Win #2: Ugly for different reasons
To start off, this was a great game for the Celtics. People are showing improvement, everything seemed to click, and it was a TEAM effort. This is what Celtics basketball should look like.
"Maybe these pieces don't fit together. I still think that they can and I still think they do, but you have to bring the commitment, you have to bring unselfishness and you have to bring the passion." Who said that? A Celtics blogger? Nope, that was Rick Carlisle talking about his own Pacer team. Ladies and gentleman of Celtic nation, if there's a team we should be happy we aren't fans of, it's the Indiana Pacers.
Poor Rick Carlisle. He has a team with limited talent in Detroit, helps make them a 50 win team and is shown the door before getting a chance to get a shot at the title. Now he has a lot of talent but all of them fit the same role. His point guards, Jamaal Tinsley and Sarunas Jasikevicius simply have too many problems to survive in the Rick Carlisle system without some backup. The Granger/Harrington/JO backline is talented but not strong enough to man the paint against all those that blow past the PG's. The truth of the matter is that, besides O'Neal, the most important player on the Pacers is Darrell Armstrong. The Pacers are pretty much the picture of what you don't want your team to end up as: a squad with no chemistry, players with all the same talents, and nobody to lead them. (Oh, and their only big time prospect plays the same position as the team's best players.)
The Pacers will likely be much better than the Celtics, record-wise, this season but Indiana's ceiling is south of a title and is descending. Donnie Walsh is going to have to swing some moves to right this ship.
