Celtics' defense still on vacation as season nears

Page 2 of 2 -- "During the season, it's not going to happen that way. [The offense] is going to be really focusing around me, Paul, and Ricky [Davis]. Most of the guys have to understand that when they get in a game, they need to play a role. If they play a role, it's going to be OK. Right now, we're struggling and we're not a good team right now."

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After the exhibition season started with a blowout victory over Chicago and a narrow loss to defending NBA champion Detroit, there was early optimism. But as reality sinks in, it's becoming clear that the restructuring of the Celtics under Rivers will not be an easy process. There will be nights when the team regresses, when the coaching staff wonders whether anyone listened during practice.

During the tough times, the challenge for Rivers and the players is to get back on track as quickly as possible. Currently, improved team defense remains the key to turning things around. The Celtics allowed Cleveland to shoot close to 50 percent from the floor. And for the second night in a row, the Celtics' opponents reached the 50-point mark by halftime. But with less than two minutes left in the fourth, Boston forced Cleveland to commit a pair of shot-clock violations, though the Green failed to take advantage on the other end."We have to have pride in ourselves to go out there and play," said Blount. "I don't like the defensive end. It's horrible. To let New Jersey score 50 points at halftime, that's ridiculous." Added Payton, "If somebody's not having a good night on offense, they don't go back and play defense. It's a problem. We told them that if you look at every team that's won a championship, mostly they've played great defense and it was a good defensive team. The young kids have got to understand that when it's time to play defense, we can't just come in and turn a light switch on and hope we're going to be ready on Nov. 3.

"If we don't [emphasize defense now], we'll get embarrassed."

It may be just the exhibition season, but the Celtics need to demonstrate a sense of urgency when it comes to abiding by the new team principle of tough-minded, unselfish play.

"Right now, as players, we're in the process of focusing too much on our offense and forgetting about the basics, playing defense and rebounding and being tough out there on the court," said Welsch. "We still have to work on that in practice.

"You can look at it as we've only been together for three weeks. We definitely still have a ways to go. The coaches know about it. We know about it. We're going to focus on it and try to become a better team."