We're missing our two centers. Our best player has been out a month and is clearly rusty. We just traded away two pieces of our bench that were really well liked. Our starting center last night didn't appear comfortable. Specifically last night: Miller doesn't have the foot-speed to stay in front of Rondo. LMA typically is soft against teams like Boston, and tonight was no different. Ray Allen played very well, sometimes at no fault of anyone else. Webster disappears 2 out of every 3 games, tonight was one of the two. Rudy killed our run with 3 turnovers in 2 minutes early in the 4th. I could go on and on, but this is a players game. There is a reason coaches get paid less than players. I can't be the only one who didn't notice most if not all of the things listed above can I? It doesn't take much critical thinking IMO.
Can you please explain? Boston & Atlanta are one game apart in the standings. Boston does allow 3 fewer points from opponents than Atlanta does, whilst Atlanta scores 3 more points against their opponents than Boston does. That still does not explain the low assist count.
3 points in average defensive difference is actually quite a bit. It is definitly the difference between a top tier defense, and a 2nd tier defense. When Boston wants to put the clamps on, they can. Are you going to tell me that Mike Bibby is the same defensive intensity as Rajon Rondo? How about Al Horford and and Josh Smith being the same defensive intensity as KG, and Kendrick Perkins? Do you think Za Za Pachulia is as good as defender as Rasheed Wallace? One team has had a top defense for a couple of years. The other is a team that is still trying to figure out how to become that team. If that doesn't help you figure it out, I don't know what will.
The difference between Atlanta and Boston is that Boston has gone 12-13 over its last 25 games, while Atlanta has gone 14-11. They are both fairly average recently.
Denver has 6 assists in the first 9 minutes of play in the first quarter against this same Boston team.
