Gutless Green

The Celtics opened their second round series with Miami by playing their worst game since Sunday, April 10th.  On that day the Celtics were demolished by this same Miami team by 23 points.  It wasn't even that close. Just as yesterday's game wasn't as close as the 99-90 defeat.  They were blown out...again.  The Heat did whatever they wanted, and when the Celtics decided that they were going to make their own run, they lost their composure.  The Captain got himself tossed with seven minutes remaining because he insisted on running his mouth.  It was obvious to everyone watching that the officials were NOT going to allow this game to get out of hand.  The Jermaine O'Neal flagrant foul should have sent that message to everyone on the court.  It was a terrible call and an overreaction by an overzealous referee who just had to inject himself in the game.  We all saw it.  Well, all of us except Paul Pierce.  Not long after the Jermaine foul, Paul takes a hard foul from James Jones and attempts to head butt him.  Luckily he was playing so soft that it appeared more like he was snuggling with Jones than trying to injure him so the referee only gave him a technical.  This is when Paul jumped in the hot tub time machine and brought himself back to 2005 when he was an immature, young star.  He sets a solid screen on Wade, draws the foul, shoots his mouth off, and gets himself tossed for a second technical.  Was it a good call?  Absolutely not.  The call was made by the same referee who called the flagrant foul on Jermaine.  Ed Malloy did not have his best day, to put it kindly.  The point is that Paul Pierce has to know better.  He's a veteran.  The Captain of this team.  He needs to understand the situation.  He needs to walk away and continue to cut into the Miami lead.  You probably think that I'm unfairly ripping Paul because it was a bad call and he did score 19 points in 34 minutes.  I'm ripping him because he needs to be a leader.  I'm ripping him because he mailed in the first half.  He was brutal; 2 points and 4 turnovers at the half. Thats unacceptable.  He was lazy, sloppy, and lacking intensity.  I think part of the reason they got off to such a bad start in the first quarter was because of the Captain.  Don't worry, each member of the squad is going to be mentioned in this rant.  I thought they all were gutless.  It reminded me of Game 3 in the Cleveland series last year when the Cavs took it to the Celtics in the Garden. How could they possibly be so flat?  Rondo decided early that he was going to attack the rim, but one important thing changed from the New York series, the Heat are going to defend the rim.  I can't tell you how many times Rondo got himself trapped under the basket and either tossed up a prayer or threw the ball away.  To top things off, Rondo he got himself into foul trouble and Delonte was forced to play way too many minutes.  As we've seen so far in the playoffs, Delonte has no feel for his role yet.  He never seems to know when to pass or shoot and he's prone to the poor decisions that ended his time in Cleveland (no, not that decision).  He got a technical for throwing the ball at Chalmers, missed TWO dunks (instead of trying to lay the ball in), and couldn't seem to find Jones defensively.  A pathetic performance.  OK, so who's next?  This is someone you might not expect a complaint about, but I'm not letting his atrocious defensive effort get glossed over because he was unconscious offensively.  Ray Allen got torched all day long.  If it wasn't Wade hitting a jumper, then it was Jones drilling 3's.  He couldn't stay with either of them.  He MUST play better defensively if the Celtics are going to compete in this series.  The last guys two were complete no-shows: KG and Baby.  The key to both of their games is effort and the 18 foot jumper.  Neither were on hand yesterday.  I have no idea why, but every time KG set a screen at the top of the key he floated outside the three point line and waited for the reversal.  It was as if he was playing the part of Perk and only being a passer.  He can't do that.  He needs to stand his ground and get ready to be a scorer.  When KG gets it going, the Celtics are very tough to defend, especially for one of the most passive "power" forwards in the game, Chris Bosh.  The other player that Bosh needs to defend is Baby who should be able to push him around under the basket.  We didn't see that yesterday.  In fact, we didn't see Baby at all.  I can only remember him being mentioned twice.  The first time was when he attempted to draw a charge from Wade (unsuccessfully) and then when he missed a layup in the 4th quarter.  That's it.  Twenty-two minutes of nothing.  I could go on and on about the poor play, but it's just going to aggravate me even more.  I'm not giving up on this team, but I would say that tomorrow night is a must win.  They need to treat it as such.  Before the series started, Doc said to win they needed to limit their turnovers, get back in transition, and not allow a parade to the free throw line.  The Celtics were 0 for 3 in Game 1.  Let's hope they listen to the Coach in Game 2.