Hornets Eke Out Win: Charlotte 108-Boston 102

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts  were really depleted this evening.  Not only were
they missing the usual host of players, including Rick Fox and Eric
Williams, but they were also without the presence of Coach\G.M.\Guru
M.L. Carr.  With D.J. manning the helm the Celts played a very
spirited game, which they had a good chance to win.  The Celts missed
some key shots down the stretch, and could never get over the hump and
take the lead against the Hornets.
	The Celts actually started out hot, and held a 11-4 lead with
8:00 to go in the first quarter.  The Hornets came back with a 7-0 run
to tie the game.  But the Celts led for most of the quarter. and
headed into the second holding a 27-23 advantage.  The only dark spot
on the horizon was that Glenn Rice shot 0-7 and scored 1 point in the
first period, a condition that was certain not to last.
	The Hornets got Rice into the game via a very unusual route.
Vlade Divac hit Rice with alley-oop passes to score 3 of the first 5
Hornet points of the second period, as he led the Hornets on a 18-7
run that put Charlotte up by 7 at 41-34.  D.J. got the starters back
into the game and the Celts were able to go on a 11-2 run of their own
to grab the lead back at 45-43.  At this point, Wesley was leveled by
a vicious (though legal) pick by Malik Rose, that forced him to the
bench for the remainder of the half.  The Hornets were able to tie the
game, and then go ahead by scoring the last 5 points of the half to
make the halftiem score 55-50.  After being held to one point in the
first quarter, Rice scored 15 in the second.=09
	The Celts scored the first 8 points of the third, and Cowens
was forced to a timeout (58-55).  The Hornets took the lead back with
an 8-2 run, and the two teams traded lead back and forth for the rest
of the quarter.   The Celts held their last lead at 70-69 with 3:44 to
go in the quarter.  The Hornets fininshed off with a 13-6 run to make
the score 82-76 heading into the final period.  Nate Driggers turned
his ankle, landing on Ricky Pierce's sneaker after trying to block a
shot.
	The Celtics cut the lead to 85-84 about 3:00 into the 4th
quarter, but the Hornets responded with a 6-0 run.  This seemed to set
the pattern for the final period, as the Celts were able to get to
within a point at 93-92 and 101-100.  But they could never get the
crucial defensive stop to allow them a chance to take the lead.  Also
Day, Conlon and Walker all missed makeable shots down the stretch that
would have helped the Celts cause immensley.   Wesley pulled the C's
to within 2 at 104-102.  On the next play the Celts fouled Tony Smith,
who went to the line and missed both free throws.  But Anthony Mason
outmuscled Marty Conlon for the rebound (and probably committed a
loose ball foul in the process, but was not called for it), and with
the ball the Hornets were able to score and salt the game away.  The
final was 108-102 Hornets.=09

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Day, Walker, Conlon, Szabo
	Hornets- Smith, Pierce, Rice, Mason, Geiger

Players- Walker- had the first triple double of his career and no, he
didn't get 10 turnovers (I know that's what you were thinking).  Toine
scored 23 points, had 10 boards and 10 assists in 47 minutes of
playing time.  Fittingly, he got his 10th rebound on a offensive board
off his own missed shot.   He did throw some nice passes in the game.
Very early in the first quarter, D.J. pulled Walker out of the game
and sat next to him on the bench for about a minute, presumably
discussing how he should play Rice.  Don't know if it had any effect,
or why it only worked in the first period.   Actually Rice shot a
pretty miserable (by his standards) 10-24 from the field.

Wesley- a very nice game for David, as Charlotte didn't have a point
guard capable of checking him.  Wes scored 25 on 10 for 15 shooting,
had 3 boards, 7 assists and 5 steals  in 35 minutes of playing time
(D.J was very generous to the bench players in this game).    Wesley
did allow Delk to do some damage down the stretch though.  On that
pick in the second quarter, Wesley was dogging Delk, as he dribbled
the ball up court.  The rest of the Celts were running back on D, and
couldn't really see the play to warn Wes about the pick.  Wesley
crashed into Rose without ever seeing him.  It appeared that he might
have hurt his shoulder, but he came back in the second half and played
quite well.=20

Day- Poor shooting night for Todd at 8-22, for 20 points, 6 boards and
3 steals in 44 minutes.  I can't honestly say that he took bad shots,
they just weren't dropping.

Conlon- Marty scored 14 and had 11 boards, but he really didn't shoot
the ball well at 6-13 (he even went 2-4 at the foul line).  He made
some nice moves, but didn't have the Irish luck getting the ball to go
in.

Szabo- Scored 7 points and had 14 (!!!!!!!) boards in 34 minutes of
playing time.  Brent was bouncing all over the court tonight.  Walker
hit him for a nice alley-oop to start the third quarter.  He also made
some bone head plays.  Down the stretch he made a nice hustle play to
get control of the ball off a missed shot and then double dribbled
that ball.  Far and away is most impressive game in terms of
aggresiveness and energy.

Driggers- Played for only 11 minutes before he got hurt.  Continues to
go to the turnaround on the offensive end.  It seems to me that any
player who can hit a turnaround eventually develops a jump shot (that
how DJ started out), so I think that if Driggers hangs around long
enough he'll become a decent shooter.  He might even become the poor
man's Pete Myers.

Hawkins- thought he looked good tonight with 7 points and 3 assists in
11 minutes.  D.J seemed to get decent efforts from most of the bench
players tonight.

Lister/Hamer- 13 minutes between them, 4 points and 1 board.

Coaching- can't say much about D.J  off this game.  It seems to me
that he tried to encourage the players.  But he also seems to think
that you have to temper the support, with some reality, i.e. that you
have to let them know when they're not doing things right (which I'm
not sure that M.L. always gets across,  he's so busy gladhanding
everyone).  D.J picked up a technical foul tonight.

Opposition Players of Note- Rice- Do anyone thing that Glenn Rice had
or soon will supplant L.B. as the outside shooting front line player
in league history?  Or is this Sacrelage?

The Celts record is now 14-56.  They play this Friday in Philly.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S.- Mike Gorman mentioned that he was talking to a Hornet official
and they are very interested in David Wesley as a Free Agent
acquisition.  Anyone know anything about the Hornet's cap situation?