Saturday Notebook: Talkin’ ‘Bout Practice (and Road Trips, and Kobe)
Posted by Zach Lowe on Dec 5, 2009
• Everyone is quite happy with the C’s 4-0 road trip, and we’ll get to this in a second. But I thought the most interesting tidbit of the day came from Gary Washburn’s recap of the trip in the Globe:
Rivers knew his team needed to be ready for a rugged December schedule, with 10 of 14 games on the road. On this trip he saved their legs by canceling two practices.
There’s a lot of skepticism among league observers about Doc’s coaching ability. He was a weak tactician unfit for the Celtics job until the team signed two All-Stars who make him look good, the theory goes. Whatever you think about Doc, you have to give him this: He knows how to coach this team. He doesn’t overwork them, he doesn’t scream and pout and he’s not relentlessly critical in the media. He understands the veteran nature of the team and coaches accordingly. Would the C’s take to the coaching style of, say, Stan Van Gundy (a coach whom I respect a ton)?
Keep resting the guys if you think they need it, Doc.
• Elsewhere, everyone is happy with the team’s unbeaten road trip. Here’s Doc from the same Globe piece:
“This is just a great road trip,’’ Rivers said. “We came out here and had a sweep even though all the teams were playing well. I’m really proud of our guys. I thought this would be the toughest of all the nights. This is the best all year that our starters have played.’’
And Rondo, when asked if the team is playing “Celtics basketball”:
“Almost there, almost there,’’ Rondo said when asked if the last four games was Celtics basketball. “We’re putting together not just one quarter, we’re putting a couple of quarters together. We’re not quite 48 minutes, but we’re almost there. We keep building and we keep getting better.’’
Ray Allen strikes the right tone in Mark Murphy’s Herald piece:
“I don’t think we have any reason to be content with winning games yet,” said Ray Allen. “Winning is the ultimate objective, but every moment there are things we do out there on the floor that we know we can do better.”
The coach weighs in on those troublesome 20 San Antonio offensive rebounds, and we (briefly) address something provocative J.A. Adande wrote about Kobe Bryant’s insane buzzer beater last night, after the jump.
Doc has a thoughtful take on on San Antonio was able to get a bunch of their 20 ORBs on Thursday, and how the C’s should have responded. Via the Globe’s notebook (also by Washburn):
“I told our guys, they did go over our backs, but after the 10th time there’s going to be no calls and you are going to have to take care of the business yourself,’’ Rivers said.
I’m not sure I agree that San Antonio committed that many over the back fouls, but the Spurs did outleap the C’s for a bunch of tap-out ORBs. I thought it was more a function of a) bad luck on some bounces; and b) having Brian Scalabrine in the game instead of Shelden Williams.
• In the same notebook, Rondo echoes almost exactly my comments about the C’s semi-transition game:
“When the defense doesn’t get set up they’re pretty vulnerable. Especially the way we play, we’ve got so many great shooters – Ray and Paul. Then, you’ve got Kevin and [Kendrick Perkins] running the floor. I’ve got the ball in my hands, I’ve got so many weapons, it’s not easy for them to get stops. Especially when you get back on defense, you might have cross matchups at the time. We did a great job of pacing the floor, running the floor, but it started when we got stops.’’
Amen, Rajon.
• In his notebook, Mark Murphy of the Herald has a cute inside-the-locker-room tidbit about Sheed taunting Shelden Williams over Duke’s loss to Wisconsin:
As several members of Williams’ hometown media – he’s from Oklahoma – interviewed the Celtics forward about his recent success, Wallace loudly made up his own Wisconsin fight song.
Wallace’s version had absolutely nothing in common with “On Wisconsin,” which is only the best known college fight song in the land, but then it wouldn’t have been a Sheed production without some extra creativity.
“(Garnett) and Rasheed are always going back and forth in practice, so after a while you get used to it,” he said.
Wouldn’t you love to know the lyrics have that fake Wisconsin fight song? What are the odds they didn’t include profanity? 100 to 1? 500 to 1? Don’t you wish newspapers could write this stuff?
• And finally, we cannot end without addressing J.A. Adande’s comments (on TrueHoop) about Kobe Bryant’s buzzer-beater last night, specifically this:
He’s known for making them. That’s why he’s the best option for a last-second shot in the history of the NBA.
Umm…come again? Have we forgotten MJ that quickly? To Adande’s credit (and I like Adande, and he clearly knows the league about as well as anyone), he openly admits he’s ignoring statistical evidence showing that Kobe’s reputation in the clutch might be slightly overblown. He even links to the 82games.com study that—to a degree—undermined Kobe’s clutchness:
It simply added to the lore, defied statistical studies that suggest LeBron James, Vince Carter or Ray Allen would be a better option there, made you wonder how he does it.
Kobe also fares less than great in other 82games.com studies of player performance in the last few minutes of close games, but in fairness to Kobe (and if there’s one thing you know I’m concerned about, it’s being fair to Kobe), those studies focus on the last few minutes of close games, while Adande is taking about buzzer-beaters.
And there’s no doubt that Kobe is one of the best end-game options in league history, in part because of the responsibility he has—some of which he seized himself, some of which has been thrust upon him—for taking so many shots in end-game situations.
But best ever? Settle down, J.A.
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