Hello everyone,
Last night, I sat in my TV room and watched the Celtics
game, as many people probably did too. Just to catch you up if you don’t really
follow basketball… The Celtics are on a 3 game losing streak, coming off a loss
to a pretty awful Detroit Pistons team, after the game Doc Rivers called his team
out essentially saying, I don’t know what to do anymore, trade everyone. That was supposed
to be a wakeup call for this team, who came into Cleveland with a 20-20 record.
Watching the game last night, I
didn’t see that effort and intensity that we’ve come to expect from the Boston
Celtics. They were supposed to come in with an edge, pissed off, and play some
tough Celtic basketball and leave Cleveland with a win. I forgot to mention, the Cavaliers
came into this game with 10 wins, and one of the least efficient teams on both
ends of the court in the NBA. However, they do have a pretty damn special player in Kyrie
Irving, who took over the game from the get-go, scoring 19 in the first quarter
and ending up with 40 points on the night. He almost singlehandedly beat this
Celtics team, which is kind of understandable, he’s nasty, but you would expect a
little more from the Celtics.
(Kyrie Irving as Uncle Drew, watch the video its pretty entertaining)
So we stand here almost at the
halfway point of the season with a 20-21 record, 1 game below .500 but still
holding onto the 8th playoff spot in the east. Honestly, I’m worried
about this team right now. Some fans in Boston will always live in La La Land
and say “Oh regular season doesn’t matter, we’re the Boston Celtics, we always
turn it on in the playoffs.” Well yeah, we have been pretty mediocre in the
regular seasons the past couple years and turned it around come playoff timr, but nothing like this. It’s not like
this team is coasting, or taking a game off every once in a while like they’ve done in the past. This
team is just not playing good basketball for 4 quarters, and they have not proven to be consistent in any sense of the word.
To start off my constructive criticisms for the Celtics, I’ll
go with the man who the Celtics desperately need to put the team on his back, Rajon
Rondo. Rondo has been putting up good
numbers consistently this year, which is exactly what he needs to do if this
team is going to have any success down the stretch. He knows this too, watching him now you can see him being more assertive and confident with driving to the rack, as well as pulling up from mid range which is something we really haven't seen from him in the past. Finally, Rondo has developed a pretty consistent
jump shot to add to his repertoire to keep defenders honest. Now onto these criticisms I promised.
First off, Rondo is not a good defender, he’s actually pretty damn awful and it’s
hurting this team in a major way. Yea Rondo will get one of those pick-pocket
steals every once in a while, but overall he is a defensive liability. It seems
like every game I watch, he gets beat off the dribble and he’ll try to go for a
steal to make up for it or just give up on the play. When he gets beat
defensively, it forces the one of the big men to try and help stop the penetration
to the basket and leaves his man open for offensive rebounds or dump off
passes. If you didn’t see it last night, in the forth quarter this exact thing
I’m talking about happened, Kyrie Irving blows past Rondo easily, Sullinger
steps in to help, tries to take the charge (it was a charge, bullshit call) but
instead Irving gets the foul and the bucket, which proved to be a dagger for
the Celtics. Rondo isn’t even close to solid defender in this league, and it
hurts the Celtics.
Another thing that has to do with
Rondo, but I’m not going to put the entire blame on him, is simply the lack of
fluidity and scoring on offense. The offense that the Celtics run has changed,
from a pick and roll offense with Rondo, Pierce and Garnett and setting offball screens for
Jesus Shuttlesworth (Ray Allen). This year it seems like it's just evolving into an isolation offense where they just give it to Rondo, set
a screen, let him try to do something. Sometimes, yea that can work, but Rondo is
a pass first point guard, not a pure scorer like Kobe Bryant or Paul Pierce. Speaking
of Paul Pierce that brings me to my next point, which is that Paul Pierce is doing
more bad than good for this team. I’m
sorry, I hate to say it, I really do, but he’s just not the same Paul Pierce he
used to be. He looks slow on defense, and he has hasn’t been able to get
his legs under him this year. Of course he's not going to be the same player he was 6 years ago. The issue is that he wants to score and take more shots, but Rondo is getting a lot of the shots that used to be Pierce's. Last night, he was taking some
bad shots, and missing some good looks. This is something so unusual for a player like Paul Pierce. While I've been watching all season I didn't fully realize it till last night, where he really struggled to produce on offense.
Just
to make sure you guys understand me, I do not think this is a bad team, or that
Rondo is a bad player or that Pierce is washed up. I think this Celtics team has
the potential to be pretty good going forward. I like the players they brought in this year, Sullinger, Jason Terry, Courtney Lee were solid pickups, heck even Barbosa and Collins can help. They’ve showed in spurts throughout the season that
they are capable of playing some good basketball, but where they stand now,
there’s a ton of issues with the C’s as shown with their 20-21 record. What I said above regarding Pierce and
Rondo is just what I’ve observed through the games I’ve watched. I love them
both as players, but right now something needs to change if they have any shot of
first getting in the playoffs, then if they get there, trying to win an NBA
title. The fate of the Celtics relies on those two along with Garnett to carry this team, while everyone needs to come together as a team...
1, 2,3 Ubuntu!
Thanks for reading and Go Celtics,
RB
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