This Paul Pierce quote rubs me the wrong way:

“I haven’t been on a court where we’ve been booed; it’s been a couple times this year. It’s been about five or six years since I’ve seen that. We’re still 17 games over .500. All the fans want is a constant effort night in and night out. I think we got to be more consistent with that regardless if we win or lose.”

What is he really saying here? What did he mean by they are still 17 games over 500? Is that his way of saying it’s no biggie? Maybe I misunderstood, but it just rubs me the wrong way.

But one piece strikes me as off.

This team hasn’t lost its identity. It has an identity. A pretty clear one, in fact.

It’s just not the one we hoped for.

But after 60 games, what is…. is.

…that focusing on Rasheed Wallace’s comments is a waste of time? (Unless your goal is to analyze Sheed, of course.) Sheed speaks for Sheed, and no one else. We didn’t hear those kinds of things from KG or Paul, and I doubt we ever will.

These guys won us a championship.
Paul Pierce always went bananas saving games.
And he gets booed ??
come on Boston. where’s the love.
he is right they are 17 games over .500
imagine if every team at that rate or less got booed at a sporting event.
Booing this team is wrong.
Paul is right.

period.

Yes they do have a banner.
it’s theirs not yours.
the majority of this standing team won Celtics #17.

your hard earned dollars CANT BUY a pro basketball team that
wins 80-90% regular season.

lack of respect for the players.
BIG TIME.
fundamentally disagree.

if I were a player I’d rather play in a cool place
than some place where the fans are never satisfied
unless you win all the time.

To offer one or all three of the so-called big three to a contender and see if they might still bring something valuable in return. Or was the problem last night that it’s still only March and more importantly Veal wasn’t activated?

They know who they are. They are a defense-first team, which thrives on tough, physical play, and on Rondo distributing the ball to their many shooters. Their identity is intact.

It’s the execution that’s shot to hell. And worst of all – their biggest problem – is their lack of motivation to hang tough when the going gets rough. They fold and quit, way too easily.

But there is still a strand of hope, for me, that this failure to hang tough is a symptom due to the fact that we’re in the regular season. I still hope – against hope – that this problem will turn around in the playoffs.

Yes, that strand of hope is fraying, along with my faith in this team. But we must admit… it’s still POSSIBLE for them to turn it all around in the playoffs. There is still hope.

And this kick in the gut they got last night should help. Because this was no ordinary kick. This one HURT, I guarantee that. When your previously-super-loyal fans BOO YOU OFF THE COURT… it has got to hurt. They will not forget this night.

I’m hoping that they take that pain in their gut, and use it — especially when the playoffs arrive. Win or lose… they must never give up like that again.

It’s still the regular season.

Once the playoffs start, everything will be just fine.

Sheed for Perks, and Daniels for RayRay or Pierce

what word means ubuntu in reverse? tommy knows— no rebounding which requires effort, and letting every team out of the box with minimal defensive effort in the first period. this involves effort not talent, ergo the boos, very much deserved.

Maybe some of you will remember Auerbach warning the players after just having won a flag: " You better enjoy this one now and (or but) remember how you won it cause next year, if ( or when) you lose 3 games in a row (or something like that) you are going to hear the boos from the fans." That warning has come to fruition.

and it kills the big guys…one guy playing like sh** and not even trying,exposes the other 4…disgusting

After a 50% effort in Milwaukee, we get to watch a 25% effort at home. The key here is the PG position, Rondo palyed like crap in the first quarter did the hang-dog look and we just walked through the 48 minutes. Yes he showed a spark at times, but poor defense, innacurate passing and a lacl of intensity wiped out any effort in the first quarter. My wife and I watched this disaster unfold, slowly at first but when they were ten down we both knew what the game was going to look like. If KG is still hurt, sit him down. What is his 26% effort going to do for us? We would be better off if we went back to the lineup we had against Orlando with Big Baby. Pierce too, he is coasting through these games just putting in his time. Tony Allen got limited time for whatever reason. He is another guy who deserves minutes on the floor. I don’t care if we win or lose. If they gave us some effort we might have lost anyway. But I want to see effort even when it isn’t solid. We thought Randolph would kill us, but it was Rudy Gay that cut us deep. Look at the rebounds and the fouls we picked up. How long has it been since we had one guy finish with 3 fouls, and we had less than 30 rebounds? Maybe it was the fact that Doc couldn’t go to his secret weapon, Scal wasn’t there “for matchup reasons” WTF? Since when does a guy get a night off at home because he doesn’t matchup with the other team? When was the last time he did matchup with anybody besides the towel boy? I guess I can’t blame him, he wasn’t there. Doc was though, I think?

I wonder what is a coach’ss responsibility when this debacle is happening? What is Doc supposed to do and is he doing it?

Is not that that Chris Wallace has put together a team that can demolish us this year. We got the banner that the Big 3 were gambled on to bring us. Just got it in year one.

The real depressing fact is that we don’t have much chance of getting better in the next two years. If I don’t like Andray Blatche etc having their way with KG now, what is it going to look like in two years. At Perk’s regression rate, at Pierce’s loss of foot speed etc.

At least when we were lousy with young guys, hope was eternal. They’ll be a year older next year, we’ll get a good draft pick, we aren’t burdened by salary cap. Now its the opposite. Yikes

If a player is not in physical condition to give a full effort for 48 minutes he should not be on the floor for 5 minutes. If KG, PP or anyone else is injured, has stomach problems, sprains or whatever, the coach is responsible to make lineup changes as necessary. If KG is not ready to play 100%, playing him for 24 minutes hurts him more tha it helps. We keep waiting to see the old KG, but he isn’t there anymore. And as far as a good pick next year, that isn’t going to happen. We’ll get in the playoffs which means no lottery. We may have given up a pick for Robinson anyway. We got #57 last year and this year won’t be any better. I thought Rondo was getting too big a contract because he can’t play defense, he has no shot, he goes through wild mood swings (towel over head) but now it looks like he is getting the bad end of the contract.

After last nights game it felt a like a little part of me died last night. Oh well, at least they won a banner. I just figured they might have on more run in them. Guess not. I suppose all that’s left to do now is just sit back and watch it all unfold without any expectation. Who knows maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

I had surgery last Thursday and I thought I knew pain. But the pain was worse the last two nights. I think I tore something out last night, lower abdomen is still swollen and I am having trouble in the bathroom. I turned on the TV in the afternoon and they were doing a re-run of the Milwaukee game in NBA League Pass. That was bad, but knowing that last night’s game is there today is much worse. I hope that they take the time to watch themselves. Probably have to be taped to a chair with their eyelids forced open like that scene in Clockwork Orange. I can promise you that it WILL get WORSE. We have a game on Friday night and one on Sunday in Cleveland. When the bookies won’t take a bet on a game because they can’t predict the spread, it is bad and will get worse.

Dallas came back on its home court last night to beat the Nets. The fact that we could not do that against the Nets on our home court a couple of weeks ago shows that we are not an elite team like Dallas right now. We are a second tier playoff team, much like the Bucks and the Heat. I am one of the more optimistic posters on this site, but last night has really left me deflated. No effort from the starters, we got outrebounded by almost 20 and the young Grizzlies made us really look tired. After last night, why should any of us believe that the Celtics will turn it on in the playoffs? They are saving it for the best teams in the playoffs? We cannot beat above 500 teams now and struggle with below 500 teams. I will root for the Celtics till the end, but this is sad.

and they seem to be doing quite alright for themselves. Many are calling them co-favorites with the Lakers and Nuggets to come out of the West. They went out and got the players the Celtics should have gone after by trading Ray Allen – Butler and Haywood. Even with Jason Terry out of the lineup, they are on a serious win streak.

I’ll say it again: Doc Rivers should be fired – Now. His strength is supposed to be motivation rather than x’s and o’s. How motivated has his team looked?

In today’s paper he mentions maybe thinking about some changes in the rotation. They should have addressed that at the trading deadline. There’s not a whole lot he can do now with the roster outside of putting Finley in as 6th man for some scoring – and even an old Finley defends as well as Daniels or Tony Allen.

Perhaps he should try small ball with Pierce at the power forward and only one big – Garnett or whomever deserves to play between the rest. They can’t rebound any worse and just maybe they might be able to stop teams from packing the paint.

I disagree with the comment that Finley defends as well as Allen. Marquis yes, but TA is very active on defense. Going small right now isn’t a good idea. I think Rasheed, Perkins and Davis down low, Rondo and Allen at the top. Wed have KG and PP come off the bench with Daniels, Finley and Nate No-Legs Robinson. You need two shooters on every lineup or the guard dribbles 20 seconds off and takes that bad 3 like Rondo did several times in the last two games. Worse sttil Davis at the top?

it’s called decline. When did we think this team was going to be a non factor for a title? Next year, In two years? We knew this was going to be the end result when the KG trade was made. We just didn’t want to believe it would come this soon I guess. Have to except this for the next two years, complain or not, until KG’s deal is off our payroll and Ainge can go shopping. Or we can hope that Ainge has a trick up his sleeve within the next two years to acquire some talent to go with Rondo that makes us title relevant again which is probably unlikely. Maybe he would have to move Rondo in a huge deal to acquire the talent necessary to get us back to that level again. Or maybe the best we can hope for is to have Rondo, ala Nash, as the centerpiece on the court whipping the ball around to 3 point shooters like Phoenix does as our nightly entertainment. Lots of questions, few answers. Ainge has some tough decisions ahead of him. It will be fascinating to see his response to this season.

If the Celtics were sucking JUST because they were old, I’d invoke Simmons’ 5-year rule. Not much you can do about age.

The fact that they suck because they aren’t putting in the effort every night…. that’s unacceptable. If this was any other team in the league, I think I’d detest them right now. The arrogance of this lot is unacceptable.

I would like us to go out there the next game and make rebounding the number one priority. All emphasis on rebounding on both ends. if you have to stay on offensive end a little longer instead of getting back early to rest until the opponent brings the ball over the line and up to the trey line then so be it.

we get tired out by staying in too long, so doc can help out by rotating earlier like Bucks did last night around the 6 min mark ,we rotated around the 9 1/2 min mark. that extra 3 1/2 minutes of no rebounding effort in order to hold the shorts and rest could have been time for big baby and company to hit the boards with fury.

Physically Unable to Perform- that’s where we are right now. The mind says “we’re still a great team” but the body says differently. Pierce and KG currently can not play at the level we need them to play at to win a title. Heck, forget a title, they can’t play at the level we need to win a game period. Ray is the only one of the big three who is close to where he was physically 2 years ago. Our bench is ok but can you blame them for being uninspired if every time they come in the game we’re down 10-15 points? Sooner or later they’re going to lose confidence as well. I’ve been preaching for a while that Doc needs to make changes and it now sounds like he might be doing that. My feeling is he has nothing to lose. I would bench Perk and start wallace. I would also give serious consideration to starting finley, tony allen or Marquis over Pierce. Paul is hurting the team right now with his crappy defense. Last ngiht we did a decent job with our post defense but we let the cat out of the bag with their wing players. Rondo CAN NOT be our leading scorer. If he is then we lose. I also think Doc needs some new plays. His O is way too laborious and it takes way too long for us to get into our plays. Then if we don;t hin the shot it’s one and done because no one is on the glass. I think we need to go to a motion offense where we’re not so hung up on execution. I htink guys are trying too hard and as a result everyone is up tight and they dwell on mistakes instead of the positives. I do think and maintain that DOc has gotten a free pass. Everyone blames it all on age and injuries but I think other teams have figured out our O and our D and Doc hasn’t adjusted. You saw what happened when he turned Nate loose with ONE play from the knicks book. we would have lost that game but for that. yet, instead of running that all the time he’s now trying to make Nate into a pg . Nate is a scorer not a distibutor. He’s wasted out there trying to pass the ball to baby. we need more quickness and better D in our starting unit so let’s mix it up

During football season when you read the boxscores the next morning, i always notice that for the most part, the team that won the rushing game most often won the game.

Even the pass oriented teams like the Colts would win the rushing game with Addai or whoever, but it was mainly overshadowed by Mannings 300+yds,but i digress.

In basketball it seems like just the same can be said about the team that outrebounds their opponent. THe team who wins the rebounding game most often wins the game.
The lakers and cavs both have good rebounders its nice to have odom,gasol and bynum grab 30+rebounds a night like our original big three used to do and then have the guards pitch in like kobe pitches in 6 or 7 boards and then the bench of course helps.

So we need to go out the next game and win the rebounding game at any cost, if they get tired substitute if a couple breakaways happen then so be it,just not to many .etc

Win the rebounding war and the game is the Celtics

He just basically said this on the Dennis and Callahan show. It is going to be the same old same old for the rest of the season.

Fact: The Ticket & The Truth aren’t cutting it. Ray is the only of the big 3 showing a pulse.

I don’t understand this team. I saw them absolutely whup my Blazers a few weeks ago. They looked like a team to be very scared of in the race to the championship.

What in the heck is going on?

Holy crap I had no clue this game was at home! If so that was a pathetic performance.

We were 6 point favorites and lost by 20 at home. We never lead in the game.

we need to move the ball more as soon as it gets tp pierce the ball stops moving and he try take over he sucks lets give the ball to allen or garnett

trade pierce at the end of the season an sign david lee at least he rebounds

they needed some spark off the bench to get the starters ass’es in gear.

oh yea, we let that spark go.. Cough cough eddie house, leon powe ** cough cough(((

Say screw it you don’t want to play, don’t play
my rotation for the Indy game would be Nate, Ray, Quisy, Baby and Sheldon starting with TA, Finley and Scal off the bench. The others don’t even see a minute, though they are on the bench all dressed. Hopefully getting embarassed and pissed.
Regular rotations for the cavs, you have 30 seconds of not playing to capacity and you ride the pine, maybe with a chance to redeem yourself in the 4th. Who cares of the outcome at this point, motivate these guys will ya doc. Personally I think that should be MO for the time being, no effort ride the pine, especially at home.

In the new Bird/Magic book that Larry only coached 3 years because, in his opinion, after 3 years your players stop listening to you. Interesting?

I have been so optimistic all year until this game. My only hope now that this is the same feeling we had during the Atlanta series during the championship year. Alot of people started to think we were going to get thumped the rest of the playoffs and we all know what happened. I am holding onto that same hope I had during that Atlanta series that the adversity they are going through now will get them through. It is strange to me to see them play with no heart.

Just like when you play pickup up ball, give me 5 guys that scrap, hustle and are less talented then 5 prima donna superstars that have more talent than those scrappers. I would say the scappers seem to win most of the time…The same thing is happening here, half of the NBA teams are scrappers with less talent…and they are punishing our prima donnas.