duncan228
01-10-2009, 09:24 PM
Celtics slide not excused by fatigue (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Celtics_slide_not_excused_by_fatigue.html)
Mike Monroe
The Celtics have been in relatively good health all season. Kevin Garnett has missed one game. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, the other members of Boston's Big Three, have missed none.
How, then, to explain the recent slide by the defending champions, who go into today's game at Toronto having lost four straight and seven of their last nine?
Marc Spears, the Boston Globe's astute NBA writer, suggested fatigue has set in on a team that played until June 17 last year, and then opened the season on a 27-2 tear.
When this theory was posed to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, he scoffed.
“Who else gets 30 or 45 days off before they have to go back to work?” Popovich said. “How much off time do you need?”
The problem most NBA coaches have is keeping their players out of the gym during the summer.
“Guys play in the summer,” Popovich said. “So whether you play in the Olympics, or here and there, guys play. During the (past) summer, Timmy (Duncan) was here, running hills, running in the sand, throwing tires and doing all that stuff. So what's the difference?”
So, is fatigue a valid explanation for the difficulty faced by any team that played to the end of the NBA playoffs?
“That's overblown,” Popovich said.
Popovich believes in accountability. When misfortune means playing without injured players, or with players whose injuries limit them, you shut up and play. Excuses are for losers, and fatigue doesn't even make his list of acceptable rationalizations.
What, then, accounts for the Celtics slipping from a threat to break the 1995-96 Bulls' all-time best record (72-10) to third place in the East?
They are discovering what every championship team learns in the season after the victory parade: Every team wants to knock off the champ.
“The opponent is emotional every night,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers told the Globe before the Celtics lost badly to the Cavaliers on Friday night. “You almost have to match that emotion to win games. At the beginning of the season, we did well in that. Of late, we haven't done well in that. We had the we'll-win-it-at-the-end mentality, and we haven't.”
How could the Celtics be blasé about their home game against the Rockets, just 24 hours after they were dismissed as unjustifiably arrogant by a rookie on one of the league's worst teams?
D.J. Augustin, the former UT star, called out the trash-talking Celtics after he helped the Bobcats beat them in overtime on Tuesday: “They come in and try to intimidate you and try to punk you, but if you don't back down from them, they kind of fold.”
We haven't yet reached the halfway point of the season, but I think Augustin has a chance to make the all-interview team, strictly based on that bit of audacious candor.
Obviously, the Celtics didn't go into Friday's matchup with the Cavs thinking they could skate through the first 31/2 quarters and win at the end. They needed to establish their ability to win at Quicken Loans Arena, where they now have lost 11 straight games.
Instead, they headed to Canada wondering if they will have home-court advantage if they play Cleveland in the Eastern finals.
Fatigue may not be a factor in Boston's recent struggle, but if the slide continues, we're all going to tire of wondering what's wrong with them.
Mike Monroe
The Celtics have been in relatively good health all season. Kevin Garnett has missed one game. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, the other members of Boston's Big Three, have missed none.
How, then, to explain the recent slide by the defending champions, who go into today's game at Toronto having lost four straight and seven of their last nine?
Marc Spears, the Boston Globe's astute NBA writer, suggested fatigue has set in on a team that played until June 17 last year, and then opened the season on a 27-2 tear.
When this theory was posed to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, he scoffed.
“Who else gets 30 or 45 days off before they have to go back to work?” Popovich said. “How much off time do you need?”
The problem most NBA coaches have is keeping their players out of the gym during the summer.
“Guys play in the summer,” Popovich said. “So whether you play in the Olympics, or here and there, guys play. During the (past) summer, Timmy (Duncan) was here, running hills, running in the sand, throwing tires and doing all that stuff. So what's the difference?”
So, is fatigue a valid explanation for the difficulty faced by any team that played to the end of the NBA playoffs?
“That's overblown,” Popovich said.
Popovich believes in accountability. When misfortune means playing without injured players, or with players whose injuries limit them, you shut up and play. Excuses are for losers, and fatigue doesn't even make his list of acceptable rationalizations.
What, then, accounts for the Celtics slipping from a threat to break the 1995-96 Bulls' all-time best record (72-10) to third place in the East?
They are discovering what every championship team learns in the season after the victory parade: Every team wants to knock off the champ.
“The opponent is emotional every night,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers told the Globe before the Celtics lost badly to the Cavaliers on Friday night. “You almost have to match that emotion to win games. At the beginning of the season, we did well in that. Of late, we haven't done well in that. We had the we'll-win-it-at-the-end mentality, and we haven't.”
How could the Celtics be blasé about their home game against the Rockets, just 24 hours after they were dismissed as unjustifiably arrogant by a rookie on one of the league's worst teams?
D.J. Augustin, the former UT star, called out the trash-talking Celtics after he helped the Bobcats beat them in overtime on Tuesday: “They come in and try to intimidate you and try to punk you, but if you don't back down from them, they kind of fold.”
We haven't yet reached the halfway point of the season, but I think Augustin has a chance to make the all-interview team, strictly based on that bit of audacious candor.
Obviously, the Celtics didn't go into Friday's matchup with the Cavs thinking they could skate through the first 31/2 quarters and win at the end. They needed to establish their ability to win at Quicken Loans Arena, where they now have lost 11 straight games.
Instead, they headed to Canada wondering if they will have home-court advantage if they play Cleveland in the Eastern finals.
Fatigue may not be a factor in Boston's recent struggle, but if the slide continues, we're all going to tire of wondering what's wrong with them.