<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">HOUSTON ? Perhaps an extra night in Houston isn?t advisable from now on. After having Monday to practice and rest up from Sunday?s trip-opening win in New York, the Celtics moved last night as if they had spent the previous 24 hours in a local ribs joint. Though the cumbersome Rockets appeared to have shared from the same feed bag, they had a 35-point explosion from Tracy McGrady to thank for the difference in last night?s 91-73 Celtics loss. The Celtics, who carried a scant 54 points into the fourth quarter, suffered through their worst shooting performance (23-for-67, 34.3 percent) in almost two years, dating back to a 29 percent performance against the Pistons in January 2004. A foul-plagued Paul Pierce (20 points, 3-for-10), the slumping Raef LaFrentz (0-for-6, one point) and a seriously off-kilter Ricky Davis (3-for-10 over the first three quarters) highlighted that trouble by shooting a combined 8-for-28. In a somewhat twisted way, Doc Rivers actually welcomed the news that the Celtics hadn?t struggled that badly in so long. ?I hope so ? I hope that was it,? the Celtics coach said. ?It?s not often that this team has to worry about its offense like that.? But the Celtics did indeed slip into a panicked state after falling behind by a 48-38 halftime score. Pierce was about to miss an eight-minute chunk of the second half to foul trouble, LaFrentz was about to go down for good, and Davis, in an attempt to right too many wrongs, tried to force the pace. In the meantime, McGrady simply built steam. ?T-Mac is a great player,? said Pierce, who was left helplessly guarding the Rockets star on many of his biggest shots. ?But you have to play guys like that night in and night out.? If this had been a matter of a defensive breakdown, Pierce could have understood it better, considering how often the Celtics have been unable to get stops this season. </div> Source
This truly was a shameful loss, but it happens to the best of teams, so who can say for sure? I sincerely hope we can string a couple together now. It's about time this team did something night in and night out, aside from breaking my heart. The most important thing for them to remember is to keep their heads in the right place. If a team like this starts to get down on itself for games it shouldn't be losing, it's going to be a long season. If they convince themselves that losing is something they're going to do, and that next season is just that, then we're going to see a refreshing bit of good basketball. Confidence seems to drive this team to good heights.
All we need to do is stay 2-3 games away from whoever is leading the Atlantic. I think we will get better as the season goes along, and hopefully start to gel as the regular season winds down and into the playoffs.
