Celts' 4th Q Concentration Poor, Despite Long-Sought 1st Road Win

Once again, the Celtics looked piss-poor for the second 4th quarter in a row ...

Obviously not as horrific as in Game 2 ...

This time, the Celtics played MUCH better defense ... especially blocking out and getting all the rebounds they should be ...

which also was the case on the offensive end, where they had several multiple opportunities to convert ...

That said, the flow of their offense was, to put it kindly, practically non-existent ...

and they allowed the Pistons --

who clearly weren't playing great BEFORE I tuned in, and weren't even playing that well WHILE I was watching --

to climb right back into it ...

When I tuned in, with about three minutes left in the 3rd quarter, the Celtics were up by more than 20 ...

Yet the game wasn't locked away until about a minute left, as the Pistons cut it to 8 ...

Eventually, the Pistons tired -- basically due to the Celts' defensive rebounding -- and couldn't get any closer, and the Celtics were able to -- not close it out, but -- ESCAPE ...

So it's good that they FINALLY won a game on the road, which is a big psychological monkey off the back, for sure ...

But as Jeff Van Gundy -- whose commentary actually IS analytical, as well as being funny -- correctly pointed out DURING the game,

the Celtics continue to find the Pistons' 1-2-2 trap confusing,

which I can only attribute to the failure of Doc Rivers and the coaching staff to come up with a way to get a passer in the middle,

which is the best way to break the phalanx of the 1-2-2 ...

And as he said AFTER the game, the Celtics should NOT be satisfied with their first road win,

but should, instead, go for the jugular in Game 4 ...

Now that they have won a road game -- and a big one, in not just general terms, but transforming the momentum of this series -- it's time to keep going ...

Very important that they win Game 4 now and stop the fooling around ...

That said, Doc Rivers continually FAILS to impress me ...

ABC ran audio of his "4th Q time out to stop the Pistons' run",

and he said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING analytical, but just kept repeating "we've got to close it out, we've got to close it out",

without giving the team the SLIGHTEST indication of HOW they might actually DO that ...

Honestly, even if the Celts do -- somehow -- manage to win the Finals, I STILL think they should fire Rivers ... and they should certainly fire him if they DON'T ...

There are so many good NBA coaches out there -- too bad about Rick Carlisle, for example -- that I do not see why they would stick with him if they do anything BUT win it all ...