Morning Walkthrough: Home losses piling up
Jay King | March 11, 2010 at 6:55 am | 0 Comments
The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.
A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “The Celtics’ 111-91 loss to Memphis was their second in a row, and 12th at home this season. Consider the last two seasons, Boston only lost 12 home games combined. Throughout the season, there has been a laissez-faire attitude toward the team’s shortcomings. But with 19 regular-season games remaining, there’s little doubt the Celtics’ concern level has increased. Kevin Garnett isn’t one to overreact to one loss. But when you look at Wednesday’s loss, and the loss at Milwaukee less than 24 hours earlier, and the loss last month to the woeful New Jersey Nets, and . . . you get the picture.”
Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “‘Well, if you guys were looking for a good message in the game, there was one: ‘Two minutes left in the game.’ When they announced that, that was the only good message in this entire game,’ Rivers joked to crickets. ‘We were awful tonight — energy was awful. I thought, honestly, we started out, we wanted to play. I thought the first seven or eight minutes we played with great energy. We couldn’t make a shot. And I think I talked about this a couple of games ago, because we couldn’t make shots, you could see us not running back on defense, getting down, and that’s the one disappointing thing about tonight and other games, is right now our offense -– our lack of offense — is dictating how we play defense. And that’s disappointing.’”
Jessica Camerato, WEEI – “The C’s understand the significance of the support from their fans. While Pierce was surprised by the reaction, he knows the team has to give a better performance every game. ‘Yeah, it surprises me,’ Pierce said of their struggles at home. ‘You come out on your home court and get this kind of loss and get booed by your home court. I haven’t been on a court where we’ve been booed. It’s been a couple times this year. It’s been about five or six years since I’ve seen that. We’re still 17 games over .500. All the fans want is constant effort night in and night out. I think we’ve got to be more consistent with that regardless of if we win or lose.’”
Gary Dzen, Boston Globe – “Allen held court with Rajon Rondo in the Celtics locker room before tonight’s game, the backcourt duo discussing the poor ball movement that led to Allen attempting only three shots last night against the Bucks. According to Allen, neither Rondo nor Kevin Garnett was aware after the game that Allen had attempted only three shots. ‘I told Rondo that offensively we were real stagnant last night,’ said Allen. ‘There’s no way this team should score 84 points. Not with the offensive talent that we have. I said, ‘I look at you, you’re the point guard. I know Doc makes a lot of the offensive calls, but you’ve got to make sure that when we come down the floor, that ball goes from one side to the other, I’m touching the ball, Paul’s touching the ball. We’re all capable of making plays.””
Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “‘Because we didn’t make shots, you could see us not running back on defense, getting down,’ Rivers said. The further the Celtics sank, the more energized Memphis seemed to become. Rivers said his team (average age: 29) can’t be expected to run with a team like Memphis (24.5). ‘It hurts when you give them spirit,’ Rivers said. ‘There’s no doubt about that. We’re not going to get any quicker. You know when you give an athletic team that’s skilled — I mean they’re a skilled athletic team — when you give them confidence, the way we’re constructed, it makes it difficult.’”
Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “That opinion is supported by the 48-29 busting the Celts took on the boards. And by the tone of Garnett’s voice afterward. ‘I’m not going to sit up here and try to make excuses for anything. We’ve got to play better, especially at home. This is where we make our mark and this is where we supposedly lay our heads, and we’ve got to protect it like that. There’s got to be more of an urgency or whatever. It’s not about coming in here talking to you guys about it; it’s actually going out there and doing it.’ Or taking a hard fall when they don’t.”
Rich Thompson, Boston Herald – “While his young Grizzlies have undergone positive changes, Hollins insisted that the Celtics command elite status in the Eastern Conference. ‘I just want to say though, it’s a big win and we are happy with the win,’ said Hollins. ‘But we know we caught the Celtics on a down night. They played back-to-back, had to travel home from a tough game last night in Milwaukee. They’re still, in my mind, one of the top three teams in the East and they’re going to show that as they go forward into the playoffs. We caught a break that helped us, and we’ll take it.’”
Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “Before putting on a punchless effort against the Grizzlies, the C’s found boxing gloves autographed by Manny Pacquiao in their lockers when they arrived at the Garden. The players had become friendly with the WBO welterweight champion when they went to one of his fights while on their summer 2008 title tour in Las Vegas. ‘There’s no message,’ Rivers said of the gifts. ‘It honestly wasn’t from me. Pacquiao’s obviously a huge Celtic fan. He tried to get to our walkthrough in the ballroom before we played the Lakers, and he couldn’t make it. So he just sent that to us, which is nice. Good gesture.’”
Rich Levine, CSNNE – “‘I think we’re out here just trying to figure it out,’ said Kevin Garnett when asked if the team is stuck searching for answers to their recent woes. ‘But I don’t think the final score was indicative of our effort.’ So let’s take KG’s word for it. Let’s say effort wasn’t the issue tonight. So then, what does that mean? Well, it could only mean one thing: That the Celtics were trying to match the Grizzlies’ speed and athleticism, but didn’t have the firepower to do so; that they were dead set on crashing the boards, defending the perimeter and getting a hand up on a would-be jump shooter, but just don’t possess the resources to make it happen. It means, at least for one night, the Grizzlies were a better team. Faster, stronger, and more athletic. Which has quickly become the recipe for defeating the supposedly superior Boston Celtics.”
Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.
Related posts:
- Morning Walkthrough: Have the C’s lost confidence?
- Morning Walkthrough: Sense of urgency not the same
- Morning Walkthrough: Celtics need to be great
- Morning Walkthrough: Disgusted, but not giving up
- The Morning Walkthrough: Pierce, a better shooter than Ray?
