In game one against Atlanta the Celtics were +29 when Kevin Garnett was in the game and -8 when he was out of the game. It's just one game, but the disparity is a little disconcerting.
The numbers suggest that the Celtics are championship caliber with him, and not terribly good without him. It also tells me that opposing teams will be doing two things throughout the playoffs.
--going directly at KG in hopes of getting him into foul trouble
--redoubling efforts to score, defend, and (god forbid) build leads while he is out
Our bench scored 36 points in the first game, which sounds impressive. But apparently they did much of their scoring with KG on the floor.
While all of this may be cause for concern, there was a reason Doc rested KG during the regular season. The playoffs are now here, Big Fella. So don't be surprised if your MPGs are amped up to more than 40 once the games start getting closer.
Just try to stay out of foul trouble, ok?
5 comments:
The Celtics aren't a championship team without Garnett??!?! REALLY?!?!? OMG!!
Teams will try to get him to foul out and take advantage when he's not in there?! REALLY??!! OMG!!! Quick! Someone get this information to the Celtics!!!
I would be inclined to think that +29 and -8 is news, especially since the margin of victory was 21 points.
The rest is artistic license. That's what a blog is. It's kind of like a song--find a title and build the lyrics around it.
As always, thanks for your comments.
Good one. One thing I've noticed that is usually when KG gets subbed back in, Rondo is out. Anytime Rondo is out, our stars may have minus ratings.
Yeah, there is more going on with the plus/minus stats than meets the eye.
I never really started paying attention until late in the season, when I noticed that the bench seemed like it was always minus double digits.
The other night Powe had a pretty good game but was a minus 1.
As I was thinking more about this, you know the real newsworthy item is that our bench, which has been much ballyhooed since the Cassell and PJ brown pickups, arguably isn't pulling it's weight. I don't know if I agree with that. But it is arguable based on the +/- numbers.
Find one other article, blog or traditional media, that has suggested that.
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