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Welcome to the inaugural Gahhden Pahhty column. Watching the Celtics this year hasn't been pretty. But someone has to do it. Check in once or twice a week to read the latest on the NBA's storied collector of Championships.
George Santayana, senior point guard of the 1882 Boston Latin Philosophy Squad, musing on the philosophic equivalent of the pick and roll authoritatively intoned: "Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." A disgustingly familiar scenario plays out in the town that educated Santayanna.
The Boston Celtics are looking, desperately to put away the nightmare of Wednesday Night's dreadful loss to Memphis on the parquet floor. It's in the past, they say. But Boston's two game losing streak added to the pile of question marks surrounding the Celtics. Are they done? What's left in the tank? Are they punting the regular season to be fresh for the postseason? Did Ainge keep the old guys together too long?
That last point can't be understated. Boston's general manager road off into the sunset with the original Old Three. Of all the administrators he would be the one who could identify when he was going to the well more than he should. But entering the 2009-10 season, Boston got even older, inking Rasheed Wallace to contribute off the bench. Celtics fans thought back with fondness to the 85-86 team with its five top notch starters and super sixth man Bill Walton - who, if he ever stayed healthy, could have started on plenty of teams - demolishing the Eastern Conference on the way to the club's sixteenth title.
Glory Days indeed. But the wheels feel off the following year with injuries nipping at the team's heels. Sound familiar, Celtics fans? Yes it does. When noted Celtics homer and color commentator declares that the team's core superstars aren't getting it done, and your team is built around that threesome of ballers, the results are going to be less than stellar. Worse, with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett out of sorts, attempting to come back from injury, no obvious solution presents itself.
Rest them? Sure, but what's to say that Marquis Daniels is going to handle the increased minutes even to the reduced standards of a wounded Pierce. Michael Finley might have been the answer six years ago, but now, he's a veteran character guy who con add a little of the bench. Same thing with Garnett. Glen Davis, Brain Scalabrine and Shelden Williams aren't the guys you want in the low-post, even against tonight's foe, the woeful Pacers.
The team took yesterday off after their awful play against Memphis. The staff broke down film, but the players had time to play XBox reflect on a performance that prompted fans and commentators to say they mailed it in, they quit and even head coach Doc River had to admit, his team "gave in."
The lack of intensity on defense grew throughout Wednesday's game. A missed shot ceased to call the team back to defend the ball and disrupt their opponent's transition game. Heads get hung. Play is listless. They aren't battling for the ball off the glass, giving up too many second and third chance opportunities. The fans are restless and booing lustily.
With nineteen games to sort it all out, Boston enters a critical stretch, uncertain of how to get its two key weapons back to one-hundred percent. Tonight is game one of their postseason push. Game two is a nationally televised contest in Cleveland against the Cavs. The rest of this month is filled with Western Conference powers like Dallas, Denver, Utah, Oklahoma City and San Antonio. The Playoffs don't magically cure regular season malaise. And neither do these sorts of brutal stretches.
But that's the lesson you're supposed to learn going to the well too often with an aging roster in the NBA. That's the lesson of the 86-87 Celtics and the subsequent twenty seasons in the NBA wilderness. Ainge must've forgotten.
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