Patrick Ewing theory anyone?
Too soon?
Don't over react to one game against the Magic...
Soon we'll see "Celtics 1-0 without Thomas. Isn't it clear we're better without him?" posts, ala Rondo when he was still here
Seriously it's sickening to see this **** on here. Smart's had one good game and we are so quick to annoint him starting point guard. One bad game by IT and we are ready to bench him already. That's how bad the Smart bias is around here
can you look at the big picture
team comes 1st
and team play at both ends has not looked this good in a long time
I am. Our team is 12-8 and 3rd in the East with IT starting. If you think that Smart can put up this performance with any consistency over an 82 game season than your on something. IT consistently puts our team on his back in the 4th to help win us games and has done that consistently ever since he came here starting or not. There's a reason that our record has dramatically improved every year that IT has improved as a player. This year he's having another career year and for some reason we are on pace for 50 wins.
Our defense has looked worse than last season... and one key reason is bc of IT
teams are focusing on attacking him through PNRs etc... he can't defense guys taller than 6'2
Watch how teams have been playing us this year....ALOT of PNR, PNP....
You can't get away with doing this with Smart at the point
Defense wins championships....not offense. IT scoring 25 but giving up 20-25 points via PNR doesn't make it easy for the team to win... its been a nail biting type of season so far...and alot of it vs mediocre teams...if only our D was better we could be 15-5 instead
He was just as bad last year defensively.
The reason our defense doesn't look as good is because we have become even worse at rebounding and struggle to get stops with all the 2nd chances we give up off of offensive rebounds. That's due to the loss of Sully. We also are struggling on defense because Smart, Bradley, and Crowder haven't been able to guard up as well as last year.
Teams run a lot of PNR and PNP on us because none of our bigs besides Horford can stay in front of guards in these situations.
Also how are you going to say Smart is going to stop that when he went under so many screens against Augustin tonight and DJ just pulled up and splashed a 3?
Defense does win championships, but it also isn't played with one person. Our decline on the defensive end isn't just because of IT, but a collection of factors.