Planning ahead

O'Brien's game plan for Celtics is paying off so far

Celtics head coach Jim O'Brien did his homework. Of all the teams in the playoffs, Boston had the best defensive game plan in its opening victory against Philadelphia.

The way the season ended, it looked as if the Sixers were trying to work it so that they played the Celtics, whom they had dominated during the regular season. But Boston came out with a flat-out, sagging defense, which caused Philadelphia to try to shoot over the defenders.

Philadelphia is not a good outside shooting team; it's one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the NBA. So the Celtics took away the middle so the Sixers couldn't drive, and then Allen Iverson, who started off strong, failed to hit his jump shots.

The other thing O'Brien did was take advantage of his team's perimeter shooters and one-on-one players to nullify the presence of Dikembe Mutombo. The Celtics are a tremendous 3-point shooting team; they probably rely on the 3-point shot more than anybody else in the league. That takes Mutombo's defensive skills out of the picture.

But a good game plan isn't all Boston has in its favor this postseason. There's not a better one-on-one player in the NBA than Paul Pierce. He leads the league in scoring in the fourth quarter, and there's a good reason for that. He doesn't mind having the ball in his hands with the game on the line.

Add to that the fact that Philadelphia isn't as good as it was last year. George Lynch, Tyrone Hill and Jumaine Jones were very important to the team that reached the NBA Finals last season. Those guys are no longer there, and the players who are there are banged up. Iverson isn't 100 percent, and Aaron McKie and Derrick Coleman also are nursing injuries.

So it's going to be interesting to see how Sixers head coach Larry Brown responds in Game 2. Philly has to come out and really pound the offensive glass. When a team is sagging on you, you should be able to go to the offensive boards. The Sixers didn't do that in the first game.

But it was only one game. Iverson missed his last nine shots, and he can certainly be counted on to play better in Game 2, so you can't discount Philly.

Trash talk started early this year

Members of the Lakers and Kings pronounced their respective opponents done after Game 1. That's pretty unusual, especially for Vlade Divac, whose Kings went out and promptly lost Game 2 to the "done" Jazz.

Times have certainly changed -- nobody in the past would ever knock another team after beating them one game. You have nothing to gain by it -- you can only give incentive to your opponent -- so it's absolutely ridiculous to be claiming victory after winning the first game of a series. Anything can happen. Someone could get injured or something crazy can happen in Game 2, so it's best to keep quiet.

People say players don't need extra motivation at this stage of the year, but it's the playoffs, you don't want to give anybody anything for the blackboard.

Some guys might think they can out-psyche their opponent. But you're not going to out-psyche Karl Malone and John Stockton. They've been around this game too long.

Best-of-seven first round would make everyone happy

NBA commissioner David Stern has said he expects the league to extend the first round to a best-of-seven series, probably to accommodate the television networks that will be broadcasting the postseason next year.

The way they spread out this first round hurts the players and the fans, and it ruins any continuity a series might hope to have. People forget who's playing and when they¹re playing. But a seven-game first-round series, such as the NHL has, keeps the continuity going, it keeps a flow to the series.

The players' association still has to agree to it, but the players don't like waiting four days to play another game. And besides, the NBA will increase the playoff money and make it financially rewarding to the players. So it would be very surprising if they're not playing a best-of-seven first round next year.

Kevin Loughery is a former NBA player and head coach. He appears each Sunday on CNN/SI's This Week in the NBA.

 

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