Same Old Song and Trance as Celtics Lose to Cavs
by Jimmy Toscano on Feb 26, 2010 1:20 AM EST
in Boston Celtics Articles
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PrintThe Celtics came out of the gate just the way Celtics fans had hoped they would all season. Their energy was apparent throughout the first half on offense and defense, as they shot 60% from the field and held the Cavaliers to 43%. Once again, however, the Celtics let their once double-digit lead slip away in the second half, as they shot a measly 22% from the field while allowing the Cavaliers to shoot 65%. The Celtics could only score 32 points in the second half, while the Cavaliers nearly doubled them by scoring 60 points, including a 35-14 drudging in the 4th quarter.
It was déjà vu at the TD Garden- nights that fans would love to forget, but keep being reminded of. Once again it was the Celtics who were too "relaxed" in the second half, as LeBron James and the Cavs came out with a vengeance. When the dust settled, the TD Garden looked more like the elephant graveyard- an all too familiar scene.
"We can't just play one half of basketball and then just come out and play like that," Kevin Garnett said after the game. "I know you guys are tired of writing it in your columns, I apologize for all that. At some point there has to be some action... Doc has a saying, you have to run through the whole race, and we've got to do that. Until we players decide to do that we're going to be in this predicament."
One has to start to wonder if the Celtics were too relaxed or too tired. There's no doubt they were a little thin tonight without Paul Pierce in the game and with Marquis Daniels fighting to cover James and recover from a cold. Add the fact that Nate Robinson is still trying to get acclimated with the new system he is in. These factors played into the decision to keep Rajon Rondo in the game for all 24 minutes of the first half, something that Doc Rivers admitted was a mistake on his part after the game.
"The one mistake I absolutely made was keeping in him the whole game. I made that decision in the middle of the first quarter, and he talked me into it, and it was a bad decision. I thought because his speed is so good he's got to get rest and I thought he was great in the first half throughout the half. I thought in the third quarter it affected him and then once you get there there's no turning back. I don't do that very often, and it was a mistake to do that tonight."
Rondo's production did dramatically fall off in the second half. After scoring 14 points and dishing out eight assists in the first half, Rondo could only tally five points and three assists in the second half. Fatigue may have been a factor, but the Cavaliers did change the way they defended Rondo in the second half, and the Celtics did not have much transition basketball to speak of.
"I think they did a better job loading to the ball in transition," said Rondo. "I didn't get a lot of looks like I did in the first half, simply because on defense we didn't get stops."
"We kept Rondo out of the paint a little more," said James. "In the first quarter and first half he did a great job of getting to the paint and breaking our defense down and making a shot for himself or creating for others. We definitely made a conscious effort of trying to lock him down more in the second half."
It is no secret that the Celtics go as Rondo goes, and that was evident once again tonight as Rondo and the Celtics looked flat out tired and overwhelmed by the Cavaliers energy in the second half.
"I think offensively we stopped moving the ball, and defensively there were small little plays, where we were not in the right position," said Ray Allen. "We stopped being aggressive. I don't know why but the nature of the game changed. They took over as aggressive and we were passive."
Rivers admitted, "We went from being the team with stops, pushing the ball up, getting to the second and third option, attacking, to the team being attacked and walking the ball up the floor."
With a one point lead going into the fourth quarter, the Celtics could not capitalize on the Cavaliers with James on the bench. Instead, the Cavs went on an 11-4 run and took a six point lead before James re-entered the game with 7:49 remaining. The Celtics never got it to a one possession game after that.
"They flew around defensively," James said of his teammates during that stretch, "they helped each other, and they rebounded, finished off the possession, and then on the offensive end they just executed. Mo [Williams], started it off, Delonte [West] hit a big three, JJ [Hickson] had an alley-opp dunk and a lay up, and those guys just kept it going."
Shaquille O'Neal left the game in the 2nd quarter with a right thumb sprain and did not return. That enabled the Cavaliers to speed up their game, proving trouble for a Celtics team that clearly could not keep up in the second half.
Yes, the Celtics do have to run through the whole race. They got caught sprinting out of the gate tonight, and ran out of gas in the end. In terms of the season to date, the Celtics have hardly been sprinting. Fortunately, they are still in a position to turn on the jets once the playoffs come, but it remains to be seen if they are capable of doing so.
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Nice write up.
I am glad Doc realized his mistake and I hope he doesn’t repeat it again. He needs to STOP letting players have their way. Rondo needs to be given a good rest before entering the 2nd half.
Doc needs to bench guys when they make mistakes. When Sheed starts chucking 3’s…he needs to be stopped. Little mistakes need to be fixed…and with the proper rotation/sub am sure this team will be good to go.
Doc is right!
Doc cost us that game. we could’ve won but Rondo was gassed in the second half. It changed the whole game. We got Nate for just this reason, not to be a shooting guard with Rondo still on the floor. This one is all on Doc. I hope he finally learns from this.
Let's give the Cavs a little credit
With no Pierce on the floor, if you take Rondo out – our offense grinds to a halt.
So the Cavs adjusted by smothering Rondo. It was the smart play.
If there’s a healthy Pierce on the floor, then they can’t pay that much attention to Rondo because Pierce is capable of creating his shot – especially if a defender is out paying that much attention to Rondo.
It doesn’t help that Nate is far too new to be able to spell Rondo yet. I.E. taking Rondo OUT to rest him pretty much accomplishes the same thing.
Once again, we are undone by lack of health and stable rotations.
Plus Mo Williams was in an unreal zone with those killer three point shots.
Yeah Right
Doc cost us the game.!!!! Be serious. This is at least the 10th games that we had big leads and got blown out in the 3rd or 4th periods. I don’t remember Doc missing one shot, or not getting a rebound, or having 1 turnover or missing a single rotation. So he played Rondo too many minutes (ACCORDING TO YOU). Was that the case in the other games that we blew big leads in the 2nd half??!! Did he play the other guys too many minutes last nite too. I guess he must have because they stop playing in the 2nd half. Guess they were tired.
Last nite was a national TV game which means they have extra timeouts built in plus a longer halftime. So fatigue should not have been an issue. Just watching Rondo, I don’t think the guy ever gets tired. Although I do agree that he should get his breaks and probably around 36 minutes a game. Why not give credit to Cleve for making adjustments or just playing harder than we did!!!! That is what happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a long time Celtic fan, I can remember a playoff game where Jojo White played 61 or 62 minutes and still hit clutch shots down the stretch. That would be the triple overtime game against Phoenix in 1976.
OH BTW do you know what the record for minutes played by 1 player in an NBA season. it would be 3882/80 + 48.5 mins. Wilt Chamberlain averaged more than a full game in 1961-2. He also lead the league in scoring 50 PPG, Rebounds 25 RPG, Per 31.8, Free Throws attempted and made, and was 2nd in FG % . I guess he was tired!!!!
In summary: These guys are professionals and are in tremendous shape!!!!!!!! It was one game and not a back to back. It was a TV Game with extra timeouts. Fatigue should not have been an issue. Hey why not come right out and say it “You HATE Doc” and be done with it. Isn’t that the bottom line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Personally, this one hurts BAD!
First, because it’s the Cavs, who I’m beginning to hate more than the Lakers. Gee, did I just say that?! Second, because it proves that they still haven’t figured out how to solve their problems and be consistent. It’s just more of the same. Speaking of more of the same, I am so tired of hearing Doc say he made a mistake by playing someone so many minutes!!! These guys are all beginning to sound like a broken record after losses. They could record their post-game comments and just replay them from game to game. I was expecting a blowout from the get go, but then they surprised me and pulled off that good first half and gave me some hope. What a tease, C’s! And, yes, I still love them and want to believe in them, but it’s 2:30 and I’m still bugged by this loss and can’t sleep and therefore am tired and grumpy!
Nate is still lost in the rotation...
and this is all on Doc, Is Nate relieving Rondo or is he playing with Rondo. When LeCrab rested in the beginning of the fourth, and I saw Rondo still playing I knew we are gassed..Nate should have been the one running the second unit, that is what we got him for, let him create.
It was at this period were our offense sputtered coz doc didn’t know who to run the offense..JJ Hickson schooled our bigs with his energy and made KG looked senile. I certainly would have preferred Shaq in there as he does stop the ball movement of the Cavs as evident in the first half…When Shaq got hurt and Cavs coach M. Brown was forced to use Hickson more, we were dead…Incidentally, Is Mike Brown like Doc coz the Cavs look more fluid with Hickson and AV rather than Shaq out there.
I stopped watchin when the lead balloned to 14 as a team like the Cavs knew how to protect leads like that even though there was about 6 min left in the game. The C’s are not gonna win this yr with the way they play the second half which is always the same problem night in and night out….Me too wish the game just ends in the second qtr, we could perhaps be like what…80-2.
"No I’m not KG. Not at all, but I’m Big Baby Glen Davis from LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’m not the Big Ticket. I’m the Ticket Stub. Don’t count the Ticket Stub out. You might need the ticket to get in the game, but you leave with the ticket stub, because you’ll never forget this game."
Problems tonight
With a healthy Pierce, most of the problems the Celtics had would likely have been solved. Without Pierce, team looked good in the first half. But even then, they had a chance to be up by many more in the first half, but Celtic turnovers wasted a number of chances they got off of Cav turnovers and misses.
Important note, Shaq leaving the game was a blessing in disguise for the Cavs. Cavs became quicker on offense and defense without Shaq.
Rondo and Ray carried the offense in the first half, so in the second half it seems like the Cavs focused on those two options and the Celtics could not get any consistent production anywhere else. And yes Rondo seemed to fade from too many first half minutes and he was the initiator of almost all the offense the team had in the first half.
KG could not hit a shot, other than a dunk or layup, and the bench offered little help in the second half. Robinson doesn’t yet know what to do with the ball if he doesn’t shoot. Very little offensive flow is an overstatement. Paul, please get well soon. End of story.
by SteveZ from Edgemont on Feb 26, 2010 4:11 AM EST reply actions
Yup. I pretty much concur with this analysis.
Once they decided to smother Rondo, our offense stalled because we were lacking the option of Pierce creating his own offense.
We went through a stretch in the early 4th where we missed shot after shot – including some point blank layups. That was killer. I think we were something like 21% FG% for the second half.
I remember one play where we had a nice feed into BBD. He did a marvelous twisting post move to get an easy point blank layup that went off the glass and into … and then out of the rim. AARGH!
Gawd we need to get healthy for a change. And we clearly need some real practices for Nate to learn the offense and defense. When’s the next Nets game?
Leon Powe
In 4 minutes Powe had 4 points and 2 boards. In 21 minutes Baby, Veal and Williams had 2 points and 3 boards.
by Celtsfansince55 on Feb 26, 2010 5:16 AM EST reply actions
Ray was right.
They stopped moving the ball. Every possession was one-on-one. There wasn’t a single pick-n-roll play in the 4th. Plus the TO and missed FT, the team was doomed.
What else should we expect. KG has not been his energetic self, and in almost all 2nd halves he is not the defensive stopper that we have come to expect. But the real problem is that Glen Davis is not the player he was last year, and Rasheed Wallace IS the player he was last year in Detroit; a little slow, kind of lazy, and not really willing to get after a rebound. The bigs are just not up to the task. We have been out-rebounded in virtually all of the last 30 games or so. Whatever happened to Sheldon Williams? I remember him being at least an energetic rebounder.
With Pierce at less than 100%, and Ray Allen playing north of 35 minutes every night, the second halves are all too predictable.
That was something I realized...
I noticed Rondo playing so many minutes in the first half and I didn’t see him rest whatsoever.
I honestly believe that Doc Rivers’ weakness is his poor time management for his players, and it definitely showed this game.
At one point, the Cavaliers bench were on the court and I still saw two starters playing (one being Rondo of course).
Doc Rivers is the one to blame this game. The C’s were completely gassed in the fourth and you can tell.
So dumb. I stopped watching the game midway of the fourth quarter. I was sick and tired of watching that crap… and I also have a Physics test comin up at 8 :x
I’m really hoping that Doc watches this game in a replay and notice the retardation of his time management and learns from it because I am sick and tired of seeing the same stuff over and over. I am tired of listening to these guys saying what the exact problem is but not fixing it for later games. I am sick of it.
At this point, I have lost all faith in the Celtics winning this year until I see them play at least 5 straight games with consistency. So far, the C’s have been on and off…
Argh, that’s enough of my ranting. Wish me luck on the test!
Worst thing that could of happend last night...
was Shaq getting hurt. The guy clogs the paint and Lebron can’t drive. He also slows down their transition D. Quis was holding LBJ to pretty much all jump shots. Big surprise we were destroying them. And what happened when Shaq went out and the Cavs subed in Hickson and Sideshow Bob? The Celtics folded under a younger / faster / more energetic team.
Couple other points:
1) Did Mo Williams even get hit in the eye? Didn’t seem like it Mr. “I’m going to hit 4 three pointers in a row”
2) Sideshow Bob pisses me off because the guy is such a gnat on getting rebounds – always tipping the ball and just being annoying. But in all honestly it would be nice to have some bigs like that.
3) SHEED CHUCKING THE DAMN 3s AGAIN! ARGH!!
4) KG looked good and established in the first half. Then Doc sits him the entire 3rd quarter…. what the hell.
5) HEY DOC RONDO AS A SHOOTING GUARD (and Nate as the PG) DOESN’T WORK! Idiot, keep running Rondo into the ground too why don’t ya?
6) See what happens when we don’t have Paul on the court? This is what happens to our offense – especially when the bench is in: we can do one of two things (most of the time). Either A. Try to drive to the paint when there are 3 or 4 defenders waiting and throw up horrible shots (TA and Davis), or B. Chuck threes (Sheed). Paul gives us the 10 to 15 footers (something Daniels can do but imo doesn’t do enough). That gives us more options to score! Missed him sorely last night. One of the biggest issues of the offseason was getting a true backup for Pierce aannnnnd we didn’t. Now it’s coming back to bite us in games like this when our offense stagnates.
Analysis / Rant over. Thanks for reading.
Perhaps a coaching chAinge is needed
Doc seems to have lost this team but it was Ainge who got this bunch together. Danny should come down to the banch and coach this outfit he put together.
Boston Celtics - 2008 World Champions
hahahahahaha
Sorry about those last two post. I loved what happened last night. Lebron took over in the 1st half and gave hope for the 2nd half. In your face boston. hahaahha
But as far as the C’s are concerned, they will be o.kay. Paul will be back and they will surprise of few teams. I still think when healthy, the Celtics are the 2nd best team in the east. In a 7 gamer, they’ll take Orlando and the Hawks out.
But as far as them beating the Cavs? Hahahahah
I’ll even give you guys the edge over the overrated Lakers.
be honest..your faith on us is solely based on your fear of facing the magic
by cheekmeister on Feb 26, 2010 1:32 PM EST up reply actions
celtics
The Celtics should forget about another point guard, the glaring problem hear is we need another young 7 footer who can block and rebound. KG is not 100% yet, and Perk is not a very good rebounder. After those two we have nothing. BBD with his size should be pulling down 10 rebounds a game, but he isnt. Cleveland has an abudance of rebounders.
No Blame on Ainge?
I think ownership and management have said “Mission Accomplished”. After looking at teams dumping space, and all Cs could get is Nate – I’ve conceded Cs are just not trying to pay any other player Ray’s $.
Lose Ray’s max contract and save money and ride out until 2014-15. You can tell the fans you can’t sign FA more than MLE and you are strapped with be ok for the next few years. Ainge/MGMT could’ve gotten a deal done to bring an athletic BIG or wing player but decided to save that $16-22 million per year instead. The other business move is NOT trade Ray and get him at a bargain discount of $7-9 million next year.
It’s not Doc or the players. The team have no energy guys, are old and guys are wounded. Mission accomplished, and everything else is a business move. There hasn’t been anyone that has replaced PJ Brown, Posey or Powe’s intagibles.
doc
Doc needs to play Sheldon.. I know its not a game changer but he can’t be worse out there than baby.
doc -not the sharpest pencil in the pack
playing rondo the entire game was retarded. Why did we trade half our team for robinson if you’re not going to use him to spell Rondo. Why tell the media you’re going to run Robinson out there and turn him loose. Instead you can already see that robinson is hestiating on everything he does? Why tell him not to worry about the plays but then spend the whole afternoon before his first game trying to cram him with info. Why keep talking about playing rondo and ray too many minutes but then going out and doing it anyhow ( again!). At some point in time the media needs to hold Doc accountable for all of these flip flops and just outright BS . He has gotten a free pass all season. At what point do he and the other coaches take responsibility for this pile of crap we’ve been looking at all season??? Don’t get me wrong; DOc is a helluva guy and a stand up guy and I’m sure anyone of us would be thrilled to meet him and call him our friend but again, what about the basketball product on the floor that people pay good money to see. Who wants to see rasheed chucking 3’s or Perk being the go to guy in the 4th qtr? How about KG getting some touches or someone other than the worst shooter on the team ( that would be you rondo) taking EVERY shot at the end of the quarter without ever passing the ball.Doc always looks surprised when something like that happens but isn’t he in charge of these guys? Isn’t it his job to teach TOny ALlen not to foul a guy shooting 3’s and isn’t it his job to improve the free throw shooting on this team? DOc hides behind the players. Sure he can’t play the games for them but he can and is suppsosed to teach them the skills to win games and put them in a position to win. I haven’t seen much evidence of that this year. every time a team plays zone on us we go into a complete meltdown. Everytime we need a bucket it’s a Pierce iso. DOn’t you think the other teams know this? how about a few new wrinkles on offense so that when we go into these droughts we have something else we can go to. Sooner or later we have to learn how to play in the halfcourt wihtout rondo creating all our offense, yet here we are in March and we’re still clueless.
still can not beat the elite ?
i still think this team can make a push but it is getting very scary now they are just so up and down. they dont show up to play the big boys latley . they remind me of the 88 team they made to the east finals and lost to the pistons age and injurys killed that team just like it is killing this one maybe father time is already catching up with this team k.g. is just not the same once he had the injury ..
@ bopna – NO NO NO. If this game had gone the other way there would have been vastly different attitudes in both locker rooms.
by diehardNFFLbarnone on Mar 8, 2010 11:32 PM EST reply actions
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