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.

“We talked a little bit [Sunday] about ‘hitting singles’ and everybody here has heard me say that phrase before,” Stevens said. “I think it’s really important that, any time you’re in a new place or you’re in a new system or with all of our young guys — and we’ve got a bunch of new ones that are trying to make an impression — and sometimes you can make mistakes trying to make an impression and doing too much. Just trying to keep it simple, figuring out what we’re trying to do. One of the things about Evan is that he does a great job, he studies, he works hard on his own. He puts in time on film, he puts in time with the coaches, he does all that.”
[…] “I think Rondo helped me a lot, with my pace and kind of told me what he was seeing a lot,” Turner said. “Throughout practice, Coach helped, but Rondo helped me a lot too. I think I finally started slowing down and letting the game come to me. I was just trying to hit singles.”

It’s easy to see how someone like Turner would get quickly frustrated with himself.

A: He’s the new guy, and he’s being asked to do a lot. He clearly wants to succeed, and when you know the team needs you to do a lot and you’re not doing much of it, you get down on yourself.

B: He’s trying to resurrect his career here. He’s still only 25 and he has the prime of his athletic life ahead of him, but most people have already pigeonholed him into a certain type of player, and if he doesn’t break out of that in Boston, then he’s going to spend the rest of his career in this same situation, or deciding if he wants to play overseas.

So Turner was trying to do too much. Enter Brad Stevens, Rajon Rondo, and a baseball analogy to calm Turner’s head.

You won’t believe how much of an impact that will make in your job. Go ahead and try it if you feel like you need to. Calm down, don’t try to do everything at once, and just “hit singles”… a.k.a. just do the current job that’s in front of you, and the rest will fall into place.

That’s what Turner did last night. Instead of focusing on the enormity of the “I gotta do everything” role he was playing, he just focused on the current job in front of him.

I have the ball. Ok, scan the floor, what’s the defense giving me? It’s a pass this time [passes the ball] Scan the floor again, I see a lane [drives to the hole] There’s a shot, let me find my guy and box out [rebound occasionally comes in his direction]

If you worry about hitting home runs all the time, you’re going to swing and miss a lot. If you want to be Evan Turner of old, and say to yourself “I gotta be the man out here,” then the old Evan Turner is going to be a ball-stopping, shot-forcing, trying-to-do-too-much kind of guy.

If you just say to yourself “I’m going to take the game as it comes, and simply make the right play each trip down the floor,” then the talent that exists within Evan Turner will find a way to score when a sliver of a lane opens up, or find an open teammate.

Another baseball great, Yogi Berra, said baseball is “90% mental, the other half is physical.” That hilarious logic applies to basketball, or anything from that matter. A majority of what Turner is doing out there begins with the mental ability to slow down and compartmentalize the game into individual plays. Those plays will add up to big games for often than not when you have that kind of talent. But if you worry about having big games, then you’re just not going to cut it.

Hit singles, Brad Stevens likes to say, and your talent will take over.

Page 2: Paul Pierce is still freakin’ awesome

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In case you didn’t quite catch that…

Said Pierce…

“It’s good for TV, I guess,” said Pierce, who scored two points, grabbed seven rebounds, and committed five fouls in 19 minutes. “I don’t know what to say. It just happened. It’s not scripted, but it just happened.”

I love Thibs with the half-hearted “oh no, please don’t” look.

Personally, I think Pierce was just trying to pull out that ridiculous hair bun. I think that’s something we can all get behind.