Lack of Effort?

Jeff Van Gundy criticized the Boston Celtics for a lack of effort when they were caught off-guard in transition, allowing Tayshaun Prince to draw a foul on a drive to the basket and get FT's with 3:24 remaining in the 3rd quarter of game five. Van Gundy said "That's just bad, that's just bad effort by the Celtics" as Prince's 2nd FT was going through.

Van Gundy correctly pointed out that "the Pistons weren't even running hard" and "you should never get beaten down the floor" after a made basket. The problem is that Van Gundy was off the mark on his criticism. It wasn't a lack of effort that was the problem in this instance, it was a lack of concentration. While neither of them is acceptable, especially in game five of the Eastern Conference Finals with the series knotted up at 2-2, Van Gundy should be able to tell the difference and correctly relate the information to the public.

From the replay, it looks like Boston SF Paul Pierce was trying to pick up the man bringing up the ball, Detroit PG Chauncey Billups. He pointed to Prince, seemingly directly someone else to guard Detroit's SF. Unfortunately for Boston, PG Rajon Rondo was right next to Pierce looking to guard Billups. So, while both Rondo and Pierce were back on defense, one of them - presumably Pierce - was out of position. On subsequent (and preceding) possessions, Rondo is guarding Billups and Pierce is checking Prince.

Effort and concentration are two entirely different things. To paraphrase OU Football Coach Bob Stoops' thoughts on the Sooners' secondary in recent years, if your players run fast in the wrong direction, they are even farther out of position. While OU's secondary didn't lack hustle, problems with concentration hurt because the effort wasn't productive. If you are concentrating, but don't put out a solid effort, you won't be at your best. But, even if you are giving it your all, you get into a similar amount of trouble if you aren't able to focus on the task at hand, which was what happened in allowing Prince to get to the FT line.