You're right. He has to be allowed to fail a little. Throw him into the deep end.

The Boston announcers mentioned that Pierce went 5-16 in the first game when they were talking about how poorly he played in their pre-game ramblings. They also said something like "I doubt he'll do that again."

Well, thanks to Prince, Pierce went 5-16 again. Remember that he is their leading scorer, so that is pretty good containment.

In fact, their big three were very contained. 12-36 shooting. 18 FTA. 20 rebounds (KG with only 5!). 11 assists. 11 personal fouls. 8 turnovers.

I don't think we can do any better than that. Especially when you consider that Chauncey held their starting point guard to 3 points and ZERO assists.

Really, our only problem was that Glen Davis got 8 layups with 5 and1's and they made 10 more free throws (despite the fact that we fouled them fewer times).


All of the criticism going around about how our offense was stagnant... or course it was. The Celtics are the best defensive team in the league. We got a taste of our own medicine. Did you notice how stagnant their offense was too? I mean both teams made 31 shots. If Davis would have stayed quiet, we would have held them to 26 made shots or so and they would feel violated.

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"I don't think MC is going to allow us to shoot as many jumpers." Tayshaun Prince.

Yeah, the Pistons' problems on offense wouldn't have been decisive if it hadn't been for all those second chance and hustle points the Celtics were getting throughout the game after the first quarter, but it's frustrating because a lot of those should have been preventable. Rondo was indeed shut down, and Pierce had another bad shooting night from the floor, but the Pistons did have a "point guard"-type problem on defense down the stretch in their near-total inability to contain the penetration that resulted in all those layups for Big Baby. Most of that was coming off drives by Pierce.

KGreg,

Have to agree with Lpgrl that this happens too often in big games (the last two ECF). Our offense gets jammed up and we miss a ton of jumpers.

Agree with you that their main guys were taken care of defensively. Also as Lee mentioned, Garnett was somewhat contained.

Dyss has been a nice player but he may be overmatched in what we are asking him to do. And when either Dyss or Sheed get into foul trouble, we are short on the big rotation. Amir would have been a better bet in retrospect but there must be some reason the staff does not trust him. So, I expect a move out of Joe.

We need Maxiel playing as a starter because he will get the other teams front line in foul trouble or he will get easy scores. If we make the other team pay attention to him, then the game will open up for us offensively.

Dyess did a pretty good job on KG.

The reason you see these offensive struggles in the ECF is that we tend to be matched up against the 2nd or 3rd best defensive team in the league at that stage. We were stagnant because nobody could get open. The players trying to pass the ball were smothered too. But that was exactly what we were doing to them.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no easy answer against defense like that. In fact, we are the best type of team to beat them, because they can't key on our superstars, we take care of the ball, and we spread the floor well with our 3-point shooters.

Think about why KG didn't get many defensive rebounds in a game where we missed a ton of shots. He was pulled away from the basket.

Glen Davis Maxielled us.

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"I don't think MC is going to allow us to shoot as many jumpers." Tayshaun Prince.

I think some are overreacting. I think emotions got Dice out of the game and hurt the Pistons more than their bad execution at times. The Pistons were manhandled on the boards and took some horrible shots, but they barely lost.

After a night of watching the game twice and sleeping on it, I have had a chance to calm down somewhat and say lets move on to the next game. This game meant more to the Celtics than the Pistons, but now the Pistons should still take tomorrow to review the tape and their defiencies before they head to Texas.

They can still win 55+ games and grab at least the # 2 seed, but like all years they have to adjust or prepare to get to the finals. In years past the question was did we have a body to stop Shaq.... Now it's what do we need to stop Garnett or Baby or Pierce...better yet who will be our stopper in the middle to help Sheed and Max? Certainly can't rely on Tay, Dice or Primo. (or C-Webb)

At this point we know AJ is not the answer, but when will Flip give him the minutes in non-garbage time to get better?? If we are deep, play everybody!!

Those who think we will get better have a point, but guess what folks: so will the Celtic role players....because Doc has to play them. No need for a knee jerk reaction now as we have the second best defense, but when your chief rival has the #1 defense in 4 key categories, you need to be able to counter it for that ultimate meeting in May. In other words, it is time for Joe to start reviewing the rosters of the non-contenders to find that extra defensive stopper (who can also score in the paint a little and grab some boards) and deal Jr, Primo or Fabio.

Dyess did a pretty good job on KG? Please tell me what play you are talking about. I will be glad to go review it. I've watched the game twice now, and I sure did not catch any good defense from Dyess on KG.

With Flip's offensive mind/genius/playbook, this should not be an issue.

As far as I can see, Flip has no offensive ingenuity, unless you count repeatedly hoisting up 25-foot J's.

I didn't expect a Pistons win last night so I'm not bothered by any of it, but this Boston team will give Detroit fits come playoff time. I see a Game 7 at the Fleet in Detroit's not-so-distant future.

Sounds like you want to get Artest. I'm all for it.

$7.8M Artest

(1.9M) Murray
(2.7M) Bresec
(1.9M) Herrmann
(1.2M) Hayes

They would get a bunch of depth at different positions. They are all expiring contracts. And they get Artest out of there.

We'd have:

Billups/ Stuckey/ Hunter
Rip/ Afflalo/ ACKER
Prince/ Artest/ MEJIA
Dyess/ Maxiell/ RODNEY WHITE
Sheed/ Johnson/ Samb

The zoo crew would be complete. The only downside is that we would have to go crawling back to all those guys we cut so that we could have some guys to fill the suits.