That was downright insulting.
What was the point of Leon starting when he was taken out after five minutes and sat for THE REST OF THE GAME! The sad part is, as soon PJ Brown came in for him, I said outloud, "I bet that's it for Leon tonight." Now in those five minutes, did Leon turn the ball over a few times? Did he take some bad shots? Did he not hustle/run up the floor or did he get rebounds pulled away from him? No.
He didn't even get a touch on offense. Not one. No field goal attempts, no free throw attempts. But he had zero turnovers, two rebounds and even won the tip against Gasol! To compound this stupidity, Garnett was in foul trouble all game and Brown lurched his way to another mediocre performance. By the end of the game, both of them looked absolutely exhausted while Powe continued to sit on the bench.
And to add insult to injury, the Daily Dime on espn.com has the nerve to put Leon in their "Sunday's Worst" category saying,
"Good news: He replaced injured center Kendrick Perkins, who didn't dress because of his shoulder injury, in the starting lineup. Bad news: Other than two rebounds and a foul, the rest of his stats across the board were the same as Perkins for the night -- all zeroes."
with no mention of the fact that he only played the five minutes. That's just bad reporting Maurice Brooks. No disrespect to Perk (and it sucks that he played hard all year and now has to watch from the sidelines) but I don't recall him filling up the stat sheet in the first five minutes of a game especially when no one passes him the ball.
The fact is, "Sunday's Worst" should have been Doc Rivers. (Or Phil Jackson really. Chris Mihm? Seriously?) Nevermind the fact that Brown played 25 minutes (and only had 4 points and 3 rebounds to show for it), did you see who had their best game of the series so far?
Lamar Odom.
Odom finished with 20 points (on 8-10 shooting), 11 rebounds and played 41 minutes. Leon ate him alive whenever he guarded him in Games 1-4 drawing charges, being physical and swiping rebounds. You could even argue that Lamar had the best game of anyone wearing a white jersey. (Yeah, I know I said in an earlier post that Kobe wouldn't have more than one awful shooting night unlike Lebron, but he had another stinker last night going 8-21. Wow.)
Mark Jackson said on the broadcast last night that the lineup of Pierce, Garnett, House, Allen and Brown was the Celtics best to go up against the Lakers because of their "length." There's no way anyone can tell me with a straight face that Brown played a good game last night. Bottom line: PJ Brown should only play 25 minutes if Garnett, Perk and Leon miss a flight to a game.
It even got to the point at the end of the game where I was wondering if Brown or Garnett ended up fouling out if Doc would just go 4 on 5 instead of putting Leon back in. Garnett was so beat at the end of the game that he front rimmed the first of two free throws that COULD HAVE TIED THE GAME! Doesn't it have to be personal at this point? Did Leon wear a red curly wig and a green jump suit while kicking Doc in the nuts or something? Did he take Doc's mom out for a nice seafood dinner and then never call her again?
Even with all of Doc's stupidity (don't even get me started on Cassell) the Celtics still almost won the game. They came back from another huge Lakers lead and had the series within their grasp until Kobe body punched Pierce (and got exactly zero percent of the ball) to knock the ball loose and get a dunk on the other end with a little over a minute to go. If the Celtics go on to win either Tuesday or Thursday, it will be in spite of their coach. Just another awful game by Glenn (what is his doctoral degree in btw?) that raised my blood pressure, and lowered Powe's confidence in getting any kind of minutes. As far as his actual confidence? I would hope that The Show can just chalk this up to his coach being an unthinkable moron rather than something lacking in his own performance. I need the Celtics to win tomorrow night just so I don't have to watch Rivers bumble his way through another game.
Leon's line from Game five:
5 minutes
0 points
2 rebounds
0-0 FG
0-0 FT
0 turnovers
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3 comments:
i hate "journalists" who don't understand stats. fuck you, maurice brooks.
First just let me go on the record and say I thought Kobe's steal was legit. No way the ball flies out like that from body contact. He caught the inner half of the ball. Paul called it a clean play in his press conference.
As for Powe.. it's really just inexcusable. On the one hand, given that Perk was out, I knew we'd HAVE to go with PJ. But 25 minutes is ridic if Powe is only getting 5. Powe needed ~15 mins last night.
What really bothers me about the Celtics is that I know for a fact we've got one of the most advanced stats dudes in the league working in our front office. I know he knows Powe >>> PJ, or House >> Sam (though I still contend the Sam signing was smart, just didn't work out).. yet Doc gets away with this bullshit.
For a while I was really concerned last night after the game. Ray has some urgent family issues, Perk is hurt (his absence was really felt last night), Rondo is suddenly a complete non-factor. But we still almost won and we're going back to the Garden. Perk is supposedly playing. We'll be alright.
From the long term perspective, Doc's actions are really going to fuck us. Any chance House wants to come back to this nonsense? No way. Will Powe want to come back in '10 if this crap keeps up? No way.
I don't know dude, there was one angle that looked like Kobe hit Pierce on the arm and body. Maybe he got a little bit of the ball, but it didn't appear to be a clean steal. Pierce wouldn't say as much at this stage in the game and comes across a lot better by not complaining about a call. As far as the stat guys in the front office go, it just goes to show that in basketball, the team is much more at the mercy of their coach during a game than say a baseball or football team. It's really sad.
I read that too about Ray Allen's family issues and hope everything's okay. He's really bounced back in the Finals and it would be a shame if he had to miss tomorrow's game.
Finally, I completely agree about Doc's lasting impact on Leon. Even if the team picks up his option for next year, he's not going to want to sign a long term deal with them if Rivers is still the coach. Powe showed what he can do on a national stage and other teams know about him now and might be willing to pay for his services.
But one thing at a time, let's hope he gets serious PT tomorrow night and the Celtics win number 17. Thanks for all the comments.
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