Danny Ainge fears what may go wrong in the playoffs
With the end of the regular season approaching, the Celtics have their eyes on acquiring home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. However, our GM Danny Ainge believes that the Celts may run into some problems in the playoffs against stronger opponents. Last week in his weekly appearance on 98.5 the Sports Hub with Toucher & Rich, Ainge talked about the difference in regular season and playoff basketball. Via Jay King of MassLive.com:
"Well, I think that there's a big difference in regular season basketball and playoff basketball," Ainge responded. "And I get worried that we can be taken out of our game too easily. Even last night (during a 104-97 win against the New Orleans Pelicans) against a depleted team I feel like we're taken out of our game too often. We go through these offensive droughts. We haven't made enough shots consistently. And like I said, we rely on grit and hustle and defense, and I just think that we need guys to make more shots."
Ainge brings up a valid point that the Celts should be concerned about come playoff time. As a team, they sometimes go into scoring droughts and rely on their hustle and defense in order to produce offense. However, in the playoffs, especially against teams with superstars, you need to make shots consistently in order to win a series. Teams with go-to players that can take over games have a safety net they can rely on to make shots. While Isaiah has done his best to become a star, even he sometimes can go into a drought.
We've heard the saying plenty of times before, great offense beats great defense any day of the week and for the Cs, guys like Marcus Smart, Evan Turner, Avery Bradley, and others need to find and make their shots consistently in order for the team to advance in the playoffs. Against less experienced or talented teams like Charlotte and Miami, you may be able to get away with it but you can't against teams like Toronto and Cleveland.
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