pulling Rondo into a Rondo only meeting today and showing him highlights of Pierce and Bass tossing up brick after brick with subliminal messages flashing "Give KG the Rock." It needs to be drilled into the team right now that KG needs 5-6 shots per quarter for this team to win. Ray has more or less been Ray, Rondo has been his usual brilliant self, but with the lack of any production from Pierce and Bass, the only reason they've won at all in the last week has been KG's ridiculous playoff performance thus far, that needs to continue. We saw it again in the 4th quarter, he can dominate the game when he's the focal point, and that's exactly what this team needs going forward. 

That's on you Doc. Make the team see it, make Rondo see it, make someone take Brandon Bass hostage before Wednesdays game, and most of all, make Pierce accept it.

The Boston Celtics Game 1: One Bad Call, One Bad Rondo Reaction

Please, Pleassseee David Stern, use your better judgement for the first time in in the last half decade or so and realize this was an accident. Or have it in your heart to take into account just how fucking awful of a call that was by the ref. Was it a hotheaded reaction from Rondo? Absolutely. Did he mean to make contact? I don't think so, he clearly tangled feet with him. Would any of this have happened if this jackoff of a ref had just called this a jump ball like it's been called the millions of times prior to this?

I've been saying for years that they need to control scrums on the floor...there is a foul or five every single time there is a loose ball on the floor but it's never called. Never. Drives me insane. So excuse me if the Celts were a bit pissed off and a bit shocked when this guy decided to call a foul on the floor for the first time in history. They must not have gotten the memo about the rule change before the game. 

So again, please Mr. Commissioner, don't let one god awful call, and one stupid reaction to that call determine this series. It already swung the fate of one game, don't let it swing two. 

Groveling, over. 

On the Celtics home front, I can't help but notice that none of this would have happened if anyone but Rondo could buy a bucket. I mean, god love Pierce, he kept chucking all night long, didnt matter that he was 5-19 and should probably be focusing on driving and getting to the line. Took KG 2 and a half quarters to get in the game, pretty sure Brandon Bass not only didn't show up, but something called an "Ivan Johnson" ate his lunch too...(side note, the box score only credits Ivan with 5 rebs total, I was watching, that's bogus. Guy had at least 5 offensive rebounds in the second half alone). On the surface its hard to get on Bradley, he absolutely dogged Teague and Hinrich in the one man full court press, and that's worth something I guess, but he was completely lost in the half court...on offense and defense. The picture I'm trying to paint here was it was Rondos game to win or lose...and he lost it right when the C's were gaining some momentum...but we would have never been in that position if he had any help at all. 

Oh, I forgot to mention, Doc played nine guys...in the first half...because anytime you can have Keyon Dooling and Sasha Pavlovic on the court at the same time in the middle of a playoff game, you gotta do it. 

Ok, rant over, I'll let this all go...Part of me just hopes that Pierce, KG, and Doc all collectively thought this was the last regular season game and they were just on auto drive mode like they'd been for the last week and a half. Lets hope they wake up for game two.