Watching the Timberwolves demolish the Celtics in what is turning into an ugly, ugly game a few thoughts go through my mind
1) While I have seen plenty of teams blow out the Celtics in recent years I have rarely seen a team enjoy it so much. Minnesota played Blount, Banks, Reed and Davis together for a stretch at the end of the third and it might as well have Christmas morning for all three. Highlights of Blount skipping down the court will surely be played repeatedly and do nothing to reduce his sissy reputation in Boston.
2) Can we guess the hours until the second-guessing of Ainge and this trade begins in Boston and among the national press? Gentlemen, synchronize watches...
3) Jefferson's weaknesses on offense were well apparent tonight. Against taller defenders (which is most power forwards) he doesn't have any reliable post moves that don't get blocked. Blount and Garnett have both been abusing him all game. His drop-step layup move was getting eaten alive. The Timberwolves also were well aware that Al doesn't pass out of the post once he starts his move, which meant he would start to make a move in single coverage and be triple teamed before he could get the shot off.
4) It doesn't help that Banks is the prototypical PG that Delonte West can't guard. For the record I think Banks is out of the NBA in 3-4 years. But Delonte might as well have taken a seat in the front row for all he was doing to keep Banks from the hoop.
Can the Celtics keep it below 30 points in the last 5 minutes? We'll see...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Let's not blow this out of proportion. This is one game... admittedly, a horribly ugly game given the trade that just went down. But what did we expect? The reverse? Unlikely. Minnesota is a veteran team. They were playing a very young Celtics team, and Minnesota's strengths are at positions where the Celtics are weakest -- the frontcourt. Plus, the three players who played monster games, Blount, Davis and Banks, were itching to prove something in this game. And lastly, from the 20 minutes of the game that I saw, pretty much everything the Celtics did after the first quarter was a disaster. That's going to happen to this (young) team every now and again.
I'll have more to say on this when I get around to responding to B and now RM's recent posts, which I promise will be soon. But as much as I embraced the Wally deal, I hope I'm not naive about it. I recognize that in the short term there may well be a step back for the Celtics (and a large one at that) as we witness the growing pains of the youngsters on this team over the next few weeks/months/years. I've said all along the goal here is to help develop the young players and surround them with complementary veterans. Some nights, however, that won't be a pretty picture.
Well, now we know what it takes to light a fire under Mark Blount.
Post a Comment