Cavs Beat Celts: Cleveland 96-Boston 87

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

*** Disclaimer:  Both my VCR and myself missed the first quarter of
***last night's game.  If anyone out there has any comments on the
***game, and/or precisely why Fox didn't start I'd appreciate the
***information.

	Coming off the debacle in Chicago on Tuesday, the Celts
returned home to play with far more energy and enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, they were playing one of the handful of teams in the
league that still has a reason to play in the Cavs who are tied for
the eight and final playoff spot.  M.L. Carr continued to shake up his
starting lineup, inserting Todd Day, in place of Rick Fox for this
evenings contest.  It was the first time all season that Fox did not
start. =20
	As I said above I missed the first quarter.  Apparently Eric
Williams picked up 3 fouls and was forced out of the game.  The Cavs
led at the end of the first 27-26.
	The Celts started the second quarter with Hawkins, Fox,
Walker, Conlon and Lister on the floor.  After Lister hit two free
throws, Brent Szabo came into the game for Lister and scored the next
7 Celtic's points.  Although, this will probably turn out to be one of
the highlights of Szabo's career, it certainly didn't bode well for
the C's offense, as they still trailed 36-35 halfway through the
period.  Chris Mills came back into the game and was shooting the ball
well as the Cavs built a 50-43 halftime lead, outscoring the Celts
14-8 over the last half of the quarter.
	Antoine Walker had just scored on a nice jumper off the
dribble to pull the Celts to within 5 at 54-49.  On the next play,
Danny Ferry, leveled David Wesley on a moving screen.  Ferry was
called for the foul, but it looked as though Wesley might be seriously
hurt.  Wesley shook it off and stayed in the game, and on the next
play, Day scored to pull the Celts to within 3 (54-51).  On the next
play, Brandon tried to run Wesley off a Ferry screen again, Ferry
cheated a little again and Wesley refused to go around the illegal
pick and tried to go through Ferry.  Ferry shoved Wesley off and David
shoved back, and a fight nearly erupted between the two teams.  A
double technical was called and the refs calls a personal on Wesley.
The incident did serve to get the Celt's dander up, and they put in
some of their most intense play since January over the remainder of
the quarter.   They tied the game at 57 apiece.  The Celts pressed and
caused some Cavs turnovers.  Even when they didn't succeed in shaking
the ball loose they forced the Cavs to run enough time of the clock
getting the ball up court that the Cavs were called for two 24 second
clock violations over the last half of the period.  The quarter ended
with the Cavs clinging to a 64-62 lead.
	Unfortunately, at the start of the 4th quarter, the Cavs
heated up from outside and the Celts offense went south.  The Cavs
scored the first 11 points of the period including 3's from Ferry,
Sura and Brandon to make the score 75-62.   The Celts came back with 9
straight points of their own (2 Day 3's) to pull to within 4 at 75-71.
That was as close as the Celts could get it, though, as the Cavs
pushed their lead back to double digits at 85-71, and the game was
essentially over.  The final score was 96-87.
	The Celts did one of their better jobs of defending, holding
the Cavs to a .465 shooting percentage (the Celts shot .443
themselves).   In most games where the Celts were that close in field
goal percentage, they would have an excellent chance of winning the
game, but the Cavs were able to out rebound the C's 42-27, including a
12-6 advantage on the offensive boards.  The C's did have an advantage
in turnovers, 20-12, but the two factors canceled out and left the two
teams with nearly equal numbers of shots.  The Cavs also did a fine
job from three point range, shooting 10-21.

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Day, Williams, Walker, Conlon
	   Cavs- Brandon, sure, Mills, Ferry, Hill

Players- Walker- another improved shooting game for the rookie as he
scored 25 points on 10-19 shooting in 45 minutes.  He slacked off on
the boards, getting 7 defensive and being shut out on the offensive
boards (Ferry and Mills are so tough :-). =20

Williams- Got limited minutes in the first half due to foul trouble.
Got limited minutes in the second due to indifference.  The Cavs are
always a tough matchup for Eric, but it was worse than usual.  He
scored 5 points on 1-4 shooting, and had 1 board in 22 minutes.

Day- Todd shot a little better tonight at 4-14 (which is much better
than he's been doing recently).  He also pulled down 5 boards and had
6 assists.  He made a great pass early in the 3rd quarter, when Wesley
fed him moving to the left, across the key.  Day was cut off, and
faked as though he was going to reverse the ball back to Wesley.
Instead he hit Williams with a behind the back pass, open underneath
the basket (Eric's only basket of the game, as a matter of fact).

Wesley- Very quiet game other than the near-altercation with Ferry.
Shot 3-9, had 7 assists and 3 turnovers.   Did a pretty good job
against Brandon though, holding him to 5-17 shooting and 5 assists,
though Brandon did total 19 points.

Conlon- did a good job offensively, with 18 points off 7-13 shooting
in 35 minutes.  But he got just 1 rebound and Tyrone Hill scored 19
and had 11 boards playing opposite him.

=46ox- Only played 13 minutes and settled for passing the ball and
shooting 3's.  He has been suffering from a bruise on his foot for the
last few weeks, and that may have contributes to his limited playing
time.

Szabo- Mostly played in the second quarter and scored 8 points, but
had 0 rebounds in 13 minutes.   Did hit a couple of nice looking
jumpers.

Hawkins- Played for 18 minutes tonight,  his most time in quite
awhile.  He continues to be very conservative in taking shots, though
as he shot 1-2, scored 2 points, had 3 boards and 2 assists.

Lister- Played 11 minutes, had 2 points and 3 boards.

Hamer-  11 minutes, 2 points and 1 board.  Boy, is Hamer slow.  Cavs
rookie Victor Potapenko put the ball on the floor and drove around
Steve like he was nailed to the parquet.  All Steve has going for
himself is heigh,t since he's slow and skinny.

Coaching- For once the Celts actually had a little luck in getting the
Cavs to play their game.  With Bobby Phils out they were able to force
the ball into Bobby Sura's hands with their press and Sura coughed the
ball up 7 times.  The game actually got up toward 85 possessions which
is very high for a Cavs game.  The Celts lost their defensive
intensity in the 4th quarter though, and are still no closer to
figuring out what to do about the Cav's defense.

The Celts are now 13-61.  They are hosting the Clippers on Friday
night.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

=20

   =20