| This River’s Dry Authored by Jared L. Cantin - November 2, 2006 - 8:46 pm
| Current Featured Columns | | Merry Christmas, Raptors Fans The Raptors might not be playing good basketball right now, but there are plenty of things for Toronto fans to be thankful for this holiday season.
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There comes a time in every season where the coach takes heat for the demonstrated limitations of his team. Doc Rivers has faced his share of criticism in the past, some merited, and some not, but last night, Doc showed anyone willing to see it, that he is a woefully inadequate game strategist.
Among the many mistakes Doc made last night, the first was his starting lineup. Doc trotted out Perkins, Wally, Pierce, West and Telfair to start the game. This lineup mandates that either Wally, a slow un-athletic six-foot-seven swingman, or Paul Pierce, your shooting guard star, cover the four-position. Although this match-up creates defensive concerns for the Celtics, Doc was apparently counting on Wally’s ability to get his jumper off against larger defenders as offensive compensation. Wally was able to shoot, and he missed. Essentially, Doc compromised defense and rebounding, in favor of creating jump shots for Wally. This is, for lack of a better phrase, an immensely stupid basketball move.
Doc’s approach was stupid for several reasons, the first being that last year the Celtics were a good offensive team, and a bad defensive one. They need defensive help, not jump shots! Second, Danny Ainge put forth hard efforts in the off-season to get real point guards to run this team. Ainge went out and acquired two guards capable of penetrating and dishing. With Telfair and Rondo, Doc does not need to put Wally at the four to get open jumpers. He simply needs to sit him at the three-point line, run high screens for the point guards, and let Paul Pierce work his man. When the defense collapses, Wally gets shots. Doc’s lineup was also stupid because defensively, it created easy shots for a typically soft power forward. David West is a nice, perimeter shooting four. Last night, he was five for six on lay-ups, and four for sixteen on jumpers. Doc’s approach allowed him to become a force in the paint. Lastly, when Doc realized that his approach was not working, he did not change it. Sure, Gomes replaced Wally early, but why not try the opposite of what was not working; why not try putting Jefferson and Perkins into the game at the same time? This, like playing a full Doc lineup of sub six-foot-seven inch players, can also create a running game. By having two trees in the middle, the C’s could have controlled the glass, contested shots, created misses, and started running opportunities. Doc did not even try this approach, instead choosing to rely on his Captain’s endless rebounding efforts, when Pierce should instead be one of the men out on the wing of the break. Doc’s inability to react and try new strategies is his largest downfall, and his rotations clearly revealed this.
In addition to the issues with the starting lineup, Doc demonstrated even more inadequacies in his repeated failures to instruct Celtic point guards on how to defend Chris Paul on the pick and role. Not until the fourth quarter did the Celtics begin defending Paul underneath the high screen. Instead, Doc watched as Chris Paul left Rondo in his wake as he penetrated and abused the Celtic big men for “and-one” opportunities, eventually fouling Jefferson out. If Doc had any sense, he would have considers that Chris Paul was on his way to missing six of his eight jump shots, and only one of his six lay-ups. The seven shots Paul missed were located at the following spots on the court: (1) the foul line, (2) the top of the circle, (3) a twenty-footer, (4) three three-pointers, and (5) just one lay-up. Paul also drew fouls on penetration for nine free throws, and created countless shots for others by getting into the lane freely. If Doc had played underneath the screens defensively, Paul would have had to prove he could hit the jumper, and other Hornet players would have had to prove that they can create their own shot, which they simply cannot.
The Boston Celtics are a young team that needs leadership and strategy from the head coach. Physically, they have all the tools to win a game any given night against most teams. Last year, the repeatedly lost close games, and if last night was any indication, they will continue doing so until the coaching staff can make the adjustments that make small differences in games. For the Celtics, Doc again showed last night that he in not capable, nor is he willing to make those small adjustments. If he proves over the next few months that this coaching is the norm, not the exception, the time of Rivers in Boston may run dry. |
