A Window Into A Veteran Team

Posted by Zach Lowe on Dec 21, 2009 49034 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2009%2F12%2F21%2Fa-window-into-a-veteran-team%2FA+Window+Into+A+Veteran+Team2009-12-21+05%3A11%3A38Zach+Lowehttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D4903

Earlier this season, a few players on the Raptors were begging coach Jay Triano to show them film, so they could see the all of the mistakes they were making on defense and hold themselves accountable. Triano, for whatever reason, hesitated to have a group film session, and the call for him to exercise his authority turned into a mini-insurrection that verged into “this could cost the coach his job” territory.

Is it possible that group film study, NFL style, is not as big a part of NBA culture as some of us (myself included) think it is? It must vary from coach to coach, right? 

Whatever the case, my favorite tidbit from the Globe’s rightfully sunny recap of the C’s-Wolves beat down is this:

Celtics coach Doc Rivers said he also told Pierce, who scored only nine points in Friday night’s loss to the Sixers, to get back to his instincts instead of trying to figure out ways to get everyone involved. The team watched film after the loss — a rarity during the regular season — and Rivers put together a sequence of all the uncontested shots.

“There were a lot of them,” Rivers said. “It was good for them to see.”

It’s unclear from the context if Rivers was showing uncontested shots that Pierce passed up or uncontested shots the C’s defense yielded to Philly. Either way, the line that caught my eye was “a rarity during the regular season.”

I wonder if Doc has always minimized group film sessions, or if this is him tailoring his coaching to fit a veteran club that doesn’t need to be babied or chided in public. Doc himself is a film nut; he has mentioned before how he enjoys solo plane rides so that he can whip out some film and watch it alone for hours at a time. (Wait, that sounded bad. Sorry.)

In any case: A nice win that Brendan will analyze in-depth later. 

Enjoy it. We’ve got a short work week this week, and then the Orlando game on Christmas. 

Oh, savor this Tony Allen performance. Good for him. Bring that effort every night, and the C’s have a weapon we didn’t anticipate going into this season.

For all the dunks and the sterling +16, the most important line of TA’s box score: Zero turnovers.