Celts Beat Cavs in OT!!!!!!!!: Boston 103-Cleveland 101

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The green juggernaut rolls on.  If you exclude the first
quarter and the first 6 minutes of the 4th quarter the Celts outplayed
the Cavs pretty handily.  Especially considering that the Cavs were
playing for their playoff lives, and the Celts had absolutely nothing
at stake.  Of course if you look at the performance of so many teams
in the playoff run this year (New York, Seattle, Cleveland, Detroit)
you have to wonder if there isnt a cause in the last CBA, where the
players have to pay If they get into the playoffs.  Eric Williams was
unable to play again, but Rick Fox was back.
	The Cavs, uncharacteristically, were willing to run in the
first quarter, and jumped out to leads of 11-5, and 22-11.  Chris
Mills got off to a very fast start.  Towards the end of the quarter,
the Celts began to show signs of life, but they still trailed at the
end of the first, 28-17.  The two teams combined for 49 possessions in
the quarter, so the Cavs were clearly not playing their usual game.
	The Cavs returned to Czar-ball in the second quarter and it
seemed to be standing them in good stead halfway through the quarter
as they led 39-29.   Todd Day and Antoine Walker, got some offense
going toward the end of the half as the Celts ended the quarter with a
12-4 rush to pull to within 2 at 43-41.  The Celts outscored the Cavs
24-15 in the second period.
	The Celts continued their solid play from the end of the first
half to start the second.   On a Day 3, about  2:00 into the quarter,
the Celts took their first lead of the game at 46-44.  In all the
Celts outscored the Cavs 12-3 at the start of the second half to take
a 53-46 lead, with Day scoring 6 of those points.  Slowly (natch) the
Cavs began to work their way back into the game.  They started with a
5-0 run to pull to within a point at 55-54.  Rick Fox hit a three to
put the Celts back up by 4 and then Day fed Wesley for another trey
and the C's had their 7 point lead back (61-54).  The Cavs closed out
the quarter with a 7-2 run to close the gap to 65-61 at the end of the
period.  On the last play of the quarter Rick Fox was given credit for
a steal, which did set the new single season Celtic mark.
	The Celtics started the 4th quarter very slowly, as they ran
some very bizarre offense.  Several times they actually went to Nate
Driggers in the low post to try to score !?!  The Cavs retook the lead
and built a 4 point advantage at 74-70.  The C's came back with 5
points of their own (75-74).  The Cavs scored 7 straight of their own,
as the Celts were having trouble controlling their offensive board
(81-75).  The Celts went on a 7-3 mini-run (5 from Conlon) to tie the
score at 84 apiece.  Terrell Brandon scored 3 points from the line
(but missed a critical free throw).  With 6 second left in the game,
Todd Day came off a pick and hit a deep three (about 25 feet) to tie
the game at 7 each.  Bobby Sura tried to drive to the basket, for the
win but couldn't get the shot to go down.  Overtime!
	The overtime was very close and well played, as the Celts
pitted a team effort against the heroics of Terrell Brandon (who
scored 11 of the Cavs 14 and assisted on the other basket).   Marty
Conlon gave the Celts the lead with two free throws, and after a
Brandon jumper tied the game, Day put the C's ahead again with  a
great effort on the offensive boards.   On the next play Brandon beat
Wesley and David had to resort to a hard foul to keep him from getting
an easy basket, but Brandon made the free throws to tie the game at
91-91.  With 1:28 to go in the OT, Brandon faked Wesley towards a
pick, and then broke to the basket.  Day fouled Brandon , but Terrell
was also able to score the basket.  The Cavs had their first lead of
the OT at 97-95.  On the next play Rick Fox responded with a huge
three to get the lead back for the Celts (98-97).  After Brandon hit a
jumper, Wesley responded with a drive past Sura to give the Celts the
lead 100-99. On the next play Walker stole the ball from Ferry, and
Brandon sent Wesley to the line, and the C's had a three point lead
with just 12.2 seconds left.  The two team exchanged free throw
opportunities one more time and the final was Boston 103-Cleveland
101.

Starters- Celts- Wes, Day, Fox, Walker, Conlon
	   Cavs- Brandon, Sura, Mills, Ferry, Hill

Wesley- Any fair minded person would have to say the Brandon outplayed
Wesley in this one.  But that's not to say that Wesley didn't have a
fine game.  Wesley scored 22 points on 7-14 shooting, 4 boards and 8
assists in 50 minutes.  And, with the exception of a couple of plays
in the OT, he did a solid job against Brandon, who scored 31, but shot
10-21.  He was very tenacious coming of picks, all night long.

Day- big game for Todd, as he scored 30 in a game that was not played
at his preferred tempo.   He shot 10-20, including 6-11 on threes, had
5 rebounds (3 offensive) and 2 steals in 43 minutes.  His three point
shot looked very good.  He was going straight up with no side to side
wobble at all.

Conlon- Played Tyrone Hill to a standoff.  Marty had 18 points on 6-10
shooting, 2 boards, 5 assists and 3 steals.  Although his rebounding
stat isn't very impressive, he held Hill to just 1 offensive rebound
in the game.  Marty played 38 minutes, and fouled out about 1:30 into
the overtime.

Walker- The Tempo in this game was rather unfriendly to Walker.
Against the Cavs, Walker was forced to his outside game and Ferry did
a good job of sticking with him.  Antoine scored 15, on 6-17 shooting,
had 8 boards and 5 assists.  Scored 7 of his 15 in 1:30 in the second
quarter.  Against a team like Cleveland, Antoine should probably leave
the shooting to someone else and go to work on the offensive boards,
where he could overpower a player like Ferry.  Antoine did make a
number of good passes, moving the ball around on the perimeter.

=46ox- He got of to a very slow start offensively, but hit some big
shots down the stretch and in OT.  Score 10 points on 3-11 shooting,
had 9 boards, 4 assists and the 1 steals (in 45 minutes) to set the
new record.   After Chris Mills scored 7 point in the first 5 minutes
of the game, Fox held him to just 7 the rest of the way.

Driggers- First off the bench tonight.  Scored 4 points and had 1
board in 12 minutes.  You can tell, that the Celts are impressed by
his low post work in practice, as they went to him in the post 4 or 5
times in the game. =20

Szabo- Got 13 minutes and scored 2 and had 4 boards.  Fox fed him
going to the basket for a nice jam in the first half, and then the
Celts tried to find him on an alley-oop in the second half, but they
couldn't quite connect.

Lister- got 12 minutes and pulled down three boards.

Hawkins/Hamer- Played for 6 minutes between them and score 2 points
and had an assist.

Coaching- Maybe the season is taking a little greater toll on M.L.
than we had suspected.  With about 30 seconds left in the OT, the
camera panned over the Celts bench and you could see Ed Lacerte
rubbing the back of M.L.'s neck.  Then  with just .05 left in the game
M.L. left the bench and headed back to the lockerroom with the Celt's
team doctor.  I don't have any idea what the problem was, though.
	Personally I was happy to see M.L. and the Celts get the win,
tonight.  Even though it still might cost them in the lottery (though
probably not).  The Celts played hard, and surprisingly, beat the Cavs
at their own slow down game.

The Celts record is now 14-64.  They have the Bullets in town Sunday
afternoon.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

=20