[外電] Breakdown a team effort

[bri (.....................)]

http://0rz.tw/8c43R

Breakdown a team effort
By Peter May

The most popular Celtic, at least judging by my e-mails after Game 4, never
played a minute in the disappointing loss to the Hawks Monday night. Tony Allen
was on the minds of a lot of people who wondered why he wasn't in the game in
the fourth quarter when Joe Johnson was going LeBron and leading the Hawks to
another improbable victory.

Call it the "backup quarterback syndrome." He's always the most popular player
because, well, he never plays and he represents the classic what-if. Remember
Michael Bishop? Allen was that guy in Game 4, because (a) he didn't play and
(b) those who did play had no luck with Johnson in the fourth quarter, when he
scored 20 points, or 3 more than the Celtics had as a team in the period.

You expect these kinds of reactions when the Celtics did what they did. The
fact is, they had their primo lineup on the floor in the fourth quarter,
anchored by the Defensive Player of the Year, and didn't get it done. Would
Allen have changed that? Maybe. Maybe not. The Celtics also scored 17 points
in the fourth quarter. Would Allen have changed that?

There's always going to be finger-pointing among the masses after games like
that one in Atlanta. Doc Rivers will tell you that's what he likes about
Boston, that people do care and, however witless, they are willing to put their
thoughts out there for one and all to see. Rivers, after all, was the one who
made the decision to not play Allen, and while it might have been worth a shot
to see what the kid could do, does anyone seriously believe that was why the
team lost?

Ray Allen isn't exactly Kyle Korver on defense, and he was the one guarding Joe
Johnson. But Ray Allen was caught in a pick-and-roll almost every single
possession, which meant that it was up to the team to react and adjust. Tony
Allen would have been in the same situation. The problem against the Hawks is
that the Celtics team did a bad job of adjusting once Johnson had wriggled
free of his initial defender.

In other words, they didn't play good team defense. And that's what this
Celtics season has been about, a defense anchored by, yes, a splendid
individual defender, but populated mostly by average individual defenders who
became above-average because of the presence of Garnett.

Putting Tony Allen on Johnson sounds good in theory, but what if Johnson
manages to break him down off the dribble, which he could, by the way. Then
what happens? The team has to adjust, which is what the Spurs do all the time
when Tony Parker, who can't guard anyone, is beaten off the dribble.

(I apologize if I'm sounding too much like Hubie Brown here.)

The problem wasn't the absence of Tony Allen. The problem was the inability of
the five guys on the floor, who did all right most of the year, to make the
necessary adjustments to stop Johnson. Or, if you want to throw Rivers under
the bus, the problem was the coach leaving five players out there who didn't
make the necessary adjustments to stop Johnson.

Rivers didn't absolve himself by any means, admitting the Celtics could have
and probably should have done things differently - such as, perhaps, double
-teaming Johnson to make him give up the ball. They tried that once and Johnson
faked one way, went the other, and drew a blocking foul, good for two free
throws.

"There were too many breakdowns that are preventable," said Rivers. "We've been
a good defensive team all year. We haven't been for the last two games."

It's the playoffs, folks. It's different. No one is playing the second leg of
a back-to-back, having flown in from Memphis the night before while the other
guy has been off for three days. The old adage about young players doing well
at home in the playoffs has been borne out here. Rajon Rondo was a monster in
the first two games; he disappeared in Game 3 and then resurfaced for a spell
in Game 4.

The Hawks' young-uns, of which there are many, really took off in their digs,
fueled by the crowd. Even Johnson, who qualifies as a veteran on that team,
wasn't immune from the venue change. He averaged 15 points and shot 11 of 32
in Boston. In Atlanta, he averaged 29 points and shot 21 of 42 from the field.
High-flying Josh Smith averaged 9.5 points a game in Boston while shooting 6
of 23. In Atlanta, Smith averaged 27.5 points a game and shot 19 of 33.

That's how the playoffs work, especially for young teams. They're going to play
better at home, whether a guy like Tony Allen is in there or not. Tony Allen
played a total of 11 minutes and 39 seconds in the two games in Boston and a
total of 4 seconds in Game 3.

Yes, he might have helped. But it was a teamwide defensive breakdown that
allowed Johnson to do what he did, along with the requisite amount of home
cooking.

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談到Tony Allen, Ray Allen, Joe Johnson和防守的文章
我們需要的是找回我們的團隊防守
很長XD  但是我想去睡覺養足精神面對明天了
看得懂的可以看看  不然贏球我再來翻:)

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