I was able to make the jaunt down to Waltham today for the C’s practice, which I figured would be an active practice session after Sunday’s massacre. A few notes from the session in which Doc Rivers and Rajon Rondo were the only two prominent members of the C’s to speak:
Notes from Doc’s session:
- The team had a very good practice overall tonight and responded well to the criticism Doc laid on them yesterday
- Paul Pierce was not moving around very well and was pulled early from the session. He is questionable for Wednesday night against New Orleans but Doc thinks he will play
- Tuesday, the team had planned to practice, but will have to fly down to New Orleans in the morning in order to make it into the city before the parade. Had they left at the time they planned on at 3 after a practice, they wouldn’t have been able to get into New Orleans until 10, 11 or midnight, city officials told them.
- It was the “little things” that killed in the C’s in the 3rd quarter yesterday, on both ends of the floor. They couldn’t get stops when they needed to and it wasn’t just one guy who was the problem.
- Team needs to reclaim their position as best defensive team in the NBA and need to stop relying on missing guys as an excuse for their play.
- The main problem Doc emphasized was the team changing its execution on the fly without consulting its coach and lacking communication. For example, Doc said the team was making switches on pick and rolls when the team shouldn’t be switching. Little problems like that.
- It’s a veteran team that is relying too much on its past success right now, instead of doing what they need to be doing.
- On the agenda talk, still thinks everyone is on the same page, “no bad guys” on this team. There was a conga line outside his office today but it’s been all talk from everyone thus far, not getting done on the floor.
- Team needs to get back to playing simple basketball offensively. They had pounded the ball in the post in the 1st half and got plenty of layups but there was minimal posting up in the 2nd half. Team needs to stay true to that kind of simple play. More from Doc, and Rajon Rondo after the jump » Read more: Monday Practice Report: Communication Breakdown, Rondo in All-Star Horse Competition
Does Daniels Solve the Turnover Crisis?
By Zach Lowe, CelticsHub.com @ February 8th, 10:46 pm 1 comment »I had been wondering the same thing before the game. Here are the C’s turnover figures in games with and without Daniels, not including Sunday’s loss to Orlando.
With Daniels (19 games): 15.1 turnovers per game
Without Daniels (28 games): 16.1 turnover per game
That’s not much, but it’s also not nothing. If the C’s season-long turnover average were 16.1 per game, they’d be leading the league in turnovers per game despite playing a very slow pace. Cut out one turnover, and the C’s would rank about 20th in raw turnovers per game—still bad, but not far from league average.
Of course, Golden State turning the ball over 15 times per game isn’t the same as Boston turning the ball over 15 times per game; the Warriors play fast and use about nine more possessions than the C’s, so if the teams’ raw turnovers are equal, it means Golden State—Golden freaking State!—takes better care of the ball than Boston. (And they do).
But let’s get back to the Daniels Effect. » Read more: Does Daniels Solve the Turnover Crisis?
1 comment »
Posted in Commentary