Everyone knows Doc Rivers’ perceived shortcomings. He’s inclined to make substitutions wholesale, as if he were coaching the Boston Bruins and not their professional basketball counterpart. He doesn’t do Xs and Os. He has only a faint familiarity with the fundamentals of defensive schemes. He doles out playing time on an inconsistent basis, thereby frustrating and confusing the roster from top to bottom. On rare nights where he finds himself firing on all cylinders, the other team usually ends up winning important games because it is coached by a Master in one or more of these areas.
The evidence most frequently cited against Doc comes from the first round of the 2005 NBA Playoffs where a badly hobbled and undermanned Pacer squad (Ron Artest was out for the series. Jamaal Tinsley missed games due to injury. Jermaine O’Neal couldn’t lift his arm above his shoulder) defeated a healthy Celtic team in 7 games, even though Doc’s team crushed the Pacers twice in the same series. The deciding 7th game was played in Beantown, and the loss was by 27 points, the biggest margin of defeat in Celtic playoff history. The feeling among Celtic faithful was that a Jim O’Brien coached team would have closed out Larry Bird, Rick Carlisle, and the depleted Indiana Pacers in less than 7 games, being that OB always got his players to overachieve.
For the last two years I’ve found this argument persuasive.
But I’m now giving it a second look.
A brief series recap.
Game 1
Celtics win at home 102-82. Doc goes with kiddies during crunch time, and is rewarded. Five Celtics reserves started the second quarter. Second-year point guard Marcus Banks and rookie forward Al Jefferson each scored 8 points as the Celtics outscored the Pacers, 23-4, in the first six minutes of the second quarter to take a 41-24 lead. Even when Indiana starters Jermaine O'Neal and Reggie Miller re-entered the game 1:01 into the quarter, Celtics coach Doc Rivers stuck with his subs. Banks then stole the ball in the backcourt from Eddie Gill and scored a layup to spark a 10-1 spurt and force a Pacers timeout. Pierce was sitting at midcourt waiting to enter the game when Indiana called time out, but Rivers realized his reserves were playing so well and changed his mind about inserting Pierce. Rookie Delonte West hit a 3-pointer and Jefferson made a couple of baskets down low to push the lead to 41-24 before the starters came back midway through the quarter. The Celtics made 20 of their last 31 shots (64.5 percent) in the first half, an amazing turnaround considering they hit on just 1 of their first 13 and fell behind, 12-4.
Game 2
Celtics lose at home 82-79. Celtics score one field goal in last 8:23.
Austin Croshere, Scot Pollard, Jeff Foster and James Jones neutralize Al Jefferson.
Game 3
Pacers win at home 99-76. Miller goes for 33 on 10-16 shooting. Doc acknowledges that Carlisle’s adjustments from game 1 helped the Pacers win the last two games.
Game 4
Celtics win 110-79. Doc, countering Carlisle’s moves from last two games, goes small, starting Ricky Davis and Paul Pierce at the forwards, and benching Tony Allen in favor of Delonte West.
Game 5
Pacers win 90-85. The Celtics starters combine for 22 turnovers. Rivers sits Walker during crunch time because he wasn't moving the ball, and the other players were standing around watching Antoine dribble.
Game 6
Celtics win by 3 in overtime. Doc goes back to starting line-up from game 1, with Delonte replacing Allen at the 2-spot. Celtics pick up 4 technicals, including two on Pierce, earning him an ejection. Pierce shows up at post-game conference with bandage on his head, suggesting that the “mugging” he received justified his game-ejecting behavior.
Game 7
Pacers blow out Celtics in Boston. Cs pick up 6 technicals, including game ejections for Kendrick Perkins and Justin Reed. With the Pacers up 46-41 in the second, Pierce picks up another technical foul triggering Indiana run that essentially put the game out of reach. Herald calls all behavior of Celtics in series embarrassing, while Globe calls it humiliating.
Other than immature and stupid play, Doc explains the up and down series this way:
In the losses we took 67 percent of our shots with two passes or less, and of those shots we scored less than 40 percent of the time. In the wins, we typically made three passes or more before shooting, shooting over 50 percent when we did. The Pacers are a veteran team. They remained composed when it counted, and we self-destructed. We kept fouling, and they hit their free throws.
Unless you are of the opinion that Doc’s style of coaching permitted or encouraged the Celtics implosion, it is difficult to argue that Doc did something to cost the Celtics the series. In game one, Doc was perceptive enough to call Pierce back to the bench when the subs were dominating the Pacers. After Carlisle tweaked his strategy, Doc made adjustments of his own (going small) to win game 4, overcoming (or perhaps aided by) the absence of Antoine Walker whose behavior in game 3 resulted in him being suspended for game 4. By the time game 6 arrived, the implosion was under way. After getting ejected from a game earlier in the series, Pierce admitted that he should have controlled himself better, and, yet, in the heat of battle during game 7, he lost control again.
Is that a character flaw of the player, a coaching flaw of Doc’s, or just something that happens between players in the emotionally charged setting of the NBA playoffs? The Pacers had already suffered through several suspensions from their brawl with the Pistons. So it is probably fair to conclude that they bore some culpability in provoking Pierce. And, who knows, maybe Pierce, having been knifed to within a couple of inches of his life in an off-court incident a few years before, is more susceptible to such provocations.
Regardless of where you come down on this debate, at least some responsibility for the loss to Indiana seems to lie more with the Celtics' inexperience and immaturity than with anything else. Don’t forget, either, that Al Jefferson’s success early in the series proved difficult to duplicate once he started facing double-teams. In the end, I guess it is a judgment call, and, if forced to choose, I will blame the players before I blame Doc, at least until I see something more than Doc's failure to anticipate and control his player's on-court, heat-of-battle behavior as the reason to hang the series defeat on him.
For the last two years I’ve found this argument persuasive.
But I’m now giving it a second look.
A brief series recap.
Game 1
Celtics win at home 102-82. Doc goes with kiddies during crunch time, and is rewarded. Five Celtics reserves started the second quarter. Second-year point guard Marcus Banks and rookie forward Al Jefferson each scored 8 points as the Celtics outscored the Pacers, 23-4, in the first six minutes of the second quarter to take a 41-24 lead. Even when Indiana starters Jermaine O'Neal and Reggie Miller re-entered the game 1:01 into the quarter, Celtics coach Doc Rivers stuck with his subs. Banks then stole the ball in the backcourt from Eddie Gill and scored a layup to spark a 10-1 spurt and force a Pacers timeout. Pierce was sitting at midcourt waiting to enter the game when Indiana called time out, but Rivers realized his reserves were playing so well and changed his mind about inserting Pierce. Rookie Delonte West hit a 3-pointer and Jefferson made a couple of baskets down low to push the lead to 41-24 before the starters came back midway through the quarter. The Celtics made 20 of their last 31 shots (64.5 percent) in the first half, an amazing turnaround considering they hit on just 1 of their first 13 and fell behind, 12-4.
Game 2
Celtics lose at home 82-79. Celtics score one field goal in last 8:23.
Austin Croshere, Scot Pollard, Jeff Foster and James Jones neutralize Al Jefferson.
Game 3
Pacers win at home 99-76. Miller goes for 33 on 10-16 shooting. Doc acknowledges that Carlisle’s adjustments from game 1 helped the Pacers win the last two games.
Game 4
Celtics win 110-79. Doc, countering Carlisle’s moves from last two games, goes small, starting Ricky Davis and Paul Pierce at the forwards, and benching Tony Allen in favor of Delonte West.
Game 5
Pacers win 90-85. The Celtics starters combine for 22 turnovers. Rivers sits Walker during crunch time because he wasn't moving the ball, and the other players were standing around watching Antoine dribble.
Game 6
Celtics win by 3 in overtime. Doc goes back to starting line-up from game 1, with Delonte replacing Allen at the 2-spot. Celtics pick up 4 technicals, including two on Pierce, earning him an ejection. Pierce shows up at post-game conference with bandage on his head, suggesting that the “mugging” he received justified his game-ejecting behavior.
Game 7
Pacers blow out Celtics in Boston. Cs pick up 6 technicals, including game ejections for Kendrick Perkins and Justin Reed. With the Pacers up 46-41 in the second, Pierce picks up another technical foul triggering Indiana run that essentially put the game out of reach. Herald calls all behavior of Celtics in series embarrassing, while Globe calls it humiliating.
Other than immature and stupid play, Doc explains the up and down series this way:
In the losses we took 67 percent of our shots with two passes or less, and of those shots we scored less than 40 percent of the time. In the wins, we typically made three passes or more before shooting, shooting over 50 percent when we did. The Pacers are a veteran team. They remained composed when it counted, and we self-destructed. We kept fouling, and they hit their free throws.
Unless you are of the opinion that Doc’s style of coaching permitted or encouraged the Celtics implosion, it is difficult to argue that Doc did something to cost the Celtics the series. In game one, Doc was perceptive enough to call Pierce back to the bench when the subs were dominating the Pacers. After Carlisle tweaked his strategy, Doc made adjustments of his own (going small) to win game 4, overcoming (or perhaps aided by) the absence of Antoine Walker whose behavior in game 3 resulted in him being suspended for game 4. By the time game 6 arrived, the implosion was under way. After getting ejected from a game earlier in the series, Pierce admitted that he should have controlled himself better, and, yet, in the heat of battle during game 7, he lost control again.
Is that a character flaw of the player, a coaching flaw of Doc’s, or just something that happens between players in the emotionally charged setting of the NBA playoffs? The Pacers had already suffered through several suspensions from their brawl with the Pistons. So it is probably fair to conclude that they bore some culpability in provoking Pierce. And, who knows, maybe Pierce, having been knifed to within a couple of inches of his life in an off-court incident a few years before, is more susceptible to such provocations.
Regardless of where you come down on this debate, at least some responsibility for the loss to Indiana seems to lie more with the Celtics' inexperience and immaturity than with anything else. Don’t forget, either, that Al Jefferson’s success early in the series proved difficult to duplicate once he started facing double-teams. In the end, I guess it is a judgment call, and, if forced to choose, I will blame the players before I blame Doc, at least until I see something more than Doc's failure to anticipate and control his player's on-court, heat-of-battle behavior as the reason to hang the series defeat on him.
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