Not Enough (Part II)

this is reminding me of the year after we let Silas go and another year the old bullets were just too much for us and the the year walton was out. frankly I am going to have to stop watching for awhile. Can’t blame it on the refs today

well count me out. Ainge will do something and will have something to prove at playoff time. Someone will have to beat Boston 4 times out of seven. We will see.

This season has been very tough to watch. Seeing the big games lost due to blatantly obvious problems with the bench and sense of urgency. I’m going to stop posting because whatever I write will be the result of my frustration, but all I’ve got to say is that not only does a move need to be made, but our starting 5 needs to start shaping up as well.

PJ – Please, please, please come out of retirement one more time.

James Dolan – Please, please, please come to terms with Stephon.

We need rest, consistency and some help off the bench

1) The C’s need to make a move. Marbury would be a good move, since it is only till the end of this season. He has always been great when he first goes to a new team.

2) PLEASE no more House/T Allen combo. It just doesn’t work. House was playing so well with Pruitt out there. When something isn’t broken, you don’t try to fix it.

3) They need to work at getting Pierce more open, getting more set plays in for him and generally not making him have to work so hard for his points. I know other team’s defenses are geared to stop him, but that Is the same case for LeBron, Kobe, Wade etc.. and NONE of them have to work so hard just to get a decent look at the hoop.

They need to space the floor better, run him some double screens like they do Ray and try to start setting him up in an iso on the wings every now and then like they used to.

This rigid nine-man rotation isn’t working. Get either Gabe or POB in there and make everyone earn their minutes. If Tony or Powe or Baby are stinking it up, SIT THEM AND BRING IN SOMEONE ELSE. Look at the +/- stats. Rondo missed too many shots, but 16 assists and the rest of the starters played well enough to win.

Also, how the hell does Doc not realize that House is neutralized when he has to run the point? IT’S NOT A COINCIDENCE THAT HOUSE’S HOT STREAK CAME WHEN GABE WAS GETTING MINUTES. We have a potential 20+ point spot-up shooter off the bench and we’re wearing him out running the point. Inexcusable.

An aberration. Hope it doesn’t happen again. All in all, a good game by both teams. Not panicking (sorry trolls, lol ).

The starters blew it in this game. Rondo and Pierce both missed easy layups, and Ray missed virtually all of his key shots, going 1-5 for 3s. Refs were overall ok in this game, if anything shading their calls a bit to the Celtics’ side (though TA did NOT travel on that key turnover near the end).

Of course, Powe sucked, Baby sucked. But it’s beyond me why Doc didn’t play Eddie more considering how hot he has been. He took only 2 shots, made them both.

But the starters blew this one. They just didn’t execute.

I like the Spurs in the West… they may well end up in the finals. Will the Celtics? I don’t know.

the laker game and this game were big tests for us and we failed. not sure what else to say except this sucks. we played like crap against the knicks but pulled it out but in close games against good teams like the lakers and spurs we couldn’t get it done. that’s very disheartening

hey the good news is that the lakers and spurs have to play one another. the bead news is that unless we start playing better we’re not coming out of the east

If we are lucky enough to somehow get past the Cavs and back into the Finals, I firmly like our chances better vs. the Fakers than vs. the solid Spurs. Congrats to the Spurs who stepped up while Ray Allen choke on the in-bounds pass.

that Danny wasn’t aggressive in improving the bench in the off season. It seems he put incredible hope in the team just improving based on the fact that they’d played together for a year. It’s as if everyone else knew our bench was poor but we didn’t and we were fighting through to say ‘i told you so’. Whatever his hope was, it didn’t work out as planned and we’re slowly becoming the worst of the contending teams. It will be very hard for the Celtics to do any serious damage in the playoffs with this current squad.

Was that a typo?

the not ready for prime time guys lost again but the effort was there and the refs did ok. i do like san antone and they played great and their subs and bonner killed us. kg played a great game and rondo distributed. ray’s errors were big but the guy was busting his chops. we need some help danny and we need a reinvigorated bench. points well taken about eddie at the point but we have lost gabe in the shuffle . he needs some minutes in the upcoming games because he is green but lost on the bench. i hope scal is ready. perk finally looked like the good old perk.

But we just didn’t get the breaks down the stretch. KG’s jumper’s in-and-out, Ray’s layup rolls off the rim, meanwhile on the other end Bonner gets the friendly bounce on a jumper and Mason bangs home an open three (after getting a nice illegal screen from Duncan). Then the terrible inbounds play, followed by the highly questionable clear path foul (Pierce was even with Manu when he fouled him…check the replay), and we’re down 6 all of a sudden.

I’d really like to see Gabe moved to full-time backup point guard. Eddie continues to struggle when asked to play point. Even in the games where he’s making shots and playing point, the damage his point guard play does the overall ball movement is not enough to make up the difference. Same with TA, who has better skills than Eddie but still does the same damage to the overall ball movement. Doc needs to put these guys in positions where their strengths are highlighted and weaknesses hidden, but playing them together with Eddie at 1 and TA at 2 ends up highlighting their weaknesses, limiting Eddie’s open looks (and forcing him into off-the-dribble jumpers) and making TA handle the ball too much.

TA did have a good game today, cordobes, though he was lost a little on the defensive end in the first half, like most of the Cs. But he otherwise attacked the rim, got to the line, hit the offensive boards, played within himself and fed the post pretty well. The traveling call on him was GARBAGE.

and had shot so well that his 3% was up to 37%! Its bizarre but this hurt us the last two games, games that matter a lot for home court

The fact that da is waiting so long means he is either getting someone out of retirement again, waiting for the released players(buyouts). We know from the owner that they know they need players

but I have this feeling that we have become a team that is capable of beating those lesser teams with ease and just struggle to win games against the big guns….

hopefully these losses would be loud enough to warn ainge or doc to do something to the bench or add a LEGIT back up BIG

PLEASE>>>>

It’s a bit of a reach to call Ginobili a bench player. It’s along the lines of calling Havlicek or McHale bench players.

The Spurs are coming out of the West. They will be tough for anybody in the finals. They’ll beat the Lakers in 6. They’re obviously not afraid to play on the road. Popovich is willing to rest his big three for entire games. If there’s a blowout either way, he pulls them early. Our’s are playing into the fourth quarter of 30 point blowouts. Rivers needs to follow the Popovich model. I’d much rather have a rested 2-seed than a gassed top seed. The Spurs had more in the tank down the stretch of this game.

Marbury is an instant ticket to dissention and a first round or second round exit. There’s a very good reason that D’Antoni doesn’t want him anywhere near a basketball court. Actually, I’m sure there’s lots of reasons he doesn’t want the piece of garbage around one. Brown is old and will not be able to keep coming back after that long out of basketball.

One of the most poignant things Hubie Brown pointed out in the telecast was how good Popovich is at developing a bench. It looks like Rivers is trying to do the same thing. He could do a lot better job of it by doing what Popovich does in blowout games. Unless the perfect player comes forth, Pierce, Allen, and Garnett should be playing little more than 25 minutes in the 30+ point blowouts or should alternately sit out 1-2 of those games this season. Davis has shown he can play a solid 25 minutes. It’s nice to have PJ’s length. But he’s no more a shotblocker than Davis. Let your bench develop, Rivers.

Right now, the Lakers are the best team in the NBA. No Bynum, Kobe with the flu and they easily beat the Cavs today and completely shut down James. In my opinion, Phil Jackson, who I despise, did a masterful job of coaching the past two games. Just glad there are still about 30 games left, because the Lakers are gaining tremendous confidence right now.

What’s to keep Danny from signing PJ to the same dollar value contract of let’s say a Camby or Shaq. PJ signs the contract, gets traded, makes the pro rated amount for the rest of the season, while staying home if he wants. Phoenix or LA get out from their obligation a year early.

I’m not saying these two players but isn’t PJ the best chip we have?

Horrible defense by Garnett and Pierce in the second quarter. That’s when the game was lost. Kevin Garnett was torched by Matt Bonner. Unbelievable.

I still say if a team has a chance to win in the end, the 2nd quarter can’t be blamed completely as the reason the Celtics lost.

… simply roll the dice and play it relatively cheap this offseason hoping to start saving money either for a big free-agent bonanza in a couple years OR re-sign the Rondos of this team? I dunno. All I do know is, and sorry to belabor the point, our bench is not a championship-caliber bench.
I hope Danny can add at least one piece before the trade deadline, but this bench just can’t do the trick. I do think there’s enough of a season left for Big Baby, Powe and TAllen to improve, but I remain dubious that they’ll improve enough to make this bench a title-saver. I pray I’m wrong, though.

It’s pretty obvious to me that if we had an actual point guard for the second unit playing (ie. Pruitt) then we would have a tremendously more effective bench. That’s a fact. I can’t believe how dumb Doc is benching Pruitt and having Eddie play pg. It’s utterly ridiculous. It’s just another example of why Doc really isn’t the greatest coach to have and can really be detrimental to us during games. I know he’s great at managing the players but his strategy on the floor is seriously lacking.

Then we should call up McHale and grab Rashad McCants, as he is on the block. We need more scoring off of the bench, and he is a solid offensive player.

Def isnt the answer to your problem…Unless PJ Brown and James Posey comes walking through you doors, you will not repeat. Glen Davis and Tony Allen arent the solution. Right now I dont even see you guys getting past Cleveland and if Jameer Nelson was healthy, I think you wouldnt have a chance against Orlando as well.