The naughty spot!
Super Nanny is a British reality TV show, featuring Jo Frost, the baaadest (in a good way) nanny ever. Every episode she helps a family whose children are completely out of control. One of her techniques is called the naughty spot. A kid is given a verbal warning to stop whatever bad thing they’re doing, and if they fail to do so, they’re sent to the naughty spot. The parent firmly instructs the kid to sit against the wall, or wherever the naughty spot is, and tells them that they have to sit in the naughty spot for however long, because they were doing X bad thing and didn’t listen to the previous verbal warning to stop. Then, the kid sits their butt in the naughty spot and pouts, but when they come out, they don’t do it anymore. Like magic! Can Doc Rivers please start employing the use of the naughty spot? I wonder if Nanny does outside consulting jobs. Please view the above video to see the naughty spot in action.
Yesterday the Celtics outscored the Magic for three quarters and lost the game. It’s fair to say that the Celtics dominated the Magic for the first two quarters, going in to the half with an eleven point lead. Going in to the break, the Magic looked completely discombobulated and for a change, they looked like the team who didn’t really care about winning, instead of the Celtics. The Celtics were playing real defense, rebounding and moving the ball around, making the extra pass and looking for the open guy. Rondo was easily the best player on the floor. Marquis made a triumphant return. The Celtics were beating the Magic in the paint. Dwight Howard was frustrated and more importantly, a non-factor. Going in to the half, EVERYBODY knew what was going to happen in the Magic locker room: they were going to sit around and maybe listen while Stan Van Gundy screeched and screamed at them to stop playing like losers and stressed to them the importance of getting the ball inside to Dwight.
So the Magic came out, pounded the ball in to Dwight and stopped playing like losers. Once Dwight got it going, everyone got in to the spirit, especially when they realized the Celtics hadn’t bothered to show up for the third quarter. The Celtics stopped attacking the paint, opting instead to revert back to the lackadaisical play favored by them in January, neglecting the aggressiveness that had propelled them ahead in the first half. You might be tempted to say that they played this way in the third quarter because they didn’t have enough gas left in the tank to come out and play hard the rest of the way. Dare I say that that’s an excuse, and a tired one by now. After getting outscored 36-11 in the third, it seemed like the Celtics might have taken a glance at the score board and realized they were getting their butts handed to them, so they came out in the fourth and outscored the Magic 27-20. That is not to say that the fourth quarter was beautiful, and featured the Celtics shifting the momentum back to them. Not at all. It sucked to watch, actually, but they did put together something that slightly resembled an effort at a comeback. Of course, it was all too little too late and you never really had the feeling that the Magic were going to let it get away from them.
But honestly- the third quarter left me with my jaw on the ground. I don’t know how many times I have to watch them give games away before I expect it, but I really thought that something had clicked in their heads and they were ready to play a full game. I don’t know what it is- if they physically don’t have it in them to compete with the elite and finish games out, or if its hubris fueled delusions, and they think they can play good basketball for spurts and still win games. Whatever it is, it’s discouraging. You know what else is discouraging? That it’s February 8, 2010, and Rasheed Wallace is still not in shape. If Rasheed was shooting an above cringe-worthy percentage from three, taking advantage of the fact that he can regularly score easy points in the paint and displaying that high basketball, veteran savvy defense he was supposed to come with, then the temper tantrums and the lack of physical fitness would be easier to overlook and gloss over. But he’s not doing any of that. Sorry, but you don’t get to be out of shape and potty mouthed when you’re not producing. And past being discouraging, it’s frustrating. Rasheed Wallace was supposed to come in and back KG up, and instead he came in talking a big game, but in actuality, he was seemingly unprepared to effectively provide backup. Rasheed has had some good moments this season for sure, and there have been times where it’s seemed like he bought in to the system, but his overall performance this season could be filed under… Less than spectacular. It doesn’t do anyone any good to point fingers, and to be fair, Rasheed has been far from alone in his lackluster output.
The Celtics blatantly have the potential to beat the elite- they could have taken the season series against the Magic, they could have had a moderately easy win against the Lakers and could have won several of the games against Atlanta. Instead, they lost the season series to the Magic, suffered a heartbreaker against LA, and have been swept by the Hawks. They are running out of statement games, and a Big Win is desperately needed.
