Re: 3 IN A ROW!: Boston 107-Philadelphia 101

[jmc@ptc.com (Jonathan McIntyre)]

Bill Cooper said:
> 	This little win streak, even though it comes against the
> marshmallow of the NBA, has to make Rick's life a lot easier.  He
> doesn't have to sell his players on his system, as the team loses it's
> first 15 games dreadfully (like the Knicks that first year).  If the
> players can see some payback from all the hard work, it will be
> relatively easy to keep them working hard.  As I  said at the start, I

  That's exactly right, and the most positive thing about the win streak. 
There are players who don't like the hard practices, but if most of the players 
believe they're working, then most of them will do them willingly, and 
any disgruntled players will have to work hard to keep up with the others 
and keep their job, even though they don't like it.

  The 3 teams they beat have a combined 3 Win, 22 Loss record, and the
Celtics only won by small margins, so this steak really doesn't prove much.
The nice thing was that they came up big at the end of each game, and
found a way to win.  Perhaps it's just their conditioning that's
helping at the end, but I think it also has to say something about
their belief in their ability to win in close games.  If they didn't
believe in their end-of-game ability before, then they must be starting to now.

  Remember that last year, the Celtics were VERY often tied or in the
lead with 2 or 3 minutes left in a game, and would find a way to
blow the game.  With better conditioning and confidence, even LAST
year's team would have won another 10 games or so.

Jon Mc