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“It was horrible,” Doc Rivers said of the C’s defense following the
game. “I thought we hugged up on guys all night. That wasn’t our defense
tonight, I can tell you that. Give them credit, they moved the ball,
they spaced the floor very well. But we didn’t shrink the floor at all
tonight.”
The Celtics were outrebounded 42-31, including 30-23 on the offensive
glass. Pau Gasol finished the night with 14 rebounds, while it was Paul
Pierce, not Kendrick Perkins or Kevin Garnett, who led the Celtics with
nine.
“In the first half, it made the bigs look bad because they were
getting offensive rebounds. But it wasn’t the bigs’ fault,” said Rivers.
“It was the guards dribbling down the middle of the lane. Our bigs have
to help. They miss a shot and their bigs get an offensive rebound. They
didn’t control the dribble at all. Before the game we told them the key
to the game was rebounding, dribble penetration. We stop those two
things, we’ll be in good shape. But we didn’t do either one.”
WEEI: Doc: Defense was horrible
That picture might highlight the problem as well as any.
Jordan Farmar… JORDAN FARMAR… getting to the rim, KG forced to help, and Lord knows who is lurking in the shadows to grab an offensive rebound.
Doc has talked about dribble penetration all year long. This is one hell of a time for the C's to revert to the mid-season mess that allowed guards to just prance into the middle and pull the entire defense out of whack.
Doc called it a parade down the lane last night… and that parade just killed the Celtics. If they don't stop that one, it will lead to another one.
On page 2: Ray was on the outside looking in
“Two in the first [quarter] and I sit down, then three in the
second, so it was like playing from behind the whole time with the foul
trouble. Once I got into foul trouble, the trend of the game took shape,
and once that happened it was like I was on the outside looking in,”
Allen said.
Allen would not say how many of the five fouls were legitimate, but
the fifth foul — coming just 31 seconds after he checked back in with
2:10 left in the third quarter — appeared to be the most egregiously
bad call of any of the ones that went against him.
On that play, Kobe
Bryant shot a jumper from the free throw line, Bryant’s hand barely
nicking Allen’s hand at the end of the shot release.
“Ray didn’t have a chance to play tonight,” Boston coach Doc
Rivers said. “He was in foul trouble the entire game and it just
took his rhythm off. He actually started out the game like he was going
to have a big game, but then he picked up the fouls.
“We have to make an adjustment there for sure.”
The refs were having a whistle blowing contest for a while there yesterday. Every trip down the floor, someone was getting whistled for a foul.
It was terrible. I understand calling a tight game… but these guys, on both ends, were calling every little thing. The game had zero flow at all. The usual crew of hoops heads on twitter were saying things like "I'm going hear whistles in my dreams tonight".
It was egregiously bad. And that type of game hurts the C's.
The Celtics need room to work. They need to get into a rhythm. Especially Ray Allen. By the end, he was forcing shots as he tried ANYTHING to get going. It never happened.
If the refs let 'em play… then the Celtics will be OK. If they call it tight… the C's will have problems.
Herald: Celtics effort missing in opener | Celtics get (out)hustled | Ray pays a steep price for penalties | Statues of limitations | awful opener for Garnett | Phil Jackson's number is up | Kobe makes the difference | Globe: Bryant feeds fans and teams' hunger | Rough start | Approach calls for new direction | C's have little to show | Ryan: Pretty good | Frontcourt manhandled | Calls didn't sit well with Allen | Artest distinguished in debut | Thibodeau on the road to someplace | ESPN Boston: Postgame notes: 47 and uh oh | First impressions | WEEI: Glen Davis inside locker room | 3 things that went wrong and right | About that 47-0 stat | A lot to figure out for this "angry" group of Celtics | Perk: Lakers wanted it more | Allen: I didn't get a good whistle tonight
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