Ray certainly looks like he doesn’t have his feet under him, whatever the reason.

And we need him. The thought of Tony Allen with the basketball in his hands against the Pistons is chilling.

Yeah it’s not just Ray’s shot that’s off, he’s a friggin snail out there first off. The guy looks like he’s in slo-motion compared to the rest of the celtics D. And secondly, the man can’t even dribble the goshdarn ball. How many times in the last two games have you seen Ray just flat out loose his dribble and turn the ball over? Luckily I believe a lot of this to be in his head, he just needs to bang out some threes and get his confidence back. He needs to find his quick release again, every time he gets an open look you can see him taking too long and thinking about it. He’s gotta relearn how to just let it fly. He’s Jesus friggin Shuttlesworth – he’s gotta learn to have some faith in himself.

I don’t believe that there is a David Stern plot to lengthen the series to 7 games or to attempt to get LeBron James (or the Celtics for that matter) into the next round of the playoffs for marketing reasons.

No, there isn’t, but keep in mind, the NBA, at its core is a business. It’s not about basketball at the highest level, it’s not about the purity of the game played by the finest athletes in the world. It’s about revenue and a product. Sagging ratings, fewer games, boring series means lost revenue. Referees DO manage games. Do they dictate the outcome? Not necessarily, it’s not the same thing, but they do manage games especially in the playoffs.

As for Ray Allen – he wasn’t hitting (hadn’t taken a shot for most of the game) and to his credit knew to pass to someone who was having a better night. Cleveland did an excellent job on Ray (who is healthy), but yesterday Ray did a great job on Wally and playing Defense in general. Don’t discount him.

0 road wins heading to round 3 is not a bad thing.

0 losses at home heading into round 3 is fairly impressive.

Detroit-Boston is the series we’ve all been waiting for! Liven up folks! This is where we’ve wanted to be all year!

The Ghost of RED AUERBACH is upon us……..

It’s amazing what desperation teaches you about your team. You can’t live with a foul-prone Perk and you can’t live with a shot Ray Allen.

You end up with wily vets who embrace the moment. I love the crunch time 5 of Garnett, Brown, Posey, Pierce and House. All mentally and physically tough, and money at the line too.

Although my comment may not be completely realistic, the road losses do not mean a thing if the Celts win at home. So, this “road thing” is irrevelant until they lose at home.

you want Rondo’s ball pressure on Billups..post-ups or not,that’s our best chance….Ray&Rip ,2 uconn boys,can chase each other around..Rondo’s speed advantage is the key to the series..he can use his speed on BOTH ends and make these games in the 90’s …walking the ball up puts it in the 80’s and we’re in trouble….Rondo gets it done…..Celts in 6

For decades, the NBA has worked to have refs give stars favored treatment and to overly reward aggressive offensive moves. The tendency may have declined slightly since the Michael Jordan years, but not by much, and it’s always accentuated in the playoffs.

Now I’m not saying David Stern or any other league executive is explicitedly dictating this policy to the refs. They don’t need to. It’s simply the case that if any ref called pushing fouls, traveling, or charging on certain stars too often, he’d hear about it from his superiors, and would find his game assignments affected.

With that in mind, I’m surprised the Celtics were able to defeat the Cavaliers in game 7. The refs were too prepared to give LeBron James every break imaginable. The only thing that saved the Celtics was that Pierce was hot and determined to score. As a result, he got just enough star treatment from the refs to squeak the Celtics through.

As for the upcoming series with Detroit, the Celtics should encourage Pierce to drive far more than he did in the regular season. Sharing the ball pays fewer dividends in the playoffs. Moreover, Ray Allen should get fewer minutes. Replace him with House or Posey if you want outside shooting, or with Tony Allen if you want someone who will aggressively drive and get trips to the charity stripe.

I’m baffled by people calling for Tony Allen. Drive to the basket? Billups will pick his pocket 10 times out of 9. The only time Tony Allen should touch the ball on offense is in the air on the receiving end of an alley-oop pass.

In the playoffs you especially need players who will put the ball on the floor and drive towards the rim. The Celtics only have three players, to differing degrees, that can do that, Pierce, Rondo, and Tony Allen. In these playoffs, we’ve already seen that Ray Allen either won’t or can’t (at least not significantly, and not against the likes of Wally World), and he’s not hitting his jumpers.

No one’s claiming Tony Allen isn’t frequently a turnover machine. I’m just saying the Celtics would get more out of his offense and defense then they have been from Ray Allen.

Ray is done, whether it be injuries, mental, or whatever. He’s just way too slow. The worst part is, it’s not just his shooting, which is all anyone is talking about. He’s doing NOTHING correctly. He’s not playing strong D, he’s committing bad turnovers, he’s getting us out of the offensive flow whenever he handles the ball.

If Doc were smart, he’d scale Ray’s minutes WAY back, like to 20-25, unless he suddenly finds his touch and can give us the 15-18 pts a game. Then, you can feature two lineups in his stead. One moves Paul to the 2 spot and Posey comes in for Ray, providing 3pt shooting and strong D. The other involves going small and playing House at the 2 spot alongside Rondo. House has no conscious and will take shots that Ray has been passing up, and he’ll probably hit them. And while he’s no defensive stopper, he’s better than Ray at this point.

Tony Allen might deserve some burn this series to guard Rip.

Paul Pierce finally stepped up and caried this team on his back when it mattered. If he can do this consistently… imagine the possibilities.

Ray needs a day off, he played 40 minutes a game for 90% of the season.
Or if he cant have a day off which just isnt in the cards in the 3rd round, play tony allen more or like yesterday play 2 pg .let TA play tight tough defense and let him run around off screens like ray ray does tiring out the opp. this way TA wont turn the ball over and we really dont lose much offense as ta will get a gimme or two (layup, slam or fts) just for being out there.All those treys can be taking by someone else. posey, rondo and house could take the ray allen treys.

 Ray can play about 20 minutes of legs under him basketball . remember during the season when house would come in fresh and have 11 pts in 13 minutes, well ray would be coming in and providing a spark, his treys would be falling and his drives would be finished with emphases, not missed layups.

Ta, posey, house would get the usual minutes over 20-24 that ray would have had. this would get the most out of a tired or injured ray allen and would give us more production at the 2

Tony Allen will see no meaningful minutes for the rest of the year, none.

Doc gave him a shot at the end of the half in one of the Hawks games and he was a minus 8 in about 2.5 minutes of play. The tendency of most coaches in the playoffs is to go with guys you can trust and Doc is no different. It’s not so much that you want a guy to make something happen, you just want a guy to not screw up until the big boys come back in.

I don’t think Tony has the mental toughness. His body language is all wrong. Even in garbage time at home v. Hawks he layed one in and just hung his head going back up court.

Plus he’s overrated as a defender in my opinion. He couldn’t help himself from reaching in at the end on Billups in the game we lost. Contrast that with Posey’s last second defense on LeBron a couple weeks later in the regular season, just muscling up with arms raised, forcing James into a difficult jumper which he missed.

What d’you guys think of this:
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/05/19/the-fairness-of-2-3-2.aspx

The Fairness of 2-3-2

I try to steer clear of pure sports blogging here, but in the wake of yesterday’s amazing LeBronâ€"Paul Pierce showdown I can’t resist. First, I hope we can all agree that it’s imperative the Hornets pull out a win over San Antonio in Game 7 tonight, in order to save us all from the sheer horror of a set of conference finals consisting of (ugh) the Celtics, Pistons, Lakers, and Spurs.

More importantly, I think the way the playoffs have unfolded thus far provides a compelling argument for returning to the 2-3-2 format (where the higher-seeded team hosts Games 1, 2, 6, and 7), as opposed to the 2-2-1-1-1 format the NBA uses now for the first three playoff rounds. When home-court advantage is as determinitive as it’s been so far, with home teams going a combined 22-2 in the second round, it’s incumbent upon the league to do whatever it can (within reason, of course) to give lower-seeded teams a leg up. And, while I can’t find data comparing the track records of the two formats, I think it’s fair to say most people agree that the 2-3-2 evens things out by giving the lower-seeded team a better chance to win the series by getting on a roll at home.

In the NBA Finals, for example, which use the 2-3-2 format, twice in the last four years (the Pistons in 2004 and the Heat in 2006) the lower-seeded team won the series by sweeping the three home games and stealing one on the road. Higher-seeded teams have a big enough advantage by getting to host one more home game, including Game 7 (where home teams win more than 80 percent of the time). And if, like the Celtics in both their series this year, a higher-seeded team can’t manage to win a single road game, they should at least have to play two elimination games at home, rather than just one. There’s also the travel argument—if the Western Conference finals end up being between the Hornets and Lakers, five flights in two weeks between Los Angeles and New Orleans is a lot. But the homeâ€"road splits in the playoffs so far provide a good enough reason on their own for switching to 2-3-2.

Gotta disagree with the Village Idiot. The regular season is already meaningless enough, the home court advantage is the only thing that keeps guys showing up for 82 games. That shouldn’t be compramised.

The Pistons are virtually certain of winning game 1 and will take the series in 5 or 6 games depending on whether the Celtics can win game 5.

V Idiot—-why should the lower-seeded team get any advantage? The whole point to home-court advantage is just that—-reward the team with the best record with continuous home-court advantage. There’s no reason to try to create upsets and lessen the meaning of the regular season even further. It sounds like you’re unhappy the C’s have taken advantage of the home-court (as they should do) and are trying to find a way to knock them out by putting them at a deficit in a series (assuming they’d be down 3-2 games in a 2-3-2 format).

You offer no sound reason to change format. Trying to force upsets of higher seeds isn’t a justification.

i am not ready to give up on ray—less minutes—yes. some more for posey, eddie. sam and tony—not too many for tony but some to see what he offers. tayshon will be tough on paul—long arms and he’s a lefty. we desperately need rondo to step up.and perk has to wake up.

Agree with Po! Ray Allen done? No way. Last I checked Ray was guarding Wally in game 7 and Wally had, oh, zero points. Ray was excellent in the first series, shooting well, moving well, playing solid defense. There is no doubt that Cleveland did a number on him, but calling him “done” is a stretch.

Ray Allen, despite media claims and hotair, gave up the most of the trio on this move to Boston, and done it all without complaint. Ask Cleveland and Detroit and how insignificant Ray Allen is and see if you get the same reply as cmoney.

I’m certainly not ready to give up on Ray Allen, but I’ve given up on Cassell.

They need to get some solid minutes from Tony Allen in this series. And also from BBD or Powe, to neutralize Maxiell. There’s no way around it.

thank you tmcdon and Masterpo.

From what I can tell teams are striving to take away at least 1 and possibly two members of our trio. Ray Allen because of the nature of his game (and how he is used in the Celtic offense) is the easiest person to take out of the offense. KG is well KG and Paul is too strong to keep from getting to hole if his shot is not falling (he can be slowed but not stopped) Plus with KG not the type to take over games you stop Ray and you have a good chance if you play solid d of playing to let Paul and our role players beat you (which as Cleveland found out is not necessarily a safe bet but its better than the alternative, single covering a team with 3 potential 20 scorers) Ray was doubled to death on the wings during the Cleveland series (where he initiates his offense best from) and he may see some more of that this series. But some of that pressure is relieved if Rondo can exploit his speed advantage against Chauncey and they have to “worry” about him on offense. The same can be said if Perkins can get some more offensive opportunities. These teams aren’t scared to leave Ray open consistently for no reason. If Detroit chooses to single cover Rip on Ray for the majority of the series (which I doubt) you’ll see what happens. I’ll grant you Ray may not be shooting well but look at how few attempts he’s had. 6 attempts in a game seven of the playoffs, I’m sure Ray hasn’t had fewer than ten shot attempts since little leagues or something and it happened 2 or 3 times last series!!
 Ray I think is quite healthy, unfortunatley for him I think teams have decided slowing his production is the key to giving the Celtics fits (which judging from the results is at least slightly accurate). It wouldn’t hurt for the offense to run some stuff for him, but that may be too much to hope. Doc been quoted as telling Ray: “Say you don’t score anymore points for the rest of the playoffs but we win the championship, which do you prefer?” Now I think that is unrealistic, but you see where team stands on whether Ray gets enough looks or not.

I’m thankful for Eddie House’s recent contributions, but Lindsay Hunter will be ready to pick him to pieces as Rondo’s backup. The Celtics may find they need Sam Cassell a good bit in the Piston series.

My guess is Rodney Stuckey will be backing up Billups, not Hunter.