Once again nothing but an entire team(players and coaches) letdown with external forces being a major force in the game.
But can we please start to give this Atlanta team some credit. They have played with poise, heart, intensity, and a maturity beyond their years at home this postseason and it's time we stop looking so much internally and start looking at how well this team has played at home.
They are probably more the reason we have three losses in Atlanta than any coaching move, referee, shot clock malfunction, or player letdown on the Celtics part.
The Hawks caused a lot of the disruption on their defensive end when the games turned and thy hit the big shots when they had to be hit. Even the shots that were contested, defended well, and difficult to make.
And they made their free throws, the same can't be said for the Celtic team we adore.
But if we have to look internally and to other factors besides th Hawks and their rabid crowd feeding energy into them then here's where I think things went wrong.
1.) Paul Pierce. Except for the first quarter of games he has been nonexistant and last night followed that pattern. He looks for and creates his shot in the first quarter and after that nothing. The drives aren't there and when they are he's not trying to finish them off. His free throw shooting has been abysmal. And we just haven't heard a word about him on the defensive end. He has been a complete non-factor there.
2.) KG has been okay but not the KG we need. Can someone tell me where the 4 time defending rebounding champion has gone? He seems to be boxing no one out on the defensive boards and allowing a ton of offensive rebounds. KG has never been a fabulous offensive rebounder, mostly because of his outside game, but what has happened to this man's defensive rebounding which has been the best in the league for a decade?
3.) Rondo finally had a bad game. When he successfully took it to the hole he missed the layups and too many times he tried to go into a hole that just wasn't there in turned the ball over by having his shot blocked, throwing it way or being stripped. He also looked vaguely like Cassell last night with his pounding of the ball for long periods of time.
4.) Ray. He's starting to look old defensively and his three pointer just wasn't there last night. He didn't have what I would call a bad game but it wasn't what should be expected out of him either. None of the Big Three played big in Atlanta.
5.) Team defense has disappeared in Atlanta. 48% for the game and a couple of quarters where they shot over 60% is horrible. The amount of defensive letdowns and the players that were allowing it is way to long to measure and discuss. But the D in Atlanta has been horrible.
6.) The offense has stopped being the ball movement, seek out the open guy offense we've been used to. Way, way too many times are guys trying to do everything themselves and the interior passing, that had been a staple of this club all year is being shut down or is shutting itself down. Movement without the ball has been bad, bad, bad. And the ability to miss shots inside of two feet has just befuddled me.
7.) Doc. We are getting contribution from exactly three guys off the bench Powe, Posey and Cassell. If that's the case, why is anyone else from the bench even playing? And can we please stop making our first substitution be at the 10 minute mark left in the first and third quarters so that we have an all substitute team on the floor during the beginnings of the second and fourth, especially the fourth. The results have been as bad and predictable as they could be. Other than that I don't have too much problem with Doc. For the most part the players have failed him in Atlanta and not the other way around nearly as much.
8.) The refs once again weren't good in the second half looking as biased as the last two crews that worked Atlanta. Their first half was good but, OMG in the second half.
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