I have been thinking about this all day long. I've tried as best I could to step back and think of the big picture and why on earth this team seems so different than the road warriors that won 66 regular season games. This is what I've come up with. In no particular order:
They didn't play enough pressure packed games in the regular season, and really faced no adversity. They had, by far, the largest margin of victory of any team in the NBA. Most games were blowouts, usually by the third quarter. They're simply not battle tested in this regard. Had they been a team thats been together for years, this would be beneficial, but they are an extremely rare entity in that they became championship contenders the first time they ever stepped on the court together. It also didn't help that they spent the last four weeks of the regular season not only in cruise control, but used a completely disrupted rotation in an effort to keep their stars healthy and rested. They basically entered the postseason flat as a board. So now the postseason comes and they don't have a whole lot to draw upon as experience with adversity. I for one thought things like the West coast sweep would do them well in this regard but it obviously has not.
A void of an alpha male presence among the teams stars. This has been evident at the end of the road games they've managed to stay competitive. It appears no one wants to grab the game by the horns and steer the club to victory. This is strange because Pierce has this ability on his resume which he's displayed in past postseasons, although not much of late. The closest guy they have is Sam Casell, but he's so old and erratic that they end up getting burned when they turn to him in on the road. Having a second year starting point guard isn't helping much either. A whole heap of the blame here goes to Garnett, who simply can't or won't carry the team on his back come crunch time.
A false bravado, and frontrunner attitude The trash talking, which the regular season club took to an unprecedented level, is simply counterproductive on the road. You saw it in Atlanta where the C's bench would spend the first 6 minutes of each game taunting the crowd. At home it works great, where everything goes your way. This team wooping it up, in a rout of the toothless Hawks in a game seven they never should have even had to play, was a sign that things were askew. Now you see games like last night, where the team seems demoralized, hands in their heads, in a three point game in the fourth quarter. They're missing their trash talking bravado (which don't play down 3 on the road) and they're feeling lost without that
"energy". They would have been better served toning the entire act in the regular season, but thats nothing I saw as a problem back then.
Eddie House, Sam Cassell and rotations The team they're trotting out now is simply different than the one that ran roughshod over the entire league. Say what you want about Eddie House, but he in essence played half the games at the point for this team. He brought a certain energy with strengths and weaknesses that meshed with the other players in a certain way. I'm sure they could have meshed this way with Cassell, but they really didn't have the time. He played sporadically down the stretch (for reasons which I've never quite understood) and then was asked to play a MAJOR role in the playoffs. The results have been hit and miss at home and a disaster on the road. PJ Brown (who has played well) has also taken a much larger role in the playoffs than the regular season, but his role is so small I doubt it can have a game changing effect. But even the slightest change in minutes can have a trickle down effect on how an entire team behaves.
The coach and UNBUNTU He's opened my eyes thats for sure. He seems to be choking. He makes substitution decisions a step too late, he has poor body language and self control on the bench, and he doesn't appear to be fostering an atmosphere thats conducive to winning road games in the playoffs. I'm also starting to question his UNBUNTU approach and how well it works in the tournament. His approach is trust, share, trust and share. Well the team seems to be trusting that the other guy is gonna make the big play and very willing to share the ball with them when things get tight. If the 2002 club was playing last night Pierce would have went 12-26, Walker would have went 10-23 and they would have won by 2. Instead Pierce gets 26 shots in two road games, Rondo shoots the ball 24 times, Cassell (the one guy willing to take these shots) goes 0-11 and you lose both games. Completely unselfish team basketball doesn't get it done on the offensive end on the road in the playoffs.
So there you have it. Thats why I think this team is playing completely different than the regular season. Some of this can be fixed or fought through, but most of it probably cannot. To be honest I hope I'm wrong about all of this. I hope these are knee jerk reactions after the team has lost 5 game son the road. But its not so much as the losses, as the manner of which they have lost. Its a disturbing trend that eventually is gonna get them burned when they're forced to win a road game to survive in the tournament. I hope that day isn't this Friday because I don't think they're ready yet.