Lack of Intensity on D a Problem for Boston

Just when I was beginning to get a little worried that the Portland Trailblazers (23-15) were going to act like normal human beings for an entire week and not give me any unsavory material for my article, Rasheed Wallace came to the rescue. On Saturday, the league suspended Wallace for seven games without pay for threatening referee Tim Donaghy outside the Rose Garden after a January 15th win over the Memphis Grizzlies.

Wallace, who has been relatively mundane with only seven technical fouls garnered this year (as opposed to 27 last year and an eye-popping league record 41 two years ago), will lose 1.26 million out of his 16.2 million dollar salary for his outburst. Blazers coach Mo Cheeks complained that the punishment was only made so stiff because of Wallace's past, apparently forgetting that in America repeat offenders tend to receive stiffer punishments.

If their appeal fails and the suspension holds, the Blazers should continue their inconsistency on the court, and as always, we should expect more off-the-court incidents, brushes with the law, and disputes over playing time to emerge soon from the rain and gloom that is Portland.

Another team that has been an enigma all season is the Boston Celtics (23-17), although the Celtics have at least managed to confine their troubles to basketball. The team has been dealt some brow-raising losses (114-69 to the Washington Wizards, 117-81 to the New Jersey Nets, 90-70 to the Miami Heat). But that tends to happen when your superstars shoot 39% from the field for the season, as both guard Paul Pierce and forward Antoine Walker have.

Those ugly numbers are due in part to the team's off-season trade of Kenny Anderson to the Seattle Supersonics for Vin Baker and Shammond Williams. Williams has tag-teamed with Tony Delk to try to man the point guard position which Anderson ran last year, and both have been relatively productive. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of Baker, whose game has turned nastier than Christina Aguilera.

Despite their productivity, the problem with Delk and Williams is that they both are spot-up shooters who don't excel at penetrating and setting their teammates up for easy shots the same way that Anderson did. This invariably increases the degree of difficulty of shots for Pierce and Walker, and also leads to Walker trying his hand at running the team.

Walker's passing skills and vision are remarkable for a man of his size, and he is certainly capable of playing the point forward. However, the problem lies with the fact that Walker is often situated outside the arc. Here he feels compelled to jack up the three, as he has 1550 times over the last two and a half seasons, or over 500 times in the same stretch more than Reggie Miller, who is possibly the best three point shooter in NBA history.

In fact, Walker is well on his way to a third consecutive season attempting over 600 three pointers, compared to the one time in Miller's career that he even took 500 over the course of a season. As a result, Walker is getting to the line less than five times a game, which is inexcusable for a 6'9, 245 pound giant who can handle the rock.

Granted, the Celtics are a team that relies heavily on the three, and when they're draining their long distance shots, as they were when they blitzed Philadelphia in the playoffs last year, they are almost impossible to beat. But when they're not making them, then they need their airtight defense to keep them in games, But unfortunately for the C's, they just don't seem to be playing D with the same intensity as they did last year when they advanced all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals.