Bullets Knock Off Celts: Washington 120- Boston 114

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts were up against another team with something to play
for this afternoon.  Although you couldn't tell it from the Bullets
demeanor, who treated this game more like an exhibition game than a
critical stop on the road to the playoffs.  Eventually, the Bullet's
huge advantage in size on the inside, was too much for the C's to
overcome.=09
	The first quarter was played as though both teams were still
in pregame warm-ups.  The Bullets hit 13 of their first 14 shots from
the field, but the Celts were still only trailing by 5 (28-23), as the
C's hit 3 treys to balance the scales.  For most of the quarter the
Celts traded outside shots for Washington lay-ups, and it eventually
took it's toll, as the C's fell behind 43-34 by the end of the
quarter.
	Although the Bullets were very successful playing the uptempo
game against the Celts in the first period, they seemed to slow the
pace in the second, more out of fatigue than anything the C's were
doing.   Midway through the quarter the Bullets had upped their lead
to 10 at 61-51.  With the score at 65-54, Harvey Grant was injured in
a melee under the Celts basket and was forced to leave the game.
David Wesley hit two jumpers at the end of the half, to pull the C's
to within 7 (74-67).
	As the third quarter started, the two squads seemed to be
digging in (at least compared to the first half).  On a wild sequence
Todd Day committed a flagrant foul against Gheorge Muresan on the
fifth Bullets shot of the possession!  But the C's couldn't cut into
the Bullets margin nor could Washington break contact.  Halfway
through the period the margin was eight at 85-77.  Then  Day went
crazy.  In about 1:30 he had 6 points, an assist, 2 steals and a block
as the Celts scored  11 unanswered points to take the lead for the
first time since the early first quarter.  The Bullets answered with
an 8-0 run of their own (93-88).  The quarter ended with the score at
97-91.
	The Celts sucked it up on defense and held the Bullets to just
2 points, over the first 3:20 of the 4th, as they put together an 9-2
run to take a 1 point lead (100-99).   Washington regained the lead.
but the Celts stayed close, and trailed by 1 at 107-106 with 4:30 left
in the game.  But Rod Strickland really exerted himself at this point,
and the Bullets went on a 10-2 run to take a 117-108 lead, with a
minutes to go in the game.  The final score was 120-114.
	Although the Bullets shot .559 from the field the typical
Celtic lack of "D" wasn't the cause of the loss.  The C's shot 50%
themselves and also hit .500 from the arc and were 21-27 from the free
throw line.  The Bullets outrebounded the C's 49-36 and 15-9 on the
offensive boards.  That was the prime factor in the Bullet's edge in
shots taken 93-82. Turnovers were even and the Bullets had huge edge
in assists 35-19 as the Bullets got an astonishing number of easy
shots, even considering the opposition.  With Day and Conlon starting
the C's bench was a non-factor again as they score just 4 points (to
the Bullets bench's 16, not so great either).

LIneups-Celtics-- Wesley, Day, Fox, Walker, Conlon
	  Bullets- Strickland, Cheaney, Webber, Howard, Muresan

Players- Wesley- Great shooting game.  Wes was 15-21 from the field,
and 3-5 on treys.  He had 34 points (might have tied his career high
with that), 9 assists, but also 4 turnovers in 46 minutes.  He got a
tremendous number of 10-15 foot jumpers for many of his scores.  Down
the stretch he couldn't contain Strickland (a common experience among
NBA point guards).

Day- Seemed much more comfortable with the major minutes than he has
in last month.  Shot 8-18, for 26 points, 7 boards, 2 steals and 2
blocks.  On that one sequence in the third quarter, he blocked a shot
on the break by Howard, which led to an easy layup by Fox.  He stole
the ball on the next play, but the C's fumbled away the opportunity on
the break.  Then he stole the ball again, kept the ball himself, and
fed Wesley on a behind the back pass for another score.  Then he
topped it off with 2 straight treys.

Walker- had a big first half with 18 points, and seemed to have a big
rivalry with Webber, as they were jawing back and forth.  But he
disappeared in the second half.  He scored 22 (7-19), had 8 boards and
2 steals in 45 minutes. He dislocated his finger with about 2 minutes
left in the game.

=46ox- Was back at his old small forward position, but he definitely
didn't seem more comfortable, at least shooting the ball.  He shot
just 4-13, many of them easy shots that he should have converted.  He
scored 10 points, had 3 boards, 3 assists and 6 steals (he always robs
Juwan Howard blind).  I think that the 6 steals gives him the team
mark in steals in a season with 169 or 170.

Conlon-Pretty decent game for Marty, as he scored 18 points on 7-9
shooting, and had 6 boards in 41 minutes.  he also had 3 turnovers as
the refs seem to be scrutinizing his moves very carefully for
traveling.  He got matched up against Muresan for much of the game,
and gave up some easy scores to Gheorge, but got a lot of those easy
shots back with perimeter jump shots.

Hawkins/Szabo/Lister/Hamer/Driggers- played 26 minutes in total and
got 4 points and 10 boards.  Lister contributes 6 boards in just 7
minutes of play.

Coaching- an interesting bit of data for the debate over where the C's
are weaker, on offense or defense.   The Celts transition defense was
horrendous, as the Bullets registered easy shot after easy shot.
They shot 50%, but most of that came because the Bullets just couldn't
bring themselves to extend to play "D" after they realized that there
was no way that the Celts could stop themselves form scoring.  The
most amazing stat of the game was that the Bullets had almost as many
assists as the C's did Baskets (35-41).  Tommy reported that he heard
(?) that Day would leave the team at the end of the season as he
thought that he was unfairly treated in regards to playing time.  That
may be sour grapes, as it's unlikely that he would be resigned anyway.
No comments on Fox.

The Celts are now 13-63.  They play again Wednesday in Charlotte.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com