Series tied, 2-2 There are a lot of interesting things to discuss here, so I figured I'd start the discussion early. First, what should we do about the starting lineup? -Bring back 'Toine. -Keep it like it was in Game 4. -Change it again...keep them on their toes. We got great production out of Ricky in game 4... -Sixth man all year, sixth man in game 5. -Leave him in. He's important to the team and he was most effective as a starter. Who to put on Reggie? -GP again, he's a vet and "the glove" for a reason. -The refs won't repeat their game 4 performance. GP is too critical and must stay out of foul trouble. (among other things....)
You're right there is a lot to discuss, so here we go: First, what should we do about the starting lineup? Doc's whole philosophy was that he had to just put his five best players on the floor and let them play. Well, I think its obvious that Toine is one of the 5 best Celtics, so he should be in the starting lineup (same with ricky - start him). The whole reason that Danny brought him back was that he knows Toine can run. These people who think Toine will mess up the flow must have only watched the last game. I'm sorry, did he not play in game 1? Who to put on Reggie? I think that it doesn't matter who we put on reggie, it matters who we put on their point guard. From all accounts, Tinsley practiced today for the first time all series and Anthony Johnson sat out after a colision in game 4. If its Tinsley, you know his condition and timing will be messed up, make him work. It was the constant ball pressure on Johnson, James and Gill bringing the ball up that helped break up the Pacers flow and didn't let them get into their offense until there were 13 second left on the clock. That cuts down on the number of screens that Reggie can run through. Banks can come up huge for us if he can keep pressure on the ball handlers.
I see this game as the deciding outcome of the series. Whoever takes this game IMO takes the round. Celtics have the obvious advantage, Carlisle has to put Tinsley into this game if he wants a shot at winning this series.
I'm sorry. I know Antoine Walker is "Antoine Walker", but when a guy doesn't have it, he doesn't have it. We already proved we could win without him, yet Doc continues to give him as much run as possible. I don't care who it is, if a guy gets in the way of the team's progress, get him out of there. Mark Blount's getting the treatment, why not Walker? Also, get the damn ball to Pierce. He needs to be taking more shots than this. Edit- Down to 5 at the end of the 3rd. As soon as Doc took Toine out, we started playing better. Weird. (Yeah, I'm "that guy")
What a game! I thought for sure when the crowd was gettin into it in the fourth quarter that the pacers would just run out of gas. I do think that the pacers will close the series on Thursday in Indiana. Tinsley was a huge factor. But the celtics defense did a great job on him. The Celtics are gonna have to play their hearts out if they want to force a game 7. They better bot start antoine and cannot have another 22 turnover game.
I highly doubt that we'll win this series now. I thought we were dreadful tonight. I don't think we did a very good job playing to our strengths. With all the success we had in game 4, we almost went in a totally different direction. You'd think after handing the Pacers their worst playoff loss ever, you might want to emulate that performance? Maybe? Just a little bit? I don't know. If it were me, and Toine was playing that bad, he would have been sitting right next to Mark on the bench. This is the playoffs. You can't worry about guys' egos. It seemed to me that the timeline of us playing our best and closing the gap coincided with the time that Toine was on the bench. He just takes awful shots and almost single handedly ruins the offensive flow. He's great for the team in a limited role, but he's terrible for it when he plays like he usually does. Pierce should've seen the ball more in the first half, too. Maybe Doc should use timeouts like Carlisle did. Just a thought. Speaking of which, the NBA needs to limit the amount of TOs that a team can take in a game.
I really, strongly believe the Celtics will pull this series out: and call me crazy, but I'm basing solely on a silly, stupid premonition that just says that the Pacers don't have it in the tank. They've been firing on all cylinders for just a few games too many now, and the C's are just about ready to hit the stride they came up with around the Trade Deadline. This is crazy, I know, and it is. I just can't fight the feeling that the Celtics just have a little more left in the tank. And I know it's dumb, but don't forget, this team has leaders. Leaders after leaders, and we've heard nothing from GP all season, and now is where he plays with his back against the wall. This team is absolutely burdened with talent, and I think we're going to see some for Game 6. Again, I welcome the notion of you guys calling me nuts, because I know it is. But here's to a strong offensive showing in Game 6, and a shot at home.
^You're nuts. I want to say that they'll win, but I cant convince myself they will. I just think it's still too much of a mess this year. We can't play on a consistent basis and I think it's showing in a 7 game series. We have better talent, we're in better shape injury-wise, and we're more athletic. Problem is, we rely on so many young players that are inconsistent and our coach has a hard time balancing the rotations (but who wouldn't?). I still think we're about 2 years away. We need time for the young guys to develop. We need another year of motion offense, and we need a few more pieces to fit in here and there. We're on the right track. That's why it's hard to get frustrated about it all. I'll be happy if we win one more and force the game 7. More than that, and I'll be ecstatic.
We'll still win the series, we'll just have to do it the hard way, which seems to be the way this team likes it. Annoying game on so many levels, that I'm just going to link the recap and you can get my thoughts from there. I don't want to get riled up, typing them out again. Game 5: Pacers Win in Boston <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> I took some time to walk away before writing this, otherwise, it could have come off unnecessarily harsh in tone. I'm bummed after watching this one. We failed on so many levels tonight. The 1st quarter was pretty much the Raef LaFrentz show for the Celtics. By the 5:00 mark, Raef already had several big plays involving blocks, 3 pters, transition dunks and taking an offensive charge. The C's trailed though, 17-14 and really hadn't established any flow to the game, other than sloppy. Ricky Davis and Gary Payton both got within 8ft to score and pull the Celtics to 21-19 with 1:05 left. Timeout Pacers. Jermaine O'Neal came out of the timeout and hit a short turn around jumper with :51 on the clock. "Big Al" Jefferson and Marcus Banks checked into the game at :38.5 and paid off almost immediately, as they combined on a late developing pick and roll, which saw Jefferson finished with 2 handed thunder, from straight up the middle. <font color="Navy">End of 1: 23-21 Pacers.</font> </div>
