<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Two successive good days of practice -- a rarity this fall for Delonte West -- should have been enough. But when the Celtics finished yesterday, West kept at it, practicing his post offense and defense against (gulp) Kendrick Perkins, Leon Powe, and Al Jefferson. Uh, Doc Rivers, is that what you want to see from your young guard who has been idled by back and foot woes for much of the last six weeks? "I love his competitiveness," Rivers said. "It's good to be nuts." We might actually get a soup-to-nuts performance from West tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats, which would indicate that the third-year guard is closer to where he feels he needs to be. At this point, the 0-3 Celtics -- the only winless team in the Eastern Conference -- need all the help they can muster. So far, in three games, West has been noticeable only occasionally, which is very uncharacteristic, and has shot a wretched 3 of 16 from the field. He played only 11 minutes last Saturday night against the Wizards and just 16 the night before against the Pistons. This is a guy who averaged 30-plus minutes last year and didn't play 11 or 16 minutes unless he was hurt in the game. He also started every game (71) he played. But the draft-night arrivals of Sebastian Telfair and Rajon Rondo pretty much signaled that West's point guard responsibilities were going to be diminished, if not eliminated outright. He did start Opening Night -- not at the point -- when Rivers went to a small lineup (a mistake, as it turned out). And he may wind up getting more time at the point than was first envisioned. The reason: Opponents are basically begging Telfair and Rondo to beat them from the outside. Rivers feels that if West is out there, the opposition will have to guard him because he is a better shooter. And Paul Pierce won't see so many double teams. That's the theory, anyway. But over the first three games, Telfair is shooting 54 percent, Rondo is shooting 44 percent, and West is at, ahem, 19 percent. No wonder Rivers said, "I think he's pretty close to having a breakout game." It can't get a whole lot worse. Rivers said West's situation this year reminded him of Jefferson's last year, when Jefferson got hurt on the first day of camp and didn't make it to the exhibition floor until weeks later. West was bothered by a bad back and an infected foot, but he still played in four exhibition games, including the last two, going 28 and 31 minutes. "We can't expect him to just walk on the floor and be a great player," Rivers said. "We have to have patience with Delonte. I don't think he's hiding anything. I just think he's rusty. His timing is off." Said Pierce, "He'll get back in the groove. He's had two great practices. He's a guy who I know is going to be there, who is going to be consistent. We trust him." And when West's shot starts falling, Pierce said, "That's another person on the scouting report that you have to worry about. We encourage him to shoot. I encourage the guys who I have confidence in, the guys who I believe in and who can make the shots. I want them to shoot. That's going to make it easier for me."</div> Source
Game winning shot, sure, but let's not also forget the rest of his night. He missed seven of nine and has shot under 20% for the season so far. That's a frighteningly bad number. I hope he figures out whatever's troubling him and gets back into a groove. At least Pierce had enough confidence in him to be wide open and win it, Pierce usually doesn't show that kind of comfort-level with anyone.
True, maybe pierce showing some confidence in him will encourage him, and maybe he'll snap out of his funk. But im sure that game winning shot alone will give him some confidence.
