Bucks Stop C's

Even when they loss Charlie they couldn’t win the game.

In addition to the Bucks playing good defense,

• Rondo walked the ball up during most of the possessions! Run, Rondo, run!
• Allen & Pierce’s both had a terrible day off (including Pierce’s foul throw shooting).
• Except for Mikki & Perkins, no one played with energy.

And, NO FOCUS at all as a team.

Very disappointing!

It’s coming to the point where I’m not sure if I’ll be able to watch these 1:00 Sunday games anymore. The Celtics never seem to show up.

The Celtics play sometimes just seems foreign. They barely showed glimpses of their true selves. Losing to the Bucks is not something that should happen, no matter how sloppy you play. I’m not sure if it was the Celtics playing down to their opponents or the Bucks overachieving as a lot of teams have done while playing us this season. If it was the Celtics playing down to their opponents, well, then they should know by now that not only are teams going to give them everything, but every win matters at this point in the season.

Trying to be optimistic, there were some positives. Mikki Moore made some nice shots and showed he can contribute on the offensive end. The same goes for Marbury. Every game seems to be an improvement with him. A small improvement, but an improvement nonetheless.

The Celtics need to start playing championship basketball night in and night out. It’s disheartening when losses like this happen, but it’s not the end of the world. Everyone needs to get in and get healthy. It’ll be stupid to see the Magic surpass us when I believe wholeheartedly that we’re a vastly superior team.

I don’t even have an urge to put this one under the microscope. We’re not playing well enough to warrant that kind of attention.

The bottom line is we’re a LONG way from playing at a serious contending playoff level, for a large number of reasons.

The players seem pretty disinterested right now…like they’re waiting for KG to come back and make everything right. That’s a self-defeating attitude and it pains me to see it. We need more leadership from Paul and Ray—they were going through the motions today.

We also lacked our normal swagger and spunk today—the Cs weren’t even arguing bad calls today, that’s how disinterested they were…

Doc needs to quit coaching scared too; this game called for small ball, even before Powe fouled out. Mikki hits some shots, got a block and 4 rebounds, but I would have rather seen Walker get minutes at backup 4. The kid had the team’s only positive +/- of the game and in yet another game where we lacking the requisite energy Doc plays him less than 5 minutes!

paul had 7 turnovers and as a group we had 25, way too many. we really need to cut down on those.

we just have to get over the injury bug before the playoffs.

isn’t something I felt until today. If these guys can’t get up to play a game with Orlando breathing down their necks, I’m not sure how interested they are in defending their title at all. I’s ridiculous to lose to a team like Milwaukee at this point in the season, no matter whose missing. Putrid performance from everyone but Perk, and I hope Doc calls out Pierce and Allen cuz they are playing like chumps. Not just today but over the last few weeks. It’s embarrasing, or should be to them. The wheels are coming off this thing, adn Pierce adn Allen are watching and letting it happen. Terrible players and terrible leaders these last few games.

So Paul and Ray both had a bad game shooting the ball. It happens. Rarely. Rarer still is to also not have KG or Powe able to contribute. And even rarer than all that… Milwaukee today was the first team in TWO YEARS to outplay the Cs on defense (we played good defense, there’s was better).

And despite all those things going wrong, we were 3-4 points down with a minute to go. If not for Bell’s lucky 3-pointer in the last minute, we actually had a chance to pull the game out. To me, this game indicates GOOD things for the Cs… we completely stunk up the place (38 percent shooting, 1-12 3-pointers, 69 percent free throws, and 25 TOs!), and were in it till the last minute. I ascribe that to our good D… not as good as the Bucks’, but good enough to keep us in the game despite a horrendous stat line.

Since all these negatives are almost certainly NOT going to come together again (hopefully never), I think this game indicates that we will be good to go for the playoffs.

bad game . other than moore and perkins there wasn’t much positive to take from this game. pierce probably needs a break because he’s been playing like dogmeat for about 2 weeks now. i actually thought we over passed today and kept hoping that our inside game would win it for us without ever establishing outside shooting. overpassing let to a lot of turnovers but what really killed us was our inability to get to loose balls. the bucks killed us on second chance plays. we just didn’t come to play today. I’d hate to be at practice tomorrow or in the locker room after this one

Usually when they’re not shooting well they’ll get other people involved; today, both of them just kept dribbling and shooting (and turning the ball over). When they pass the ball and create easy baskets for others, it forces their defenders to move, to respect the pass, opening up easier shots. That never happened today — it’s telling that Powe only had 3 shots. Meanwhile, the perimeter defense was lacking: Powe and Perk both picked up a bunch of fouls when perimeter players drove untouched past their defender and straight to the basket. Just not enough effort. In many cases the Cs were content to simply watch the ball go out of bounds, only to see a Buck race past and save it.

That said, Skiles has done a nice job preaching defense and hustle, and, maybe even more-so with Bogut and Redd out, they have a good group of hustle-and-effort players to implement his system. The team that played harder won today.

Someone posted a great article on this site a couple days ago pleading the case for more minutes for JR Giddens. I don’t believe anyone commented on it as I believe you needed to join another group to leave a comment. I’m not sure.

Anyways, would Giddens made a difference today? We’ll never know. The other night Tommy said he thought Giddens may be as good as the 3rd best guard on the team. I’m not sure he is, but he plays with high intensity, especially on defense. I keep thinking this might be another Ryan Gomes situation. If Perkins hadn’t been hurt a couple years ago, Gomes probably could have gone 3 years on the bench.

JR definitely a step up from Marbury on the defense side of things. And, athletically he’s stronger than any of the other guards. He could be the stopper this team needs. Why won’t Doc give him a chance? Could it be that Doc may be overly concerned with hurting House’s or Marbury’s feelings. Or, rumors circulated that the C’s were trying to trade JR before the trading deadline. Maybe Doc is looking over his shoulder at Danny and thinking…if Danny was thinking of trading him, then he’s not that good. I pray Doc has enough basketball acumen not to feel or think this way.

Doc let’s give this guy a chance…. loosen up. He could spell anyone from House, Marbury, Allen, or even Pierce for short periods.

The analogy re Gomes is right on. I forgot about that. I will admit though, not being a Marbury supporter, he is playing hard on defense.
The Bucks aren’t a bad team if they have all their weapons

What’s the matter, God? That’s all you’ve got?

You’re not going to just going to have an airplane fall out of the sky and crush Ray Allen, or spike Pierce’s gatorade with flesh-eating bacteria?

No more TO, please. I am not talking about Terrel Owen. I am refering to the pathetic ball handling of the C’s. They played as if they were together for the first time. 25 TOs, man!!! Guys playing pick-ups in the Ys communicate better than the Celtics these days.

Time and again they tried to force things inside when there was nothing available there and then they had to kick the ball back out to the perimeter in desperation. And most of those kick-outs passes were so bad the shooters (Allen, House, Marbury) had to catch-adjust-and-shoot, instead of just catch-and-shoot.. in fact, i think Moore was the best shooter yesterday.

Catching the Cavs and the Lakers seems out of the question now. The Celtics will either play Detroit or Philly in the first round. Both of these teams have caused plenty of headache to the full-strength Celtics this season, I hope the C’s can get healthy and regain their form in a hurry… and hope to see them play in well into June.

These guys can’t play and win in Sunday afternoons, home and away. They are like 0-5 in Sunday games this season. Were they still half asleep?

For whatever reason this was not a Celtic-like game and I think everyone just needs to forget about it. Other than Perk, one bright side was the play of Mikki Moore. He continues to improve and yesterday was his best game.