A tired argument
His team trailed by 18 points at halftime, but Celtics coach Doc Rivers insists fatigue was not a factor in Boston’s slow start tonight.
“There was no fatigue,” said Rivers. “I don’t believe in that. We had a whole day off, we ain’t making no excuses. We played flat, we played with no energy in the first half, but it wasn’t the fatigue factor. As poorly as we played, we had plenty of opportunities to win this game.”
One of the reasons the Celtics played so poorly in the first half was that they failed to get to the free throw line. The Celtics did not shoot a single free throw in the first half, compared to Rajon Rondo’s 10 free-throw attempts in the third quarter alone.
“Biggest stat of the game, for us,” said Rivers. “When you shoot zero free throws for a half, that means your team is completely unaggressive. I mean, just — we settled for jump shots, we stood around. The second half we attacked, and that’s the difference.”
On Rondo, Rivers said there was nothing physically wrong with him in the first half.
“You know, he just got off to a slow start,” said Rivers. “There was a point — I don’t know, about four minutes gone in the third– when he tried to shoot that floater and missed it, and I called him over and I said, ‘Rondo, you’re not playing with speed.’ And I thought after that his speed became a factor. It’s tough to make a floater when you’re walking.”
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