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Game Four - East Conference Finals

TOFTT’s Game Goals: (tofft = take one for the team)

Offense – Get to the Paint (under control), make the read, make the best decision. Fancy is not as important as fundamental. The scoreboard and winning is the key! Scoring stats, assist stats, ooh ah plays mean little if the other team finishes ahead on points.

Defense – Do not rest on this side of the ball. Play "d" as if you love the game of basketball. Butt down, concentrate, how many hours has one spent playing hoop for fun. One cannot always state the right thing in the post game shows. Today let one’s resolve and pride (for those that actually have it) manifest itself with playing defense. Millions of Celtic Fans will be watching, and you are now being called out. No profound thoughts to express, no alibis, inspire your teammates with solid fundamental physical defense.

Rebounding – Rebounding is not a dance. On defense find someone every time and get between them and the hoop. Place a forearm, a hip, a butt between them and the ball, and then aggressively go to the ball. A high school coach use to talk to us about offensive rebounding, and say if he could give us twenty dollars every time we even got a finger nail on a potential offensive rebound would we try harder. His response was that if the answer was yes, then we were not trying as hard as we should everytime. I don’t know if it is still true, but Bill Russell use today that ninety-percent of NBA Rebounds are taken below the hoop. It is timing, desire, and lack of fear that results in a rebound.

Refereeing – Ignore. The Heat are more than we can focus on, every time one is late rotating back, or focusing on the official, there is less focus being spent on the game.

Intangibles – Aren’t some newspaper, or Blog, or shock jock reaction saying how wonderful you are. It isn’t awards, that one wins when the season is over. The best compliment or acknowledgement is by a teammate who looks at you and maybe smiles, or nods a head after a defensive board, a clean screen, or a hand up from the court. Maybe I wasn’t that good to get real awards. Yet I can recall as if it was yesterday a teammate nodding their head at me after a play, basically saying "you can play this game." Once the current Celtics played for the same reasons. Tonight it will be interesting to see that legendary pride some associate with the Celtics. Would it not be nice if Bird and Garnett could wander into the locker room for but a few words.


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