Not So Easy

they look tired out there …

I forgot what it felt like for the C’s to lose a close one.

Can’t wait for the rematch Friday night at the Garden

Awful officiating. The Hornets complained for three quarters and then the refs swallowed their whistles the way they did when the Celts played the Spurs.

Doc should have brought Rondo in earlier when Pargo was torching them.

They should have gone to Pierce more often down the stretch. Stojakovic and Wells could not stay in front of him.

Still, the Celtics had a terrific Western Conference swing and the Hornets played a great game.

Big Baby losing minutes hurts this team—he brings energy and bulk…I know PJ is a vet…but teams have no way of dealing with the Baby-he is unique.

Didn’t really feel like we were trying to win that game, seemed more about Doc trying some new substitution patterns to get Sam and P.J. acclimated. Frustrating, though, that we had a chance to win and just didn’t play (or coach) smart.

Tommy was right on the money—saying the “old guy” subs slowed this game down-which allowed N.O. to get back in the game…C’mon Doc—let Big Baby play!…of course Ray Allen was a turnover machine in the 4th.

maybe lineups of Cassell, Posey, Pierce, PJ, and Powe aren’t the best thing in the world.

Meh, we looked so tired out there in the 4th. Played great all the way into the third but just could not keep that energy.

Turnovers killed us, alot of very lucky shots went the hornets way aswell and rondo has to be commended for his D on CP3!

Not that it really makes a big difference in the grand scheme of things, but if you want to place blame on that one give it right to KG. West made KG look absolutely old and slow when he took him to the hole, and like he didn’t care enough to go out and guard him on the perimeter. 37 pts! Come on KG. Not one of your typical defensive outings.

All of you Sam fans can put another one in your cap. Sam comes in and we are up 13. Sam leaves and we are up 5. Once again the offense stalls while he is out there. House comes in and we quickly push the lead back up to 15. That’s 6 games now and only one for him worth talking about.

Rondo was killing CP out there! That is the difference. Other than 2 bad shots, one at the first fading away off a pick, and that force down the middle right at the end that kind of hurt, he was taking the right shots. He was driving it all the way in and laying it up. He knocked down the open baseline jumper kicked out to him. Great game for Rondo! In fact, other than KG’s defense on West (He played well offensively and rebounded well) we played real well.

All of you Sam fans can put another one in your cap. Sam comes in and we are up 13. Sam leaves and we are up 5. Once again the offense stalls while he is out there. House comes in and we quickly push the lead back up to 15. That’s 6 games now and only one for him worth talking about.

Convenient. He played well against Dallas and Milwaukee as well. Are you really going to cherry-pick games that the backup point guard doesn’t play well and pin blame on him and discount the games he plays well?

Um, KG was not really gaurding him at all. Was KG really the one supposed to be gaurding him?

Yahoo headline said Hornets made a statement. I think the Celtics lost this ones by themselves by not playing that well down the stretch. I would be more impressed if they had beat the C’s at their best.

i am not worried about NO this year. If we get there, they won’t be there. But we blew it because of west and turnovers. I saw PP on West once late, and KG on him early. In between I didn’t see anyone try to guard him. I saw some guys run at him here and there.

I mean we are tralking about ten wide open 15 to 18 footers with no attempt to guard him. Anyone have an idea?

at this point, its really all about the playoffs. so i wouldn’t be shocked to see some strange lineups out there. might cost us a game or two here and there, but probably not that many. we need to get pj and sam fully acclimated, so expect to see them get more p.t. than expected. it’ll be all good in the end.

Rondo outplayed CP3 for 45 minutes. That is even more important than the result. I was really hoping to see him respond to his off night in Dallas.

C’s played well until the 4th. They coughed up the ball WAY too many times to win. I’ve watched CP a few times this year. He almost always has a quiet, efficient game until the 4th. Then he goes off.

NO has a bright future. Like Doc, you have to give BScott props for sticking with a losing franchise until they turned the corner.

agree with most of above. the big 3 especially ray looked tired in the 4th. bad mental mistakes by ray. we also gave west and pargo way too much room to operate. posey hit the 3’s thegame before and he missed them last nite. doc fiddled with the lineup and fiddled himself into the loss. it’s understandable if he’s trying to get the senior citizens into shape. the missing from action big baby has been a major oversight on doc’s part and he will need more minutes than pj in the playoffs. don’t underestimate bbd’s worth doc. of course rondo was magnifique, but at the end of the game he was also lackadaisicle covering paul.

Mid to late in the fourth quarter, the Celts turned it off. It was clearly perceptible in their faces. Doc knew they could win this game if they needed or wanted to. Remember, the focus at this point in the season is to shorten the rotation, and try different lineups to see what they would do in playoff settings. Doc went with a very strange lineup, for much of the 4th Eddie House, Posey, Cassell, PJ, during crunch time. Pierce hardly played in the fourth. To me, the Celtics proved they could win in the first three quarters by shutting down Chris Paul. Doc is shuffling the deck to see what needs to be fixed before playoffs. This team is focussed on honing all of its weapons for playoffs. By playing those people at the end of the game, it exposed what work needs to be done before the playoffs start. No worries after that game. This is the playoff preseason. Watch for Doc to continue to shuttle strange lineups into real game situations to see what works, and what doesn’t. I guess that when they mathematically capture home court advantage, the bench rotations are going to be wacky. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Leon, PJ and Cassell to get huge minutes, with GPAc oming up with mysterious injuries and personal days to let Scowabunga get some PT.

I hope you’re right, Johnnymost, because if you’re not, we’re in for a rough playoff run with Doc.

soap07 said:

Convenient. He played well against Dallas and Milwaukee as well. Are you really going to cherry-pick games that the backup point guard doesn’t play well and pin blame on him and discount the games he plays well?

Soap07- Not sure what your definition of a good game is. He was 1-9 against Dallas. We won in spite of him. Rondo got benched for much of that game for poor play, but Sam came in and played no better. Milwaukee he had a decent game stat wise, but if you recall we were blowing that team out and he was getting a lot of garbage minutes. Even if we give you that one, he has one really good game in SA, a good game in Milwaukee, and 5 awful games. Since his great game in SA, he has laid 3 eggs in a row. Not exactly what we were looking for in a veteran PG. Shot hog who stalls our offense. I hope he can put it together soon, but if he doesn’t he better ride the pine in the playoffs.

in hindsight baby and tony would have given us energy off the bench.sam and pj didn’t bring any energy tonight-sam especially