Celtics Title Town

"I just thought we never played it with any pace, personally," Celtics coach Doc Rivers told reporters in Los Angeles. "We wanted to run, too. We couldn't, they made every shot. And they made a lot of shots. Blake [Griffin] made three or four shots on the perimeter, which, honestly, we'd live with all of those, even if he makes them. But, you know, they were shooting 54 percent at halftime and when you let a team shoot that well and they get to set their defense every single time down the floor, then they're probably going to have a good defensive night."

The Celtics always talk about running, and this year was supposed to be the season for running. We have Green back, and we have Lee, and we also have Avery returning around the corner. The C's of course have one of the quickest point guards in the game. But Doc seems to point at the defense stops as to why the Celtics don't get transition baskets, or why they don't run. When I think about it. Doesn't seem like the defense has killed the Celtics. The defense isn't the same, and it points to no big man, and it points no Bradley, and maybe mainly it shows that Rondo isn't playing much defense at all.

The Celtics run the same old flat offense that plagued them for so long when Ray Allen was running off picks for 20 seconds. The Celtics know who they want to be, but the issue could be this. They don't have the right players to execute what they want. Doc has messed with the team in so many ways. He's been looking for the right everything, but in the meantime the Celtics are becoming a joke.