C's avert Disaster?: Boston 119-Philly 113

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	With a lot of spirited play, the Celts jumped out to a large
lead in this game, and then held on for dear life as the Sixers
mounted a furious comeback.   Antoine Walker, after being invisible
for most of the second half was able to score 5 crucial points down
the stretch and preserve the victory for the Celts.  This was the
first win by the Celts over a divisional opponent this season
(although, I think they set a new record for lowest winning percentage
against divisional opponents).  M.L. Carr was back for tonight's game.
	For most of the first quarter, it looked as though the 1960's
Celts had returned for a night to don the green uniforms.  The Celts
jumped out to leads of 8-1, 16-7 and 25-10.  Brent Szabo was
particularly effective in reprising the Bill Russell role with 3
blocks in the first 8 minutes of the quarter.  Johnny Davis, pulled
his starting front line, and got much more effective play from his
benchmen towards the end of the quarter.  The Sixers ended the period
with a 13-8 run to cut the lead to 10 at 33-23.  The Celts scored the
last 5 points of the quarter to lead 38-23.
	After the first 3 minutes of the second the Sixers had cut the
C's lead to 9 at 44-35.  The Celts responded with an 8-0 run to push
the lead up to 17 at 52-35.  Just before the end of the period, the
Celts were up 21 at 64-43, before Mark Bradtke scored the final basket
of the half to make the score 64-45.  Walker, Wesley, Day and Conlon
were all in double figure in scoring in the first half, and Antoine
had 10 assists as well.
	Things continued along swimmingly (and you should try this
with a basketball, sometime) for the Celts at the start of the second
half.  The C's got their biggest lead of the game at 82-57 about 5:00
into the quarter.  Even the perennial pessimist, Bob Cousy, was
predicting that the Celts had this game in the bag.  Unbelievably, as
so often happens even to the worst teams in the league, the Celts let
up.  Not so much that their effort level declined, but they started to
do silly things.  By this time Walkers assist total was around 13, and
the C's were letting him handle the ball continually.  Davis put some
pressure on and the Sixers began to work their way back into the game.

M.L. Carr should have stayed in Phoenix, as the Sixers outscored the
Celts 26-10, before M.L. even bothered to call a timeout.  By that
time Iverson, Stackhouse and Doug Overton were out of jail, and the
Sixers where back in the game. The third quarter ended with the Celts
up 96-88.
	The Sixer's forward momentum continued unabated in the 4th
period.    Both teams started out, having trouble putting points on
the board, but after 5:00 were gone the Sixers had closed the score to
just 3 points at 102-99.  At the 6:00 minute mark, Day, who had been
killing the Celts with errant outside shooting, hit a three to put the
Celts up by 7, 106-101.  The Sixers kept coming on and with 2:16 left
Overton hit a 3, to pull the Sixes within a point at 111-110.  On the
next play, Walker put back a missed Day jumper, and hit 1 free throw
on the possession after that to put the Celts up 114-110.  On that
missed free throw, Szabo got the rebound and was fouled, but missed
both throws.  Two possessions later Szabo redeemed himself, by hitting
both free throws after being fouled intentionally by Iverson
(116-111).   Alton Lister sealed the game, when he grabbed a defensive
board, eluded the Sixers attempts to foul him, and found Walker
streaking downcourt for a jam to close out the game.  C's win 119-113.
=09
Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Day, Walker, Conlon, Szabo
                 Sixers- Iverson, Stackhouse, Wetherspoon, Davis, Cage

Players- Walker- Second triple double in his career, and in a row.
Antoine had 23 points (11-26), 12 boards (6 offensive), and 13 assists
in 46 minutes.   Probably the most impressive part of his game was
that he only had 3 turnovers.  For most of the second half, Doug
Overton played the 2guard for Philly, and Stackhouse moved up to the
three and played Walker.  Stackhouse gave Toine a lot of trouble,
blocking his shots at least twice, and doing a good job of sticking
with Antoine on the perimeter.  It took Walker, way too long to figure
out that he needed to exploit his size advantage against Stackhouse,
by going to the offensive boards.  If it had taken Antoine another 10
minutes the Celts might have lost the game.

Wesley- was killing Iverson till about halfway through the third
quarter.  He was driving around Iverson for easy baskets (Iverson
reportedly played the game on a tender ankle), and limited Iverson to
weak outside shots.  In the third, though Wesley seemed to lose steam
and Iverson dominated him after that point.  When Philly put in a
smaller lineup and pressed. Wesley didn't want anything to do with
handling the ball against that pressure and generally failed to take
charge of the team.  Although he continued to play decent defense
against Iverson, he was held scoreless in the 4th quarter. He did have
28 for the game, on 13-20 shooting, 4 boards, 10 assists, 5 steals and
5 turnovers in 47 minutes.  An impressive game statistically, it's too
bad that David really didn't play that well.=20

Day- Bigtime first quarter with 13 points.  He ended the game with 23
points, on 6-22 shooting and 5 assists.  After an impressive first
half, his shot selection in the second half was a disaster.  Ended up
the game 3-9 on threes.  And Doug Overton hit for 16 in the second
half, mostly with Todd Day supposedly checking him.

Conlon- 22 points, 8 boards and 3 steals for Marty.  He continually
faked Sixers rookie Mark (I think) Hendrickson out of his sneaks, and
drove around him to the basket.  Also played Spoon pretty tough.

Szabo- I think, with his last couple of games that Brent may have
gotten himself another shot in the league, next year (not necessarily
with the Celts of course).  He scored 15 points (5-8), had 13 boards,
3 assists and 3 blocks in the game and displayed tremendous energy for
a guy his size. Of course, the Sixers were playing this game without a
center, and Szabo was the biggest guy on the court for almost all the
game. Still needs to toughen up his body a lot more though.
Got a great feed from Walker on the break in the thrid and steamed
down the middle of the court for a big jam.

Lister- did a nice job of the bench, especially on defense.  Scored 6
points and had 6 boards and 2 blocks in 18 minutes.  His size really
helped out against the vertically challenged Sixers.

Driggers, Hamer, Hawkins- Played for a total of 12 minutes between
them.  Driggers did take the worst three pointer I have ever seen.
Nate shot a line drive at the basket and didn't catch anything.  It
went under the backboard and flew into the crowd.  What an awful
shooter.=20

Carr- Looking at the standings, it's hard to see what advantage the
Celts could have gained from losing this game.  Even if Philly had
won, it's very doubtful that they would have been able to catch the
Mavs.  But how else to explain M.L.'s non-coaching in the second half?
If he were in the military, Carr would be court marshaled for
abandoning his post.  He didn't even try to counter Davis's move with
Stackhouse, and he didn't do anything to counter the teams plunge in
the thrid quarter.  And on top of that, even though he doesn't seem to
be trying to win the game, Carr plays Wesley for 47, Walker for 46 and
Conlon for 44 minutes?  It's almost as though M.L. is trying to hype
the stats of players that he brought to the team, even though he isn't
trying to win games.

The Celts play again (for the final time this season) on Sunday
afternoon against the Raptors.  Their record is now 15 and 66.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com