Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
With his team’s confidence maybe overflowing a bit too much amidst a season-high six-game winning streak, Rivers wrote, ‘Guard down,’ after Tuesday’s practice session. With that in mind, he blamed himself after his team did just that during Wednesday’s 90-78 loss to the New Orleans Hornets.
“We didn’t play well — just let our guard down, I thought, a little bit,” said Rivers. “I felt it [Tuesday] and didn’t do anything about it so I’m kicking myself more than them. I always write stuff down, after practices and my first note – ‘guard down, guard down’ – I think I wrote it three different times and I thought we came out and played like that.”
ESPN Boston: Celtics let guard down
That video goes out to all the people who jumped off the bandwagon after one bad loss. Do you not remember the past 2 weeks?
In case you haven’t been following the Celtics the past few years, this is probably the least surprising loss of the season. You have the guys feeling a big cocky after a six game winning streak, you have the distraction of “Riversdance”, and you have a pretty big game against a Chicago team the C’s always struggle with tomorrow.
This was a bad loss, and it falls on everybody. I think Doc got so caught up in the Father-Son stuff that he made plenty of mistakes.
I guess Doc and the Celtics are…. (pause for dramatic sting) …. human.
“There was a lot of inconsistency especially after the first eight minutes,” said Paul Pierce. “We got out to a good lead and then we just broke down too many times. We got momentum, we’d lose it, just break downs defensively. It was just an inconsistent night on both ends of the court.”
And for now, that is how this loss can be characterized … as just one of those nights.
“You’re human,” Rivers said. “You have them. You start feeling good about yourselves and you take a step back.”
It’s happened to all of us. Yes, even you. I’m sure you can scan your memory for an instance where you felt good about something in your life, got a little cocky, and then got lazy about something and screwed it up. It’s happened to me a bunch. It’s how I got involved with Chuck.
So Doc should have seen it coming. Actually, he did see it coming, but he screwed up and let it slide when he shouldn’t have. He knows it, the team knows they screwed up, so we move on.
The rest of the links:
CSNNE: Garnett: Davis a freak of nature | Austin Rivers draws inspiration from Doc’s struggles | KG on possible All Star nod: If it happens, I’m more than gracious | ESPN Boston: Austion 1, Doc 0 | KG “gracious” if voted to All Star Game | WEEI: Austin Rivers wouldn’t rule out Celtics in future | KG: Davis makes me look like a midget | Herald: Mom torn between husband, child | KG, Rondo look like All Stars | Son rises for Rivers | This isn’t a very good read but numbers jump off page to tell story | Globe: Relatively painful loss | Doc’s mixed emotions | Austin gets the best of Dad’s team
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