Full Court Press: 3/31/05 Celtics vs. Mavericks

By Dan
Mavericks 112 - Celtics 100

The General versus the Sergeant
(disclaimer: after 4 beers in 30 minutes and some other stuff, it is difficult for me to tell the following events were real or imagined.)

Maybe it痴 a stretch to say Doc River can make John Carroll look like John Wooden, but Avery Johnson with the help of Dirk Nowitski sure made Doc Rivers play the part of the fool last night. Doc would have you believe it was the fault of players complaining and not getting into offensive sets, but Dallas dictated the entire game from start to finish. Homers will complain of ticky tack fouls called by the officials making it nearly impossible for the Celtics to defend Dirk, but the game was lost in the third quarter (once again) where Doc left the starters in for far too long allowing Dallas to dictate matchups for the rest of the game, it was in the third that Antoine picked up his fourth foul after he had been left out on the court 2 minutes too long.

The game started off miserably as Gary Payton looked like a man with a fused spinal column. The Celtics offense was miserable at the start of the game, the didn稚 push the ball up the floor, failed to recognize the fluctuating zone defense Dallas kept running and they appeared to be intimidated by Shawn Bradley痴 presence underneath the basket. It was a wonder that the Celtics were actually not down by 15 to 20 points after the first quarter. At one point in the first the Celtics had all five players stationed outside the 3-point arc for an entire possession. Dallas was in a 2-3 zone, Payton had given the ball off to Pierce and everyone stood outside the arc and watched Pierce dribble, no one was cutting along the baseline or trying to penetrate the gaps of the zone with or without the ball, all the little things you do against a 2-3, instead they watched as Pierce hucked up a bad shot against two defenders. At this point I knew the game was going to end up in a loss, as the Celtics were content to let Dallas determine what they would do on offense and defense.

The second unit came in at the end of the first and made an immediate impact, the contrast between Banks and Payton in this game was very telling, the ball zipped up the court and Banks quickly cracked the sort of floating/match up zone that Dallas was playing. Perkins played great during the second quarter and worked to take Dallas� frontcourt out of the game. KP was the ONLY one to do this the entire game, and why he didn稚 receive any playing time in the second half is one of the riddles that Doc Rivers spun last night.

This team is so bad at closing out quarters it is scary. To me, this is all coaching. Now don稚 get me wrong I realize I致e been trashing Doc this whole time, I genuinely like what he has done with this team, developed young talent, for the most part kept minutes down for the starters (which has prevented injuries), made Ricky into the 6th Man of the Year, and been a very good 素ace� for the franchise. That being said his approach to game management is at times flat out awful. They almost never have strong runs to close out quarters against the elite teams in the league, which means that they are screwed in the playoffs. They might be able to get past Chicago or Cleveland (unless David Stern institutes his 選 want LeBron on TV no matter what!!� edict to the officials.) but a well-coached team like the Pistons or the Heat will capitalize on the fact that the Celtics don稚 know how to manage a game.

All right so they go it close in the third and actually had a lead, Doc left the starters in way too long and it was clear they were gassed after charging to a 4-point lead. I知 sitting in my seat quietly pleading for Doc to 叢lay the kids�. He didn稚 the Mavs closed out the quarter and the game had slipped away. The fourth quarter was and exercise in how much dignity the Celtics could lose.

Of course it must be noted the Dirk 添ou can稚 call me 選rk� because there actually is a D in Dirk� Nowitzki was simply amazing. He could get his shot off under any circumstance and of the 22 shots he made (11 from the line) I知 not sure if one of them touched the rim, nothing but net. The Celtics didn稚 value the basketball, and be it Pierce trying to throw a behind the back pass to Al Jefferson or Tony Allen sending an alley oop to Ricky 5 feet out of bounds they were a sloppy team and turned what should have been easy passes into difficult ones.

Headscratchers:
Pierce痴 isolation play to close out the third when he had a wide open Blount on the wing squared up and ready to hit his patented 18 footer, instead Pierce goes up against two guys and doesn稚 even get the shot off.

Al Jefferson coming into the game at the most decisive moment of the fourth quarter.

Doc痴 failure to play Banks and Delonte at the same time and put pressure on the Mavericks young backcourt.

Mark Cuban痴 hair plugs, come on dude, I like you and all but those plugs, or weave, or whatever it is makes you look like my 7th grade science teacher and a lifelong virgin.

Perkins� dunk. Where the hell did that come from

The two idiotic Maverick fans behind me. I知 not sure if they love Dirk because he makes all his shots in NBA 2K5 or if they are actual fans, but to have that much attitude about a team that has never even been to the NBA Finals is laughable. They reminded me of a couple Colts fans.

Turnover city, the Celtics demolished the Mavs on the glass yet still get hung with the L.