By DRJ
Seems everybody's in shock.
Disgusted, upset, speechless. Comments have died down. People are giving
up. Why? Cs lost to the Nets. The Nets!!
But wait a second...
The Nets are NOT, as many have said, "the worst team in the history of
the NBA". Far from it. If you look at their roster, they actually have
some good to great individual pieces. Lopez is certainly an excellent
player, could be great. Harris is a very good PG; surround him with
great players, and he could shine. Lee is an excellent ball player,
someone I was really surprised Orlando let go. CDR shows a lot of
promise (still can't BELIEVE Danny chose Giddens over him!) Dooling and
Humphries have some talent too. This team SHOULD NOT have the record
they have. I have no idea why they do... not my concern, don't care to
find out. But clearly, with the players they have, the Nets should
always be considered CAPABLE of playing a very good game.
So they chose Saturday to have one of those good games. They played
hard, and more importantly, they hit their shots when it mattered most.
At the same time, the Cs chose this day to MISS most of their shots when
it mattered most. It happens. Losses happen. The Nets earned this win.
So? It doesn't really MEAN... anything.
But the time is drawing near when games really will matter. If the
regular season is one long practice session -- a Celtics viewpoint about
which we theorized, and is now corroborated by the players themselves
-- then they need to PRACTICE WINNING. Because "practice", by
definition, is preparation for the real thing. How you prepare
determines how you perform. Time to start preparing properly.
But... truth be told... if they started "preparing properly" say, 10
games before season's end, would that be a total disaster? No, not
really. 10 games is plenty. 27 games is surfeit.
Besides... if the (ever-more-likely) theory is true that Sheed's
lazy/bored attitude has infected the whole team, i.e. that Sheed has
offset KG somewhat in the battle for the heart of the team -- then there
is also the ever-present hope that when the time comes when games
REALLY MATTER -- which is when Sheed has SAID he goes into his highest
gear -- Sheed's attitude will then COMBINE with KG's to push the whole
team to its highest-possible level. And then they could win it all.
And there are plenty of positives. KG's getting better and better, Nate
shows great promise, Quis is terrific, Paul must get better, Rondo has
great skills (and will hopefully focus better in the playoffs), Ray's
been on a tear (Saturday excepted), and Perk... well, they say he's been
sick.
What I'm saying is this: It's hard, very hard, to stay faithful to the
cause in the face of so much apathy (Sheed), carelessness (Rondo, Sheed,
Paul, Perk, Scal, even Ray sometimes), laziness (Sheed, sometimes
Perk), stupidity (Doc), and losses (everybody).
But nothing has really happened to change anything. The Nets played
well, the Cs lost a game. So what. If you thought they could go all the
way on Friday, Saturday should not have changed your mind. We need to
take a step back and breathe deep. And give this thing time. The fat
lady has not sung.
