Don't Expect Much More Tony Allen

Who said anything about sitting Ray? Ray and Paul can’t play 48 minutes, so there is time to get TA a few minutes to play some defense. Who knows, we might get the “good” dynamic Tony and Doc would be glad he played him.

BTW, Ray should have sat some in game one. Even bad Tony would have been better in that game.

I think it’s essential to get Pierce some rest, and Tony’s the only option.

With that said, the sight of him with the basketball in his hands chills me in what’s been an absolutely skin-tight series.

I want TA to take Marbury’s minutes, not Ray Allen’s minutes. I would only use Marbury if a House/TA backcourt proved to me that they couldn’t get the ball over halfcourt under pressure.

Hey Doc, last time I checked basketball was a game of match-ups. As coach, you should try to work them in your favor. It’s not like you should have benched Ray Allen in Game 2. But it’s more than a little strange that in a series where you can’t defend the perimeter you haven’t given many minutes (only 4 seconds last game) to your best perimeter defender. Surely, you might want your best defenders on the floor…

And, sure, Ray hit the shot that won the game. But maybe Tony could have stopped Gordon down the stretch and we wouldn’t have needed that shot. This is a defensive team first and if we keep getting into shooting contests with the Bulls, we’re going to lose.

I disagree that the perimeter wasn’t defended in the second game. There isn’t a defensive answer for every shot that a team launches.

With that said, seems to me that Doc has to use Tony as a situational defender. Our depth is so poor that there’s no reason not to.

There’s rest between games. During the games there are more timeouts and half-time is longer because of TV. The travel time is equalized. There are no back to backs. These guys don’t need rest during games. They need to play better defense, they need to improve their spacing. They need to improve on setting picks. They need Rondo to stay in front of Rose all the time and they need to get back in transition. They need better ball and player movement. They are also missing KG for the in-out game and his passing and defense. They do not need rest during the game.

When Trisha Yearwood was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry she sang “She’s In Love With The Boy”. When asked why she sang that particular song she said “[I sang what got me to the dance]”. I have nothing against TA, but he did not get us to the “dance”. Ray did, as did Pierce, Rondo and Perk. And we might as well add Big Beast and Eddie and maybe some others. TA gave us the least to get us here and this is not a knock on Tony. It’s just the way it happened for whatever reason.

Yeah, but not everyone who got us to “the dance” is with us anymore. Don’t the C’s have to play small lineups for much of the game now that Powe is also gone? Why not trot out Rondo, Tony, Paul, Ray and Perk at times. I feel like Paul can handle a Ty Thomas assignment and Ray can handle Salmons, who doesn’t run around the court nearly as much as Gordon does. That leaves Tony guarding Gordon and allows Ray to commit more energy and focus on shooting the ball. Plus, I think we can all agree that more Mikki is not a good thing.