Worrying About Garnett, Again

Doc “thinks” KG is fine? He is the coach and he is not sure? Who is he kidding? He gets paid a ton of money to “know” whats going on with the team players. Here we go again with the hiding game.

Well, KG just isn`t the same player as he was before the injury. We need to get used to that and stop panicking. At this point he is not a star anymore but a role player…

this is the same bs as last year. that knee is not ok and KG is not ok. we’re not winning anything ulnless he 100%. a non jumping,non mobile garnett is not enough and with no leon powe to help on theboards we’re going to get crushed on the inside unless baby perk and wllace really stelp itup. perk was crappy last night and sheed keeps taking bad shots. is there a shot he won’t take? it’s ridiculous. And the poor free throw shooting and the turnovers are enough to make me pull my hair out. I don’t lknow about the rest of you but I don’t see a championship team when I look out there abd marquid daniels isn’t going to fix this mess

they can get by with a less than 100% KG. Why can’t they rebound?

…when he talks about “Garnett laboring up and down the court.” I didn’t notice him “laboring” to get up and down at all.

And again… though the Cs have prevaricated about KG’s status in the past, KG has never done that. So if he says he “just played badly” (or words to that effect), then I believe him. Anyway… we will soon know.

KG @ 50% is good enough if Pierce is right..no lift,no finish=no ft’s and walk it up…not good..Ray can’t guard us,Sheed doesn’t even try half the time,KG is hurting,no true backup point etc etc..doesn’t matter if Rondo&Pierce are right,we will win…big if

We’d all like to find scapegoats, but really it’s the whole team. Where was Pierce in crunch time? Where was Ray Allen? Who screwed up and left Reddick wide open for the game tying trey?

This was just another second half collapse by an aging team that just doesn’t have it any more. They are consistently outrebounded and out hustled in the late stages of games. As I said in another post, Ainge can try to pretend that it isn’t like 1988, but it is. This team has vitrually no chance to win a championship. In fact, it will be a minor miracle if they can win either one of the next two games.

Atlanta will likely sweep the season series from the Celtics— how sick is that? But look at the bright side: Rivers will be able to spend all star weekend home with his family instead of coaching the game.

Interesting question. Meaningful statistics are hard to get. Good teams lose rarely, so losses are usually preceded by wins. Unless there are injuries, in which case losses can come in bunches. But BARRING injuries… which we can do with the Cs, I think (but not sure)… they are more likely to WIN after a loss than to lose again. And there’s also the pride thing.

I know when I see a good team coming in as opponents, I like to see them coming off a WIN… because I know they won’t be desperate to get that next win. When I see a good team coming in off a loss… I worry.

Based on all this, I’d say a win is more likely than a loss tonight vs. Atlanta. Especially given the history with this team this season.

The collective memory of most sports fans is what, 3 games in the past?

If y’all will take a trip with me down memory lane, you’ll recall that KG was similarly gimping earlier in the season (think the NYK game, when KG hit the game winner in OT). Remember what happened? He played through it, got stronger and in better shape, and we went on a nice 12-game win streak.

And now, just like then, the only reason KG is looking gimpy is because he’s out of shape and the muscles in and around the knee have atrophied a bit due to his 3 weeks of inacivity. As he keeps playing and builds up endurance in the leg, he’ll continue to look better and better.

Much ado about nothing, per usual.

Sure KG’s knee doesnt look right and that is obvious. The thing I am wondering though is how much of it is due to inactivity. Anyone who has ever had a serious injury, especially to a knee, knows that it’s just not right until you have played on it for a while. I am not trying to say he will come back and be very effective because I am beginning to wonder too. But, would Rondo have thrown him two alley oops passes if the team felt that his knee was still subject to a likely injury?? I dont think they would. I mean, we are talking about big business here with millions and millions of dollars at stake. If the team doctors felt KG wasnt on the mend I dont think they would have made those passes.

It was very clear to me in the 3rd quarter that the Celtics were not going to win. Many of you also must’ve known. If you watch this team night in/night out you can tell when they have a chance when 15 points down and then like last night when the Big 3 was out of gas, out of synch, playing Tommy’s matador defense, and Orlando was building confidence for as bad as they played they were only 3-4 minutes of good play away from beating a very beatable team. I thought the C’s would wind up losing by 10.
KG was very very ordinary last night – a Rashard Lewis on defense and a Udonis Haslem on offense (or pick any others). Pierce was slow-footed, slow handed. And add them all togetehr and down lowwe’re getting outrebounded by everybody. Rondo woke up after letting Nelson kill him in first half. Points then matter too. The only up beat thing I saw was Tony Allen giving good minutes again
If you watched last night and feel they will beat Atlanta tonight do your wife one favor and keep your wallet in your pocket. I hope they win too but we rise and fall with KG and he isn’t right. He doesn’t have bad games – attitude-wise as Pierce can and others. And sometimes his shot won’t fall. But there’s a lot more going on there.

i shut the sound off and watched the game silently. it’s very obvious, kg is hurting and had a bad game. his heart is still beating so we’ll endure with him . the c’s played pretty darned good with lots of key contriutions and i think we can beat the magic in a 7 game series. reddick does own ray which bothers me. howard is a bigger more talented beast than perk, we have to admit. my biggest frustration is the poor free throw shooting-number 1, the poor rebounding scheme, number 2.

we keep getting killed on the glass. kg is not ok. normally i wouldn’t mess with a championship type team but without a healthy kg that’s not the case. ainge should be looking for a rebounder / defender at the four cause i fear we will be needing one again like last year.

I watched the last play over and over, and there is a lot to be worried about here. The C’s played incredible defense for 20 seconds. KG had Lewis to his far right, and he had help from Allen on that side. KG did not have too much momentum. If you watch it carefully, its amazing that Lewis was able to get to KG’s left. He was way to his right. After two steps, KG was still in front of him, but then Lewis was able to leave him behind and turn the corner. Even more disturbing was that you could see KG give up on the play. He made no attempt to stay with it once he was beaten and try to do something from behind.

It was one of the worst defensive lapses I’ve ever seen in the pros.

yet we still almost won the game…

this is the reality of the Big 3 era in their 30’s…on most nights llike last night, there will be one or 2 of em who would play so bad it would cost them victory….in 08, these games were very few, but now, its a reality even doc and also Danny should not deny.

I would be so very ecstatic if we could still somehow win it all this yr ala Bill Russell’s Celtic in 69..hobbled and old but were still able to win the title…I mean if we could do that, id be fine and call this Big 3 experiment a success coz I really feel after this yr, with all the injuries to KG andthe diminishing skillsets of both PP and RAy, I feel our window shuts down and id be happy with 2 championships in the Big 3 era….on to the Rondo era next!!

Bricklowski’s comment:
“This was just another second half collapse by an aging team that just doesn’t have it any more. They are consistently outrebounded and out hustled in the late stages of games.”

We have finally entered the same issues of the early 1990 when our Big Three aged and injuries (Bird Heel) and now KG are a parallel.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a coach who is able to trust players beyond his starting 5 and House/Wallace.

Can someone tell me that Pierce is not hurting re his knee?? Check out his acceleration the past few games. He has become a 3 point shooter and can not go past the worst of defenders.

Sorry for tall this negativity but where are our bright spots??

I didn’t notice too much hobbling, but he clearly can’t jump. There was one play where Pietrus, at 6-6, simply jumped over KG’s back and got an offensive rebound. KG didn’t box out on that play, either, so he deserved the result.

But once again, it isn’t just KG, it’s all of them. The only guys who played well last night were Tony Allen and Scalabrine, and Ray shot well until he got tired. Perkins did nothing, and Rondo got torched by Jameer.

Time to rebuild. Ainge will keep lying as long as he can about this team’s prospects, but I’m sure he sees it too.

He is aging, we already got a title, trade him for some younger talent! How about to GS for Monta Ellis and then trade Ray for Amare…. Who wouldn’t do that trade? (except their GM’s)

For Big Al, Gomes and the rights to Rubio. That would be a good first step.

Another good move would be to pry Iguodala away from the Sixers.

A third good move would be to bring Pierce or Ray off the bench in a 6th man role, at least until Ray is traded.

the #1 thing that DRIVES ME NUTS is they settle for 3 pointers all the time. they could be up by 12 and it seems like all the shots are 3 pointers. Pierce doesn’t drive it to the rim like he did in the past…and create fouls. Remember the old Pierce? The one who would consistently take it to the paint…get 15 or 20 free throws a night? Those days are history.

brick, you’re not a realist; you’re a pessimist. on one hand, i can’t blame you- you see the flaws that exist. i am sure danny sees them too. but so do the other gm’s in the league which ties it up for trades, etc. we ride the horse we are on and enjoy that we’re past the 0 and 18 stages. and pp sure looks like he’s hurting too.

not saying they can’t win a championship…but if they play like they have up to this point they won’t even see the eastern finals.

this is what it feels like to me, a pretty good team, too old and never healthy enough to win it. 52 wins and out in the playoffs. KG isn’t the same, like Larry was never the same, which is why Danny should try to do something at the deadline. He knows better than anyone— being in this “no man’s land” for a few years is going to be very dissappointing. Rondo is the only “star” in his prime on this team. The clock just keeps ticking—- fingers crossed for the finals but starting to see the reality of the situation.

I and others have been predicting what would happen for several months now. It keeps happening just as we predicted. They are good enough to beat bad teams, but not good enough to beat good teams on any consistent basis.

At what point does pessemism become realism when the pessemistic predictions keep coming true game after game? What will it take to convince you?
If you want to keeep those emerald glasses on until they become a lottery team (inevitable in a couple of years unless they start to retool now), then be my guest.

Pierce can’t run well. KG can’t jump. Ray is 35 and his shot won’t drop as his legs begin to tire. Sheed is 35. House is having the same problems as Ray. Everyone says, wait until they get healthy. But old players who have played thousands of NBA minutes will inevitably break down. That’s just the way it is. It isn’t “bad luck.”

The fat lady is clearing her pipes and starting to hum the melody. Is anyone in the Celtics organization listening?

Just like Mr. Hollinger put it in the article: “Unless they can find a reserve of youth to tap, it’s hard to see their teams presenting a legitimate championship threat come spring”. Danny HELP!

Yes, they lie to the public…but they are not dumb!

They`ve been well aware for some time now {most likely Nov.} that the Celts are NOT championship contenders.

But, what were they to do? Blow up the team before the All-Star break? Make major changes before the whole world knew how bad things really were? If they did, they would bear the entire blame for the inevitable early playoff exit.

This way, everybody {except those in deep denial} know this team is cooked. They will finish with a 50-32 record, and that`s only because they began with a very misleading 23-5 start. They will be eliminated in the first round.

Now, Danny has considerable “freedom” in starting the rebuilding process. Ray & KG will become ex-Celtics at the first opportunity presented to Danny.

Considering that it has been almost a full year since his “first” knee injury, nothing major (right Danny?) it’s long past the time that KG should have recovered. Being out of shape a bit, yeah that’s possible and likely. Gimping and moving like a stiff on the court as bad as Willis Reed did on a broken leg in game 7 of the 72 Finals? That should not be happening at this late stage.

Stick a fork in him because KG is likely done.