Full Court Press: Celtics vs. Spurs 11/19/04
By Jon Duke
November 19, 2004
Back in the glory days of the great Celtics teams of the 1980’s it was a routine occurrence to see a pregame stat like The Jazz Have Not Beat The Boston Celtics Since November 1981. Remember that? Well after finding out that “Success” was not a choice (Thanks Rick!)prior to this evening’s game the Celtics had not beaten the San Antonio Spurs in their last 13 games. Or, in other words, before Rick Pitino returned on his golden chariot, and kicked Red and Larry to the curb. Now it would be easy to see that the Boston Celtics would be a much different team had the ping pong balls fallen their way in the spring of 1997, but most red blooded Americans would agree that seven years is more than enough time to find a way to defeat the San Antonio Spurs.
Though the Spurs have always had nice role players, their success begins and ends with Tim Duncan. Duncan’s consistently dominant effort on the high, and low, post give great freedom to San Antonio’s deep shooting wing players like Manu Ginobili, old friend Bruce Bowen, and the newest Spur, Brent Barry. Now I’m sure the Peter May-ites out there are screaming WHAT ABOUT TONY PARKER? HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A CELTIC! Uhh right… Of course that draft was four years ago, but guys like Peter have barely let go of Red selecting Michael Smith over Tim Hardaway in the 1989 Draft. Yumpin’ Yiminee!
How did this game shake out, you ask? Well, let’s just say we’ve rented this movie before and we should have returned it claiming the disc was scratched.
Celtics Post Players:
You can best describe why a fan can walk away from these games optimistic with one word: Wheezie. Al Jefferson in 23 minutes had 13 points and 6 rebounds. In the aftermath of the loss in Washington, Doc had commented that he would give Al more minutes against San Antonio, and Wheezie certainly did not disappoint. Jefferson was active under the boards to the point where he is embarrassing others on the floor because he doesn’t “know” enough to give up on plays easily as most NBA players do. A few of his fouls on Duncan could fall into this category.
Overall, I thought The Fragile Frenchman did a nice job against Duncan defensively, and had 10 points and 7 rebounds in 25 foul plagued minutes. On the other side of the ledger, Mark Blount while a solid defender on Duncan in LaFrentz’s absence, was thoroughly unimpressive in 34 minutes. There were several opportunities for Blount to do more offensively and declined. But, while Blount’s game was hot and cold, Tom Gugliotta’s night was horrid. Googs had 0 rebounds and 0 points in 11 minutes of action. Of which, probably only 2 minutes were not embarassing. Googs alone had only 3 less minutes than Tony Allen and Marcus Banks combined. In which time Banks and Allen grabbed 8 caroms.
Celtics on the wings:
Yet again Paul Pierce has a fabulous shooting night, but the Celtics aren’t able to seal the deal in the 4th Quarter. Pierce (8/12 FG, 8/9 FT, 25 pts.) was deadly all evening, but it seemed that even some of the shots he made should have been passes. Now in the freewheeling, Summer of Love days of Jim O’Brien and Antoine Walker, a good shot was any shot. Not anymore. With this team attempting to build an unselfish, uptempo style of play, making bad decisions is not acceptable. Not making that extra pass causes players to stop moving without the basketball or making the extra pass themselves. When you need guys like Ricky Davis ready to bail you out, it behooves Pierce to keep them interested and happy. At this point… he doesn’t get it, and he’s losing his wingmen because he isn’t keeping them engaged in the game with his passing.
Ricky Davis had 35 largely forgettable minutes (2/7 FG, 3 TO) and gave up 21 points to Manu Ginobili who was open far too often at the arc (4/5 3pt FG). Things were so bad for Ricky that Doc pulled him from the lineup down the stretch in favor of Jiri Welsch, who while not in Doc’s doghouse, was certainly sleeping on the couch. Though there are a number of promising signs from Welsch that his early cold streak is thawing, as Welsch hit a number of jumpers that looked like the Jiri of last year.
As with the post players, the most promising effort amongst this group came from a rookie, this time it was Tony Allen. Obviously, Allen gets a lot of attention because of his highlight reel dunks and dribble drives, but Tony Allen is becoming much more of a solid basketball player than we were led to believe. In the preseason and summer league, Allen showed a propensity to gamble and seemed to get burned in the first few games of the year. In his last 2-3 games, Allen has played much more stay at home defense, but it says here that Tony is only biding his time until he understands NBA offenses to the point where he can gamble and win. Nevertheless, Allen had 5 solid rebounds and 2 points, even if he has not been fully integrated into the second unit’s offense, despite an explosive first step and great ability to finish.
Celtics at the Point:
Gary Payton was great for 3 quarters, but disappeared after Banks replaced him at the start of the 4th Quarter. Payton was incredibly effective posting up Parker, scoring many of his 16 points either on the block or at the free throw line from Parker’s inability to stop him. Given the struggles the Celtics had in the 4th quarter, one would think placing Payton on the block would have been an excellent idea to break a Spurs defense that held the C’s without a basket for 8:30 in the 4th Quarter. These are the type of calls a veteran point guard should be making, but alas, no one called Payton’s number, not even Payton himself.
As for the back up, well Marcus Banks has returned to his frustratingly inconsistent ways. After two fabulous games last week against New York and Charlotte; Banks returned this week with a pair of transparent performances. Though it would be easy to blame Banks ineffective play tonight as an outgrowth of facing a top flight point like Tony Parker, Banks’ weakness has always been his decision making. As an illustration of Banks’ difficulty with decision making, Banks received an offensive rebound at the free throw line with no Spur defender within 8 feet of him, and no other Celtics players closer to the hoop that were open. So, what does Banks do? I’ll give you a hint… he didn’t shoot. And, THAT my friends could be the beginning of the end for Marcus Banks in a Boston Celtics uniform.
Celtics Coaching:
Doc Rivers knows how to talk, which was a significant reason why Wyc and The Boys wanted him as their coach. In the days following the Celtics’ loss to Washington, Rivers relayed to the press the need for his team to not fall into the stagnant offense that ultimately spelled their doom on Wednesday. Doc did not focus on the nearly 2 to 1 rebounding edge the Wizards held over Boston, despite facing a Spurs team with great low post play. Yet, this evening, the Celtics won the battle of the boards 41 to 28, but failed to address what truly was their undoing, boring offense.
Now it could be argued the fault lies with the coaching staff, but that truly lets the players on the court off of the hook, particularly Payton and Pierce. It is far too early in the season to begin trashing coaching staff that sits only 7 games into their first season in town. But, someone is on the bench calling plays into the game, and if even they aren’t being executed, the coach can always change his personnel. For now, Pierce, Payton, and Rivers must share blame for this loss, but the fans must keep their expectations in check. This Celtics team probably won’t enter the New Year much above .500, but if we still see consistent 4th Quarter stagnation in February, the critics won’t be so kind.
Overall a very disappointing effort, particularly in the manner in which the game was lost. Repeating the key mistakes from previous losses and leading the first three quarters of the game make this an incredibly bitter pill to swallow. Now the Celtics will have to face the 9-1 Seattle Supersonics on Sunday, and hope they can actually put action behind words that to this point ring quite hollow.
