Doc To Celtics: Pick Up The Pace!

by Jeff Clark on Feb 14, 2012 2:00 AM EST in Boston Celtics News & Links

There's no hiding the fact that the Celtics typically play a very half court oriented game of basketball. That tends to produce low scoring defensive battles that for the last few years have mostly produced wins. But the offense still needs to come from somewhere and it sounds like Doc wants to see the team get out in transition more. That must be music to Rondo's ears.

Celtics aim to crank the pace

The Celtics rank 30th in the NBA in pace at an average of a mere 90.2 possessions per game, according to HoopData, a whopping 3.6 possessions below the league average, and more than seven possessions less than the league's fastest team (Denver, 97.5). Celtics coach Doc Rivers was adamant his team up the tempo Sunday. "I thought we played at a better pace today," said Rivers. "You could see it: We were trying to run today. And that’s how we have to play. If we didn’t turn the ball over, we would’ve had far more points. But I just liked our pace and that’s all we talked about after the game in Toronto and today in our morning walkthrough -- was enough of the walking.

Sounds good to me. Especially if it produces back to back alley-oops! LOBster Town baby!

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agree to !

we got no problem playing half court. and if we run, thats another weapon of choice and we’ll see more of rondo.

by Dantuts on Feb 14, 2012 2:15 AM EST reply actions

lol i love lobster town

by ianboyextreme on Feb 14, 2012 2:42 AM EST reply actions

Don't you need rebounds to run?

I believe we are near the bottom. Or is there another metric we should use? I sure liked watching kids like JJJ and Bradley out on the block.

by Big_Easy on Feb 14, 2012 3:00 AM EST via mobile reply actions

Rebounds help - but TOs work as well.

NBA Officiating - Corrupt? Incompetent? Which is worse? Does it matter? It sucks.

by mmmmm on Feb 14, 2012 8:53 AM EST up reply actions

Turnovers lose games.

Steals wins Turnovers.
Assists wins games.
Rebounds wins games.
Offense wins Conference Championships.
Defense wins NBA Championships!

by SparzWizard on Feb 14, 2012 3:30 AM EST reply actions

Run till you pass out

RUN! Championships don’t come the sweetheart way, save the cutie stuff for your valentines girl. RUN HARD and BEAT TEAMS DOWN.

by p-peazy on Feb 14, 2012 3:53 AM EST reply actions

Aint gonna happen if Doc keeps a line up of Rondo + 4 33+yr olds as the starters when everyone’s healthy. Have to balance the young and old out. The runs against the bulls really looked great when on fast breaks it wasn’t just Rondo running and 4 old guys tryna catch up.

by thatswhatshesaid23 on Feb 14, 2012 4:32 AM EST reply actions

Thank You...

…for posting what I was thinking. Does Doc really think it’s just mind over matter? He seems to think if he yells and screams enough KG or PP can turn back the clock and play like 20’s year olds again. It’s not happening Doc. There’s a lot of mileage on these guys and telling them to run but only giving them spot minutes for rest is not going to get it done.

by yakyakyak on Feb 14, 2012 2:50 PM EST up reply actions

STILL WE Can do what miami did---

Get free agent in Dwight Howard—or if were lucky—free agent in Blake griffin for a DOMINATING CENTER to replace Perkins who we gave away for free—-Ainge throwing ball out of bounds….. Green out and other player went to Russia……….

by zappop777 on Feb 14, 2012 5:28 AM EST reply actions

It sounds exciting, but I would caution that Pace doesn't correlate well with championships

Most seasons that the Celtics have made the finals (or even the ECF) we have had among the slower Pace rankings in the league. There have been only one or two exceptions over the years.

Also, you can ‘run the ball’ on offense and still have a slow pace number if you play press defense like we have been doing because that will chew up lots of time off your opponent’s shot clock.

Ultimately, while it is great when you get a defensive stop that keys a fast break for an easy basket, I think what Doc is really wanting to see is that we get the ball up the court faster so that even when we are running our half-court offense, that we at least get into our set earlier. If you get into the set earlier then you have more time to set/use picks and make passes until somebody on the defense makes a mistake and you get a high percentage look. The other benefit of getting into your set early is that it increases the chance that the defense is not yet set and you can quickly exploit a gap or mismatch.

So you should push the ball up and run hard no matter whether you are getting a fast break or not.

NBA Officiating - Corrupt? Incompetent? Which is worse? Does it matter? It sucks.

by mmmmm on Feb 14, 2012 9:03 AM EST reply actions

+1

by Big_Easy on Feb 14, 2012 12:13 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

If doc wants to run then maybe he should actually play lineups that have players in them that can and will run. he might have to sacrifice some d. Wilcox, Bass, Pietrus, Ray, Rajon works best I think with JJ filling in for Bass or Wilcox. Dooling can shoot the 3 but I haven’t seen enough of him to know whether he can get down the floor better than Ray

by wahz on Feb 14, 2012 12:10 PM EST reply actions