Ex-Ray? Not Likely to Leave Lasting Damage

Posted by Brendan Jackson on Apr 19, 2009 15251 commenthttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2009%2F04%2F19%2Fex-ray-not-likely-to-leave-lasting-damage%2FEx-Ray%3F+Not+Likely+to+Leave+Lasting+Damage2009-04-19+04%3A55%3A20Brendan+Jacksonhttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D1525

Ray Allen finished today’s game shooting 1-12 from the field, and 0-6 from the three point arc. That’s right, Ray Allen. The same guy who has made 2299 three point shots in his career, almost a thousand more than any other active player. Unlike the 2299 times he’s made a three point shot, he failed to sink any of the six treys he took in today’s game.

Now, some people can have bad shooting days, but those people aren’t Ray Allen. For guys like Ray Allen, they don’t have bad shooting days, they have bad shooting quarters. A problem that usually fixes itself when they come out after a time out and sink their next three shots. This was not the case for Ray today.

Before making his lone FG, a measly leaner in the lane, Ray went 0-3 from three point land with some pretty good looks. After sinking that pull up, I remember thinking, “alright, nice veteran move Ray, shot’s not falling, get going by going inside.” Oh how wrong I was.

But I wasn’t the only one who was wrong today. 39 minutes is too much time to give a guy to “figure it out.” Especially when he wasn’t trying to just pick up one facet of his game. Ray looked awful the entire game. Almost all of his three point attempts back-rimmed, even the ones he took from the sides. He committed a few bad fouls by hitting a shooter’s elbow. But worst of all, was his failure to capitalize on momentum shifts. Ray missed a wide open dunk in the lane that would have brought the house down, and after the Celts got a great steal and passed it up to Ray for what looked like a breakaway lay up, Ray awkwardly dribbled it without securing control and the ball just skipped out of bounds on the baseline.

As mush as Ray was to blame for his poor performance, an equal blame should be placed on Doc Rivers. Doc has been hailed as a players coach and today, I feel as if he let the players coach him. Ray is, without a doubt, the consummate professional and very well respected by his peers. Hell, he even got Reggie Miller to claim Ray’s elbow to Anderson Varejao’s nether region was “inadvertent.” That said, you can’t give a guy 39 minutes hoping in the last one he’ll become his old self. There’s a difference between superstar treatment and just poor decision-making.

You know what happens when you give a guy that much time to figure it out when everyone knows that it’s not going to happen? Two things:

One:

His teammates start to not trust him, as evident by the three on one fast break in the fourth quarter where Rondo looked right at Ray and hesitated to give him the ball for a wide open three. Rondo eventually gave him the ball, and Ray back-rimmed the three from the side-aka: waaaay off.

And Two:

He ends up taking the last shot of the game in a vain attempt to force double overtime.

All that being said…

I’m not worried, and neither should you be. Since Doc gave Ray 39 minutes to figure out his game and find some rhythm, he should be very well prepared for Monday’s game and come out firing. Ray is resilient. When he went through his shooting struggles in last year’s playoffs, he stuck with it and eventually came back to form. Doc just shouldn’t be afraid to yank him for a few more minutes and let Eddie House try his craft. Or dare I say, Tony Allen for three? I know he can’t shoot, but anything can happen in a game where Rondo shoots 100% from three and Ray shoots 0%.

If you’re still worried, read Brian Robb’s previous post, he’ll convince you otherwise.