The Boston Celtics are 55-15 and ripping through the NBA. Even though they were handling everybody they faced, the Celts lacked size and experience at point guard. The team addressed those issues by picking up Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown, but former player and current Celtics broadcaster Tommy Heinsohn doesn’t like the moves.

From the final minutes of the Sixers-Celtics game on Comcast via NBA TV:

I’m gonna make an observation about chemistry on the team. This team was playing attack basketball and they made the trade. I shouldn’t say they made the trade, they picked up two experienced veteran players. They’re gonna try and incorporate them into what they’re doing. I don’t think they’ve been successful in doing that. These players, I don’t know if they understand it. The whole game slowed down when Sam was in the game and there was no vitality in some of those games when P.J. Brown was in there.

A little bit later, but within the same train of thought:

Without Sam and without P.J. Brown, they had a very aggressive, everybody understood how to be aggressive and they’ve lost that when they’ve gone to those two experienced players they just picked up so the tempo of the game changes.

And again with seconds remaining in the game:

I hope the experimenting is over. They’re gonna have some practices in between these next couple of games. We’ll see what they can do with the veteran players and make a decision on how they’re gonna play people. This experiment tonight backfired I think. They lost what they’ve been doing, the attacking, the aggressiveness, at very important junctures of this game.

Boston has lost a couple of games in a row, but that doesn’t mean Cassell and Brown have ruined team chemistry. The Celtics are 8-3 since P.J. Brown joined the team and 6-3 since Cassell has been brought on board. The three losses were vs. Utah, @ New Orleans, and vs. Philadelphia. In the 11 games prior to P.J. Brown becoming a Celtic the team was 8-3 with the three losses coming in a row, @ Denver, @ Golden State, and @ Phoenix… A wash. He might not think so now but come playoff time I guarantee Tommy Heinsohn will be thanking God that Boston picked up P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell.

Tags: Tommy Heinsohn, Sam Cassell, P.J. Brown, Boston Celtics, NBA