Cant Win Em All

Statistical truth: Its very hard to win a basketball game when your opponent shoots lights out from the three point line in the first half and you are running on tired legs. That's not an excuse, its a statistical truth. It's also hard to win a basketball game when your two players who step it up the most are Brian Scalabrine and Stephon Marbury. (Seriously how great was Scalabrine? His intensity on defense and hustle and knack for open shots on offense was the driving force behind the Celtics second half energy.)

The good news? For a team that looked fairly overmatched for most of the game, the C's kept it close, kept it interesting, and kept the faith. We can look at it as something to build on or something to pack up after. "Get busy living or get busy dying, you damn right." If we had let the Magic continue that early second half beatdown, it would have been easy to quit or say the Bulls series was enough. Basically the team could have pulled a Shaughnessy. Instead they stared down the deficit and the deficit blinked. Now this series doesn't seem so daunting.

Four simple tactical changes that could turn the series real quickly:

1) Take advantage of the mismatches on offense. Ray Allen wasn't great but you have to work him on Reddick more than we did. Calling Reddick a defensive liability is like calling swine flu a medical inconvenience. Same goes with opening the floor for Rondo against Alston; let Dwight Howard sink down and open up shorties for Perk and Big Baby. When you dictate the play, advantage you.

2) Go at the basket. In the first half we didn't and because of it we were down by 18 at the half, didn't shoot a single free throw, and the Magic committed only three team fouls. In the second half we did go at the hoop and drew fouls, were awarded free throws, and made legitimate scoring runs.

3) Intangibles, intangibles, intangibles. We have edges in playoff experience, game closers, and intensity. We're the defending champs, which doesn't score you any extra points on the scoreboard, but adds motivation and pride. And maybe the biggest edge we have is in team chemistry, although the five drunk yuppies singing "Just a Friend" in the Heineken commercial seem to have more chemistry than Magic starters. By the way that commercial kicks ass and sends a good message; they can't show it enough.

4) Take Big Baby out after three fouls with 11 seconds left in the half. It's that easy. And while we're here, no more big men wasting fouls on shoddy picks, reach ins, or soft and-one fouls.

5) Manage the runs. Call it the Pepto-Bismol strategy but this game was won by the team that was able to withstand the other team's offensive runs, and the Magic 3-point surges outlasted ours. It starts with Rondo being less haphazard with the ball when we're streaking and also means not getting frustrated if Pietrus and Alston hit a few buckets in a row (by the end of the game the Magic shot only 33% from downtown). Finally, it means taking advantage of a coach commonly dubbed a "Master of Panic" by his own players.

Let's stay positive. We were down 0-1 to the Bulls too, and by now we know that this is a marathon, not a sprint.