I'm sorry, but that decision by Dwyane on the game's last play Friday was just plain bad.
It's hard to be critical of a guy who is so good and means so much to this team and is playing so well after a 7-month layoff, but when you consider everything, Dwyane should've approached that differently.
First and foremost, the team was desperately in need of a win. At 1-7 at the time, and with such a fragile team, every game means a whole heckuva lot right now. So, as many chances as you can give your team a chance to win, you take them.
That means Dwyane shouldn't have taken all the time off the clock with the team trailing by one. Even if he was going to take a jumper (I think he bails out his defenders in spots like that because he doesn't take it to the rim often enough), he should've tried it with at least 8 seconds or so on the clock. Worst case scenario that way is you give up a defensive rebound, foul a Celtic and still have a shot to tie the game with a three.
A win in Boston, against an undefeated team, would've done wonders for the team, I think, in terms of confidence. Plus, there was no guarantee at the time that Dwyane would feel good enough to play against the Nets the next night, so that win would've been critical if they had to go into a game against NJ without him.
Again, it's hard to criticize the guy, but it's just not a smart play. And if someone like, say, Eddie Jones had done that a few years ago, people would be all over him for it.
That said, I think this team is pretty much back on track as long as Dwyane stays healthy.
Also, Daequan should be a regular in the rotation (did you see that and-one dunk? That was nice).
And, you have to give credit where credit is due: Smush played a pretty good first half against the Celtics.
(This from J.A. Adande's column on your friend and mine, Gary Payton, who I heard had one particularly confrontational moment with Pat Riley late last season...
...The topic of coaches seems as good a place as any to start off this GP career retrospective.
"If I had to rate 'em, George [Karl], Phil [Jackson] and then Doc [Rivers]," Payton said.
Noticeably absent: Pat Riley, his coach for two years in Miami, one of the all-time greats. Riley, after all, was the coach when Payton won his long-awaited championship with the Miami Heat in 2006.
"Well, ohhh-kay, that don't mean nothing," Payton said. "It just so happened we won a ring with him. He ain't my favorite. [It's] a lot of things. I really wouldn't want to go into it. I put the relationship before everything. As far as a relationship, George was the best. Doc was next."...)
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