Clippers Knock Off Celts: Los Angeles 117- Boston 102

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	It's gotten so that we've forgotten how many players the C's
have injured, and have grown accustomed to playing with just half of
the players that they planned to have at the  start of the season.
Tonight, the Celts were reminded how it feels to be short handed
again, as Rick Fox (Flu) and Eric Williams (Bruised Knee), were unable
to dress for tonight's game.  The Celtics gave it a game effort and
were the beneficiaries of a brilliant performance by Antoine Walker
(36 points), but just didn't have enough in their half-empty tank.=09
	Things started out quite well for the Celts.  Both teams were
cold at the start of the first quarter, as the score was 9-9 halfway
through the period.   The Celts outscored the Clippers 19-5 over the
last five minutes of the quarter, including 8 points by Walker.  The
Celts were running and moving the ball around the court extremely
well.
	The Clippers slowly cut into the Celts lead as the second
quarter started,  Brent Barry, Terry Dehere and especially Lamond
Murray played well off the bench.  The Celts lead was down to 4 points
halfway through the period (41-37).  Murray hit two free throws at the
end of the quarter to give the Clippers a 54-52 lead heading into
halftime.
	The Clippers pushed their lead up to 5 at 65-60 about 4
minutes into the third.  But Walker got hot again, and scored 9 points
over about 4 minutes, to key a 11-5 Boston run (71-70).   With the
Celts trailing 76-74, Rodney Rogers broke free past Day, and Day
really lowered the boom to keep Rogers from jamming.  This seemed to
touch off a little animosity between the two teams.   The Celtics
extended their lead to 84-81 just before the end of the quarter, when
Hawkins fed Conlon for a nice basket.  But Barry threw in a 3 pointer
as the buzzer was sounding to tie the game going into the fourth
period, 84-84.
	The Celts really had problems running their offense at the
start of the 4th.   They turned the ball over 5 times in the first 4
minutes of the quarter, and were able to score only 2 points.  The
Clippers pulled ahead 91-86.  At about the 9:00 mark Conlon and Outlaw
got tangled up and fisticuffs nearly broke out.  A double technical
was called and an offensive foul on Marty.  A couple of plays later
the refs called a tech on Day,who was apparently riding them from the
bench.   At the midway point of the period, though, the Celts were
still in the game, only trailing by 1 (91-90).  The Clippers put
together a 12-4 run powered by Murray's shooting and Barry's guard
play to take over the game (103-94).   The Celts couldn't close the
gap (they were all exhausted by this time) and the Clippers ended the
game with a 8-1 flourish, to make the final score 117-102.

Except for the field goal percentages this was an unusual game for the
C's.  Of course the Clippers outshot them .495 to .429.  Worse, the
Clipps took 22 more shots (!).  The only reason that the game was
close, was the C's tremendous free throw shooting as they were 30-35
form the line.  The Clippers battered them on the boards (46-41, 16-10
offensive).  The Clippers also did an excellent job of protecting the
ball with only 6 turnovers (to the Celt's 14).  The Celts, forced to
play their bigger, slower players, were unable to generate pressure on
the ball.  The Celt's bench  took 1 of the 77 Celtic field goal
attempts!?!
=09
Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Day, Walker, Conlon, Hamer
	   Clippers- Martin, Sealy, Rogers, Outlaw, Vaughn

Players- Walker- Far, Far and Far Away Antoine's best shooting game as
a pro.  Unlike his 37 point game against Philly last week, almost all
of his shots came out of the half court offense.  His jumper was
especially good as he hit 3-6 on treys, and probably popped another 3
or 4 midrange jumpers.  He also hit several extremely sharp looking
tunrarounds.  He scored 36, on 12-24 shooting, was 9-11 from the free
throw line, had 12 boards and 6 assists (also 4 turnovers).  He
actually had 34 points with about 4:00 left in the third period, and
it looked as though he might go for 50.  But he seemed to tire out (he
played 46 minutes), and the rest of the Celtics were turning the ball
over so often that he only took 1 or 2 more shots the rest of the
game.

Wesley- The other end of the spectrum from Walker: David was 4-20, (16
points) and 6 assists.  He missed any number of short jumpers and
layups as well as going 1-6 on threes. =20

Day- almost as bad as Wesley at 5-17. He scored 17, but did help out
mightily on the boards with 9 in 42 minutes.

Conlon-Very nice game for Marty.  He scored 19 (9-12), pulled down 7
boards and made several nice passes, though he only got credit for 1
assist.  Took a nice pass form Hawkins, did a 360 and laid the ball in
for a particularly nice score.

Hamer- Scored 9 points in the first quarter, on a variety of nice
feeds form his teammates.  He pretty much disappeared after that, and
ended with 9 points and 4 boards in 31 minutes.  Still looks very slow
and awkward.

Szabo- 2 points and 2 boards in 15 minutes.

Hawkins- Played for 17 minutes, and made a couple of nice defensive
plays and a couple of nice passes.  He didn't shoot the ball, but did
have 5 assists.

Lister- The other 3 points (for a total of 5) from the bench.  Also
had 2 boards in his 7 minutes.

Driggers- Nate is back!!!!  The Celts just signed him to a ten day
contract.

Coaching- What can you say about a game like this?  So I won't try.

Opposition Players of note: Lamond Murray- Was the last Clipper off
the bench in the first half.  Scored 24 points in 16 minutes of
playing time, on 11-15 shooting,   All 11 of his baskets came form two
point range, as he was 0-2 on threes.  Also pulled down 7 boards and
did a decent job on Walker down the stretch, though that may have been
due to Walker's fatigue and Celtics incompetence.  The one blot on the
Walker escutcheon, was his defense against Murray in the 4th quarter.
He just couldn't keep in contact with Murray, and left him open for
several open shots on the perimeter.

The C's are hosting the Bullets on Sunday.  They're now 13-62 on the
season.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com =20
 =20