The Big Early Season Complaint

by Green17 on Nov 12, 2008 9:58 AM EST in Boston Celtics News & Links

Despite the 7-1 record heading into tonight's game versus the Hawks, the Celtics have one major flaw so far, consistently starting slowly to open the game.

The last game against the Raptors was probably most striking in terms of the poor start, however thankfully the team got it going in the second half and pulled out the win.

The Raptors game was atypical of many Celtics wins this year, the pattern seemed to be slow start by the 1st team, the 2nd team led by TA and Powe would come in and close the gap, with the 1st team returning to finish off the opponent.

Doc addressed the issue prior to the Raptors game, with obviously not great results. However reading the Globe today, it appears the team is focused in on the issue.

Through eight games last season, the Celtics were averaging 102.8 points. But this season, they've been plagued by slow starts and slumping stars - an unlikely dip in production from Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce.

In six of their eight games, the Celtics have found themselves down after the first quarter.

"It's something that's going to be a work in progress," said Garnett. "We're not a perfect team, we do have flaws, and if I was going to pick one out, that would be it.

"It's kind of good that our defense is ahead of our offense right now, because we're able to lean on that a little bit. But as the year goes, I'm pretty sure we'll get better at that."

According to Garnett, Rivers made it a point to talk to the players before Monday's game against Toronto about starting faster. Then the Celtics missed 11 of 16 shots and fell behind by 5 points in the first quarter.

"Yeah, that went over well," Rivers joked.

Check out the Offensive stats for the entire league on NBA.com. You'll find the Celtics wallowing down in 25th place. Not great. After the jump are the individual player stats thus far in the season.

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Paul Pierce	8	38.1	6.2	16.0	39.1	1.8	4.4	40.0	4.5	6.1	73.5	1.0	6.6	7.6	4.0	2.6	1.1	0.4	2.8	18.8
Ray Allen	8	34.4	5.1	11.9	43.2	1.5	4.9	30.8	3.8	4.1	90.9	1.4	3.9	5.2	2.6	2.4	0.9	0.0	1.5	15.5
Kevin Garnett	8	32.4	7.0	15.0	46.7	0.0	0.1	0.0	1.4	1.9	73.3	1.6	8.4	10.0	1.6	2.4	1.1	0.8	2.1	15.4
Tony Allen	8	20.8	3.8	7.6	49.2	0.0	1.0	0.0	2.4	2.8	86.4	0.6	1.6	2.2	0.9	1.4	1.5	0.4	2.6	9.9
Rajon Rondo	8	30.6	3.1	5.9	53.2	0.0	0.2	0.0	2.4	4.4	54.3	1.0	2.9	3.9	6.2	2.2	1.6	0.1	2.9	8.6
Leon Powe	8	17.5	2.5	4.1	60.6	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.4	4.9	69.2	1.1	2.0	3.1	1.1	1.4	0.5	0.5	3.1	8.4
Eddie House	8	16.6	2.1	5.6	37.8	0.8	3.1	24.0	1.4	1.4	100.0	0.1	0.9	1.0	0.8	0.9	1.4	0.1	2.1	6.4
Kendrick Perkins	8	26.2	2.4	5.1	46.3	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.6	1.4	45.5	2.6	4.8	7.4	1.0	2.4	0.2	2.5	3.9	5.4
Glen Davis	8	16.4	1.2	3.9	32.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.2	1.9	66.7	1.0	2.1	3.1	1.0	0.8	0.6	0.1	2.9	3.8
Patrick O`Bryant	2	5.0	0.0	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.5	2.0	75.0	0.5	2.0	2.5	0.5	1.5	0.0	0.5	1.5	1.5
Gabe Pruitt	3	4.7	0.3	1.0	33.3	0.3	1.0	33.3	0.3	0.3	100.0	0.3	0.3	0.7	0.3	0.7	0.0	0.0	0.3	1.3
Bill Walker	2	2.5	0.5	1.0	50.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.5	1.0
Brian Scalabrine	3	6.3	0.3	1.3	25.0	0.0	0.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.7	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.7

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Comments

We might not be putting the points per game, but the FG% is in the middle of the pack, which is not that bad.

We’re turn the ball over a lot and we’re shooting poorly FT’s… those are the main things we need to clean-up, more so than simply shooting better as it regards points production.

Considering that we get to the line more often than almost everyone in the league, this means that we’re losing a ton of possesions via getting fouled and our turnovers. Our poor FT shooting wouldn’t matter much if we weren’t getting to the line as often as we do.

by BudweiserCeltic on Nov 12, 2008 10:16 AM EST reply actions

I think the short summer combined with the severly reduced minutes for the starters during the preseason has led to a slow start for the first unit. Remember, Perk was out of most of the preseason and Rondo missed preseason games due to precautionary reasons with his ankle. Think of this month as the preseason.

by Gino on Nov 12, 2008 11:24 AM EST reply actions