Garnett is not moving as quickly laterally, so he’s slow to get to the defensive rebound. He also has timing problems (see missed layups, as well as the fact that he keeps losing rebounds over his back).

Let’s hope it’s just rust and not physical deterioration as a result of the surgery.

The Celtics have the size, strength and length to out rebound most teams they play against but are not playing physical enough or are hungry enough at times to rebound with other teams.

They have to get tougher, more hungrier and crash the boards as a team to remedy minor rebounding problem they are having!

They also have to reduce the amount of deep jumpers Garnett & Rasheed are taking to help the rebounding cause, since both players when they take such shots are never in vicinity of the basket or in position to go after offensive rebounds.

The C’s have the physical skills and talent to rebounding, but they miss the heart and motivation at times to do so.

This is a mental problem that Doc can easily I think remedy with a good old fashion team meeting.

Garnett and Rasheeds outside shooting are weapons and must be utilized, but they must not over do it since they are our primary big guys along with Perk and need to be low post inside rebounding factors as well.

Its not fair when they are both out on the floor and they are both sitting in the high post just waiting to take a long jumper, leaving no big man inside to rebound.

Even when Perk is on the floor with either Garnett or Rasheed its still not fair having him down low alone and having them deep on the outside leaving poor Perk all alone down low to rebound.

Garnett and Rasheed must balance their games and go to the hoop more for low post offensive moves so they can also help out on the offensive boards.

I agree this is something that Doc is responsible to correct and should hopefully be bale to do so easily and quickly.

I expect that they are embarrassed about this, and i believe that PP will be crashing the boards tonight. He seemed to be doing it all year, but it didn’t show up last night.

Although I’d rather lose to other good teams than to lay eggs against crap like we did last year.

as Doc mentioned, the guards were not keeping their guys in front; when the bigs rotate over, the weak side is always open for put back dunks – point one: the guards need to keep the other team out of the paint – it wasn’t just the bigs; it was the whole team

the Hawks and Suns were smart; they spread the floor and ran isolations across the lane; they took everything into the paint and got a ton of kick-out 3s and offensive boards

agree with the posts above: KG and Wallace are both avoiding the post (and contact) on offense, and that has to limit our offensive boards

no way KG is anywhere near the defensive presence and rebounder he was 2 years ago; reaction time, lateral motion and hops are all not there yet; people are rebounding right over his back; I am hopeful that he will regain leg strength, confidence and quickness over time; this to me is the single biggest difference in the starting five from 2 years ago; the others are the same or better; but KG (at this point) is not the dominant player he was; I believe he’s doing his best, and I believe he’ll get there; in the meantime, the team may struggle

interesting point on the rebounds: 16 offensive boards: that’s potentially an extra 384 seconds (or 6 minutes and change); if both teams normally have the ball for roughly 24 minutes a game, would that mean the Hawks had the ball for almost 31 minutes and the C’s for 17 minutes on offense? that would tire out anyone

also agree with the comments about fire, swagger, etc. my comment was body language

I don’t know why the team didn’t bear down when they got leads in the 3rd Q; it looked like they were just taking plays off, trying to conserve energy and coasting a bit … you can’t do that against a good team … the momentum shifts and then it’s too late

Offensively, the Celts philosophically don’t crash the boards, as they focus on getting back in transition, a good idea for this team, especially when playing against teams that like to run like the Hawks.

Defensively, a big problem last night, and can be for a great help defensive team, is that when the bigs rotated to help the penetration, their guy was free to clean up the glass. As Doc said, the guards have to rotate down and box out, which is not real instinctive. I believe they will emphasize this moving forward and we will see more support rebounding in the games to come.

1986 : Celts dominate
1987 : Injuries prevent repeat
1988 : Aging team goes out quietly

2008 : Celts dominate
2009 : Injuries prevent repeat
2010 : Aging team………..

what about the FTs? – Rondo clanked a couple that weren’t even close; 50% FT shooting will lose a lot of close games

what about Wallace taking 3’s while falling backwards with a hand in his face? and his lack of effort on pick and rolls? and his continuing to argue with officials after getting T’s? a couple games ago, he was still arguing with the refs on his way back up the floor and almost missed a turnover that was bouncing right past him; there are times when he doesn’t seem to get it that the point is to win the game, not argue with officials

what about the lack of movement without the ball on offense? there was no multiple passing last night because no one was moving, except outside the arc

etc.

what’s disappointing though is that all this happened when the team was at home, they had practices, and they had rest

it’s true that every other contending team has looked equally vulnerable early in the season

I think what people are reacting to is how tired they looked so early in the season, and the heightened expectations that were created by all the talk of 72 wins and best defensive team ever and by far the best team in the league (Jeff Van Gundy), etc.

they still may be the best team in the league … but I think a lot of it depends on whether KG regains his dominant form by next spring; when the starters are consistently winning the 1st Q by 6-10 points against all comers, we’ll know the team is back

The darn referees were a 6 pt swing last night.

Team needs Baby back.

The reason why the Celtics are doing so poorly with offensive rebounding is directly related to their offensive structure. Garnett plays outwide; so does Wallace – even Perkins is often out around top of the key receiving passes as part of the rotation.As long as the three-pointer remains a primary option, offensive rebounding will be lacking. Not so sure about defensive rebounding – maybe a product of defensive set – team defense, constant switching may leave bigs out of position – I know Garnett is constantly straying away from inside to outside. So the issue is whether poor rebounding caused by (1) lack of rebounding talent’ (2) lack of hustle; or, (3) structural – a negative side effect of a three-point offense and switching defense?

they have got to box out. here is the problem as i see it: they are trying to go after all the rebounds. they are all such great athletes, and were each always the best or nearly the best athlete on the floor at all levels that they are accostomed to being able to just go after it and win the race or the jump. and this becomes a mind game where they try harder and harder to go after it as rebounding becomes a problem. meanwhile they are no longer the best athletes. josh smith and joe johnson and the like can beat garnett and sheed and ray allen to balls. they are the older guys now. they are even at best athletically. thats ok but the strategy has to change. now it has to be about driving their rear ends into people and routing them out, away form the basket and catching boards in front of them like tommy heinsohn says. as a short but strong guy I am quite familiar with this, gotta use strength and the rear end to get guys out of there, forget about out jumping or out quicking people. (talking about the d glass, obviously). and there is a great feeling of pride in accomplishment in rebounding this way, its about dominance and control. it is real hard to jump or move where you want to as an offensive rebounder when the defender has inside position and is concerned more about moving you than about the ball.

and btw, can we get a movement going for keeping rebounding numbers in terms of percentages instead of totals? it should be about percentage of defensive boards sucured. the c’s are always going to give up a few more O boards than average just because we keep opposing field goal percentage so low and that is fine, but the percentage has to be good. that is how those states should be discussed. comparing our O boards to their O boards when they are shooting 35% and we are shooting 60% makes no sense. What is the league average for D board percentage anyway, I would just wildly guess it is upward of 80%, any idea?

oh and I am not talking about offensive boards at all, they are totally different animal. and we can win just fine being just ok or even subpar on the offensive boards but we have got to be good on the defensive boards

yikes, no option for going back an editing entries? sorry about the weird writing errors in there

last year in the playoffs rondo was our best rebounder. obviously he can’t do everything but we missed him on the boards last night. powe was a great offensive rebounder for us and he’s gone

the referees were a factor. i don’t think anyone should be embarrased to lost to this Atlanta team . Like KG said weeks ago they are vastly improved and you know Atlanta has a recent rivalry with Boston.