The Celts won because their starters played better than ours not because of the bench. W/O referring to stats the bench impact was pretty minimal in my memory. I will grant Posey was a pest.

I second that. You knew that Pierce and KG will produce. Allen woke up and he cancelled out Rip's production. Sheed got outplayed by Perkins, Tay was non-existent. Dice did everything he could, but he can't be counted on to carry the team. Ditto for Chauncey. Sure Stuckey and J-Max contributed, but it wasn't nearly enough.

I disagree with that. To me, Sheed & Dyess never got a chance to guard those guys becuase they had to help their wings so much. To top it off, coming out of the gate and showing that there would be help gave BOS time to figure out what they were doing as the series goes on.

Just because their bench was a no-show doesn't mean that ours had to be. We could have got to the Finals without our starters having their A-game.

I don't agree with that AT ALL. Boston's not a great team, but they're pretty darn good. I simply don't see how you can hope to beat a team like that if your starters aren't getting it done. It took ALL of our primary guys producing at important times to win that Game 2 in Boston. If they had just been able to follow that up at home, even with B+/A- level production from the starters as a whole (ranking Game 2 as an A), they would have won the series.

I guess that's why Joe is talking about changes.

Boston beat us with 3 starters. Their bench is terrible, apart from Posey knocking down open 3's. We could have had a chance if all five of our starters had good games instead of a different one each time.

That's twice now Posey's had his hand in our undoing. Ainge earned his keep.

Right. Changing the coach is the right move, but the core of the team needs work as well.

I really don't understand the belief that everything has to be on the starters shoulders and the bench makes no real difference.

It's like you buy into Flip's system without question.


It reminds me of the argument from other team's fans that all that matters is how good the superstar player performs and the other starters are just filler.