Foil in the Oven: Shoot the Ball!

Today's Foil in the Oven is going to be very short because I have a job interview to get to.

Obviously this series will be going longer than I predicted. I'm certainly not surprised that it's going longer, but I still stick to my reasoning. This series may go 7 games now, and it just doesn't have to be that difficult. But, I guess that has been the overarching theme of this entire postseason.

The Celtics were completely out of sync all night long. It's hard to be upset today about the loss, because I can't believe they were in the game for so long. They shot 31.8 percent from the field, while allowing Detroit to shoot 51.4 percent. Everyone in the media, both local and national, keeps saying that the 19 point discrepancy was not indicative of how close the game was. This is true in the sense that the Pistons didn't really seal it until Billups' three pointer with 2:55 left. But, in my mind, that 19 point discrepancy is a very accurate indicator of how poorly the Celtics played.

The Celtics were completely pathetic on offense. In fact, their only real offense was shooting free throws. Now, I'm fine with an offense not getting going because of shots not falling, but the passing is what killed me here. There were so many possessions that started with wild, errant passes that looked like they were flying out of bounds until the intended target would leap up and save them. You know that those possessions are doomed from the start because whoever ends up with the ball is completely flustered and taken out of their rhythm.

And, even worse than the bad passing was the over-passing. Nobody was willing to assert themselves offensively last night, and it drove me insane. How many good looks did Rondo and Garnett pass up? How many times did a guy with a good scoring opportunity suddenly appear panic stricken and kick the ball back out with time running down on the shot clock? The one play that sticks out in my mind is Ray Allen driving to the hoop towards the end of the game, and suddenly zipping this pass off the midsection of an unsuspecting KG. Allen had a good scoring opportunity and KG was following to clean up a potential miss. But, for some reason, Allen squandered a good scoring opportunity by making an unnecessary pass. This was the story of the game in my mind. Right after Billups hit that three to put Detroit up 10, KG got the ball at the other end, and hit a perfect jump-hook over McDyss. I was furious "Why haven't you been doing that all night dickhead!" I screamed. Very rarely do I get so frustrated with KG. But, he had been passing those shots up all night. One of those three guys needed to assert themselves last night, and they passed up the opportunity over and over again.

Now, credit Detroit's defense for not allowing any easy scoring chances inside. They contested everything, but they also committed a lot of fouls. The officials were quick with their whistles last night, which was all the more reason to attack the basket. The way Detroit was playing, Sheed and McDyss may have been out of the game by the start of the fourth if the Celtics weren't so resigned to passing out of the paint.

Obviously this was a poor performance from Rondo. I really thought that Doc should have had Pierce starting the offense up top more often. That has proven to be the best way to get the offense back on track. But, there was probably nothing that could have salvaged last night's performance.



Again, 31.8 percent from the field for the Celtics. 51.4 percent for the Pistons. The Celtics had the deer in the headlights look to them on offense for the entire game, and literally the only mildly positive thing I can say about their performance is "they got to the free throw line a lot, but they could have been their more." They had twice as many turnovers as the Pistons (14-7). And yet, the Celtics were still in a position to win the game. Once Chauncey's 3 ended the hopes of a comeback, they Celtics allowed the gap to widen to something that was a little more indicative of how they played. But, they couldn't have played worse, and they could have won that game. They were only down 5 for much of the fourth quarter.

Game 5 has been a strong point for these Celtics so far in the playoffs. They need to come out strong on Wednesday night. If they do, they will win. Even if they don't, they could still win. But, let's hope they do.

I get the Tony Allen thing alright. I was wrong. When you haven't seen Tony play in a while, your mind tends to focus on his athletic abilities and all of his physical attributes that lend themselves so well to basketball. You forget that he has a very low basketball IQ.

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Maybe Kobe will score 60 points tonight. I need to watch something like that to clear my head after watching last night's game, which was sort of like watching dead cars being crushed in a scrapyard.