Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying a good morning dump.
“I think our mind-set is back, for sure. Last year’s team - I said it all year, no one wanted to hear it - as good as our record was, I never thought we were that good. I never thought we had the right mind-set the entire year last year.
“We had too many things going on. Two years ago we had a one-agenda team and that was to win a title. I think this team has the same thought process. There’s no other stuff going on. This team is focused on winning. That doesn’t mean we’re playing well yet. But we are focused on one thing and that gives you a chance to be a good team.’’
Doc Rivers in the Globe - Celtics' improved play speaks volumes
I still think the thing that affects me most in that statement is the teams mindset last year. I guess I'm still not over it. I hate that our team had that overly-individual mindset.
But here we are... new season... new team... and an old attitude. But the good old attitude. But you know what's funny about that old C's attitude? It seems to be directly tied to how healthy Kevin Garnett feels.
And since the trend in basketball blogging seems to be charts and graphs and stuff... I made one to support my claim:
As you can see, the chart clearly shows the correlation between a healthier KG, and an improvement in how the Celtics carry themselves.
When you listen to KG talk about the improvement, you know why that's true.
“For the most part, what gave us this hope on the road has been our defensive communication,’’ Garnett said. “I think we’ve been loud, we’ve been talking, and we’ve really been into it.
You know who the biggest talker on defense is? Kevin Garnett (I know you knew that). So when KG is out for an extended period of time... the defense suffers. When the defense suffers, the Celtics feel the need to make up for it on offense. And when the Celtics feel like they have to make up for it on offense, guys feel the need to have to do more individually to get the job done.
So it's really not THAT much of a surprise to see the Celtics attitude get snapped back into place as KG spends more healthy minutes on the floor. The rest of the team feeds off him. He sees everything that's going on from his spot behind the play. He makes everyone on the team a better defender when he's out there. And if the Celtics are playing better defensively... then you see things like the beat-down in OKC. A stifling defensive effort that leads to easy transition baskets and a blow out win.
To paraphrase our boy Sheed... Chart Don't Lie!
Up next, Page 2... where Big Baby took in a D League game
Associated Press Photo
Photo by Shem Roose/NBAE via Getty Images
That's Glen Davis at the Maine Red Claws - Springfield Armor game last night. He saw Bill Walker shoot 6-10 on his way to a 17 point, 5 rebound night (including a dunk you'll see in the highlights below) as the Red Claws destroyed Springfield 115-89.
There rest of the links:
Herald: Celtics not impressed | Line for the Lakers starts here | Souza: Rivers making use of options | Telegram: Investment in Perkins paying off for C's | CelticsBlog: Paul Pierce deserves (some) MVP consideration | Lex: Everything starts with Rondo, but will everything finish with Rondo too?
