Comments on: Kobe Kills Celts in Close One: 90-89

By: Mauricio

Mauricio — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:09:45 +0000

Well, at least they closed out tonight’s game well — granted it was vs a bad team, but a 25-10 finish is strong nevertheless.

Small glimmer of hope?

By: Thomas Halzack

Thomas Halzack — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:29:19 +0000

Rumors are flying that Danny is shopping Ray. So I guess Ainge is worried, too.

A year with great promise has hit a number of snags. How the Celtics decide to proceed will be critical to this year and the near term future of the franchise.

Those who thought this team was a one year wonder are looking closer to being right more now than ever.

The team is beset by injuries and their age is showing. It’s a combination of tough luck and age. It can happen to any team.

The year they won they had no problems with serious injury.

Their inability to close out games is disappointing. They don’t have the fight of the previous two years either.

The healthiest of the Big three, Ray Allen, is also struggling on the court.

Good news is that Rondo is becoming a stud and Tony Allen is playing better then anyone expected. Other than that…not much else.

Your skepticism is on target right now, Mauricio.

By: Mauricio (aka mev17)

Mauricio (aka mev17) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:01:13 +0000

I must say, I expected to lose this game, so if you told me beforehand we would lose by 1, I would have been disappointed but content we hung in there. But knowing we had an 11 point fourth quarter lead, that we proceeded to squander is what bothers me about this game, much more so than who we lost to. This scenario almost mirrors the Orlando loss, the home loss to Philadelphia, and at the Clippers, and several other losses this year. The Celtics simply finish games very poorly — we may be the worst fourth quarter team in this leage (at least over the past month). Our consistently poor execution at the end of games and inability to make big shots (the shot vs Portland IMO has been the exception rather than the rule) has me concerned, as does the horrible record against the better teams in the league. We have a combined 4-10 record vs Atlanta, Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas, Lakers, Utah, San Antonio, with 2 of those wins (Cleveland and Utah) coming very early in the season. This does not bode well for our advancing in the playoffs.

Just to show my confidence level, I decided not to bother watching the Laker game. When I went downstairs to change the DVD for a move I was letting my kids watch, the channel happened to be on ABC, and I saw Eddie House hit a shot to put us up by 11 with 9+ minutes left. My gut reaction was, “There’s still plenty of time for us to blow this lead.” Later on, when I checked the internet to see the final score, I was disappointed but not surprised to see we had let the game slip away.

I hope Ainge can pull a rabbit out of his hat at the trade deadline; otherwise, we are a long-shot at best to bring a title back to the garden.