Great move by Doc to put Rondo back in the game on Calderon there. That was clairvoyant.

All you Doc defenders can point to the record all you want, but it’s quickly changing. The quick start was more about other teams not knowing how to defend the C’s. I think they’ll get to the EC finals despite Doc, but don’t be surprised when they don’t make it. The Celtics will never win a title with Doc as coach, never.

how does one defend against 71.4% from beyond the arc, and ball movement like what they had going tonight? i think it wasn’t so much that our defense was poor as much as it was that toronto just played a great game and shot incredibly well.

not to mention, tommy’s referee friend eli wasn’t exactly helping us down the stretch either…that foul call on perk’s clean block was just rediculous.

blah blah reggie…cause Doc has so many good options at PG right?

Not trying to look past the poor defensive performance by the players tonight, but subbing out BBG and using KG as the center on defense was a terrible move. Then, putting Perk out there on offense was even worse.

All those factors and Raptors only managed to win by 2.

I’ve been saying for years that Doc is an awful coach. He will have a good record because he has great players, but to count on him to make the right calls consistently in close games…. I don’t know. I’m fearful of what we might see from him in a close playoff game (remember his coaching against Indiana?) Another bonehead decision by Doc down the stretch to take out TAllen and Baby. The C’s had the lead he should have rode with that lineup. Idiot!

tommy was mostly right. toronto shot lights out and rondo could not cover calderon. maybe it’s the back, maybe the hip, maybe someone has to spend more time coaching him the fundamentals of the pick and roll. meanwhile, toronto’s marksmen were wide open all night. however, the c’s played great offense, were in it to the last shot and never gave up. toronto won’t get better than that. the c’s can improve. and yes- you can count on doc for some funky substitutions to confound logic.

It starts with Rondo.

Rondo has trouble staying in front of and pressuring quick point guards. He breaks down our D and that lead to all the open look 3s.

Coach T needs to get Rondo boned up on D and the rest of the Cs too. Assuming we are good enough to make the finals: Nash, Parker, Paul will tear us to shreds with that kind of effort.

That being said, it was a very fun game to watch, even though we lost. Nine times out of ten we still win this game. Raptors shot lights out, didn’t miss a FT.

I don’t know the stats but it must have been 38-6 or so for points in the paint our favor.

Regardless, kudos to the Raptors, the better team won tonight.

I know Tommy H. thinks the refs screwed us and I’m sure that’s why he thinks we lost but when does Tommy think the refs don’t screw us?

They miss Posey.

As Miami does.

A new instructional series was launched tonight: “Rajon on Roundball.” The first episode was entitled : “How not to defend the high pick and roll.” Special thanks to Doc Rivers for allowing this episode to be filmed under game conditions.

Well, Rondo is probably just trying to keep going the long tradition of being unable to defend the high screen and roll. It’s been a Celtics staple since Doc arrived, so who’s Tom Thibadeau and Rondo to stop it?

Come in from the Tobin everyone…

I saw a lack of defensive effort from the starters other than KG at one time or another that led to their downfall tonight.

Normally they’d win a game like this on the strength of the offense and rebounding (for the most part) alone, but Toronto really shot the lights out from three and didn’t miss a free throw.

Ray’s attempted game-winner looked like it was going in.

Paul’s foul on Calderon at the end was retarded, it showed a total lack of concentration I think…If Ring had called for him to be sent to the NBADL for a night or two, I just might agree.

Rondo still gets burnt on the high pick and roll – watch that play again, Jon, you’ll see it. It’s been a common staple with this team. I think Coach Thibeadeau is going to have some tape for Rondo to watch tomorrow.

These problems are fixable….It’s nice to have KG defending an entire quarter of the floor by himself, but the other guys are going to have to step it up too with almost every team is gunning for them like it is the playoffs.

As for Ray Allen…. It was expected that he’d get less shots off on this team, but the real difference is that he’s taking a higher % of three within his shots than in previous seasons. That’s why his FG% is down. However, he is pretty much shooting just as well as ever.

45% of his shot attempts have been from three. He has only come close to approaching that level twice, in ‘05-’06 and in ‘01-’02.

He is shooting a higher % from the free throw line than ever before, but is on pace for the fewest attempts (per 82 games) since his first and third seasons in the league.

whoops, I copied that e-mail without taking the names out. The part about the NBADL is a joke.

Ray Allen – Three point field goals as a % of total field goals attempted per season including last night:

.33
.28
.31
.29
.36
.46
.39
.39
.37
.37
.44
.38
.45

The C’s just left too many guys open at the arc. Yes, the Raptors shot a ridiculous percentage and did a good job finding the open man.

I seem to remember one Obie coached game when another team shot that % from the arc. Obie’s response? “If you’re going to shoot 70% of your threes, you WILL beat us. There is no way to defend against that…”

That all being said, the Celts STILL had a chance to win or tie.

i like the guy but am not enthralled with him as a player— but i must give him his due. scal was very productive in this game and doc was wise not to overplay him.

It is tough to beat the same team 4 straight. Toronto was making its threes and the Cs missed Posey on defense. Why they
didn’t go to Garnett every time down the stretch is beyond me.
You get it into KG if they double him he kicks it out for a clean Look.

They missed Posey. I think this team is smart enough how to learn from these losses. Some coaches didn’t get much sleep last night watching film and trying to figure out how to defend the arc. I watched incredulously seeing these 3’s going in over and over. OB would have been proud of those Blue Jays or Maple Leafs. They know how to play inside out.

Rondo is still a step slow with injuries…but as a deer in headlights ,he was 2 steps slow last nite…he had no clue..Davis is a great option but that leaves KG at center which is not good longterm…a vet point and another big body would help..Pollard’s “sprain” is no longer that,he’s messed up and we need deal with it..we’ve got 3 mos till playoffs…wonder how the mailman feels these days???

Playing Davis DOES NOT leave KG at Center. Davis plays center (he plays inside), while KG still plays his normal game outside.

The coaching last night was indeed poor. But what else is new?

1. Why wasn’t Tony Allen used more in the second half? Was he being puinished for having a great second quarter? Why wasn’t Tony Allen defending Calderon? The reason why Toronto got all of those open 3’s was Calderon’s penetration. He completely abused Rondo.

2. Toronto ran the same play 25 times in a row— successfully— and the defense never adjusted. I’m talking about the schemes here, not the personnel.

3. Why did Davis play only 12 minutes? Is there some sort of law against using Davis in the first half? Their best offensive front court is Garnett and Davis. Even though Scalabrine played well last night (at least for him) I want to puke every time he comes into the game.

Last night’s loss illustrates once again why I have no confidence that this team can get past the second round of the playoffs, no matter how many wins they rack up during the regular season.

One of the dumbest moves ever by the Celts was bringing Doc back – with an extension to boot! Doc needs to coach a team where “tanking” is wanted and needed.

Tony Allen scores 14 straight points, the C’s are up 12 and rolling. For some inexplicable reason, TA was taken out for the starting lineup, and Toronto ties the game within a few minutes. That was the turning point to me.

There is almost no way to beat a team that shoots 70% from threes while taking 20 plus from that range. We came a missed three from winning and a missed 8 foot jumper from overtime. This team is also last years division champs, not a bunch of pushovers.

When you have to extend your D to tightly guard the 3pt line your going to end up with holes. It puts much more pressure on everyone. On top of the the 3pt % they had almost no baskets in the paint. You can only do so much to defend jump shots. In the fourth quarter, I found myself just amazed at how every shot would go down, whether the guy was open or had a hand right in his face.

One thing I do agree with (from the above negative comments) though, is rondo did a horrible job containing Calderon. He had no fouls and yet never got physical with him, nor was he fighting through the screen. I think maybe TA could have pushed him around a bit.

Wow, I agree 100% with Brickowski. :o

Are the Celts always going to go for the winning 3 pt. shot on a tied game? If Doc does that during the Playoffs, he´s going to be risking the next banner.

I can understand that the season schedule is hard on the players and you don´t want to wear them down by dragging the team into every overtime possibility, but if there isn´t a game the next day, isn´t it wiser to guarantee the overtime with an easy basket?

Great insight from all. I just do not get why we left people open when they were shooting so well beyond the arc. My guess is, the Raptors coaches must of studied the weakness in our defense, when the Celtics jump switch they are not able to cover the arc all the time because of the type of defense we were executing. The Raptors do not score underneath the basket they are great shooters from distance and not back to the basket scorers except Bosh and KG would have covered him. I was glad to see the bench play Powe, Scal, Tony and Baby I wish they could stayed in longer but I see a change and they are starting to play the 3 stars less now I think they look tired at times. The Celtics have 50 or more games left depending how far we go in the playoffs so I hope the bench plays a lot.

Brazil: As long as Rivers as coaching there is no risking the next banner….It’ll never happen. If there is a next banner, Rivers will be in the broadcast booth announcing it.

So let me get this straight:

The Celtics lead the league in points against and opponents’ FG% and that’s all the doing of the players and Coach Tom Thibodeau.

The Celtics play a poor defensive team against a team shooting an otherwordly percentage, and all of a sudden it’s back to being Doc’s fault.

Celtics win = players are great. Celtics lose = Doc is a bum.

I’ve got it now. Thanks!

The poor defense is not Doc’s fault. The substitution of players is Doc’s fault. Now do you get it? Good.

Richtrader hit my observation on the head—→substitutions in the second quarter and the ensuing scoreless draught was the turning point of the game. If Doc stuck with the players that were out there at the time, the C’s may have been able to continue building the lead to the point the continued 3-pt barrage wouldn’t have made the difference.

The defensive breakdown lies with Rondo in this case. Constantly beat by Calderon. Calderon penetrated at will against Rondo causing the rotations and thereby the repeated open looks for everyone on their team. Shooting was unconscious, even for wide open shots—-and it was everyone on their team. No one was missing which I can’t recall ever seeing an entire team shoot that well. Normally someone is having an off night.

Incredibly the C’s almost won this game in spite of that light-out shooting. Can’t believe Doc put Rondo back in for the last play instead of leaving TA on Calderon. That was pure stupidity. I’m not saying TA would have stopped Calderon for certain, but it was pretty certain that Rondo wouldn’t.

If Doc stuck with the players that were out there at the time, the C’s may have been able to continue building the lead to the point the continued 3-pt barrage wouldn’t have made the difference.
————————————
Maybe I was wrong about last season. I thought Rivers was tanking the last half of the season when substitutions after the opponent took a big lead allowed the C’s to catch up were pulled as soon as the C’s caught up or took a lead. We would then not see that combination again until the game was out of reach.

This year we are seeing the same thing.

Maybe Rivers is just that bad, migit. The only common denominator between this year’s team and last year’s team is Rivers.