As my legions of fans have no doubt noticed, it has been a while since I last posted and a lot has happenned in the meantime. America elected its first black president, I got engaged (we're calling Monday to reserve the Basketball Hall of Fame for the reception. It's going to be awesome), Deep Throat died. And the Celtics went on a complete tear, winning 19 in a row. Their follow-up to this has of course been to lose 7 of their last 9 games. I don't know what has been more troubling, that they have lost to teams that they should easily beat like the Knicks and Warriors, or that they've lost to teams like the Cavs and the Lakers that they may very well have to beat in the playoffs if they hope to repeat.
I haven't done enough statistical analysis to explain why they're losing, all I know is I used to get excited when the bench came in and now I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack every time Brian Scalabrine comes in the game. And that's not a shot at Scalabrine; he always plays hard and every once and a while hits a three. But he is sort of representative of the Celtics bench lately. It's not that they're playing horrible, they're just not playing very well. Powe and Davis had a swagger earlier in the season that in some ways was a little "too big for your britches," but they were backing it up, and now they're just...passable. Gabe Pruitt is getting more minutes at the point, which is good for his development but he's just...adequate. Tony Allen, who I had finally accepted as a scorer and not just a freakishly athletic human being, has been just...good. During the winning steak, they would come in with a lead and expand it. Now, they can't be trusted to expand a lead or keep a deficit from growing. They have no real intensity.
