Heat Scorch Celts: Miami 117-Boston 97

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	A little bit of a setback for Rick Pitino's program.  The C's
did everything he's asked them to do and got burnt, not because they
didn't execute, but because they did.  Pitino's trapping, pressing
defense played right into the hands of the Heat, who not only easily
defeated the press, but exploited it for easy baskets.  Pervis Ellison
missed the game due to tendenitis.

	As most Celtic games do, the respective clubs got off to slow
starts.  After 4:00 the score stood at 6-4 C's, as the Heat missed
several easy opportunities to score.  The Heat scored 7 straight to
take their first lead of the game at 13-8 (which they would hold for
the remainder of the game).   The Celts were down 25-15, when Chauncey
Billups was inserted into the lineup and scored 5 points to help the
Celts close the gap to 29-24 at the end of the quarter.

	The Heat lived up to their name at the start of the second
with a 12-2 run to extend their lead to 15 at 41-26.  After a brief
run by the Celts got the lead down to 9, the Heat went into high gear
again, outscoring the C's 16-7 to take an 18 point lead (59-41) into
the half.  The Heat outscored the Celts 30-17 in the quarter, and it
would have been much worse, but for the solid job the C's did on the
offensive boards.

	The Celts made a bit of a run at the start of the third, and
got to within 10 points at 67-47.  But the Heat quickly regained
control of the game and pulled ahead by 21 at 75-56.  Despite another
nice bit of play from Billups, the Celts fell behind by 24, before the
period ended with the score at 91-69.

	Riley pulled his starters for most of the 4th, but it made
little difference as the Heat reserves had pretty much gotten the
idea, and were able to exploit the Celts defense easily also.
The Celts continued to play hard (in fact if anything, they played
harder) throughout the period, and did manage to cut the Heat lead to
15, at 100-85.  But the Heat were firmly in control and finished off
the game, leading 117-97.

	The thing is, the Celts worked very hard in this game.  They
got 24 offensive boards (partially because the Heat big men were very
eager to run down the floor for those easy baskets).  They also
gathered 14 steals.  That couldn't make up for the difference in
shooting, as the Heat shot at .506, while the C's shot .357 .   The
Celts launched 20 three pointers, hitting 5, as they desperately tried
to get back into the game, in the 3rd quarter.

Lineups:
Celts:  Edney, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, Knight
Heat: Hardaway, Leonard, Mashburn, Brown, Austin

Players:=20
Walker: There's a misprint in the boxscore that's been distributed for
this game.  It shows Walker hitting 11-16 shots (while he shot 0-6 on
three pointers).  I'm pretty sure that it should read 11-26.  He also
shot 4-10 from the foul line, putting up 26 points, 12 boards, just 1
assist, and 4 turnovers.  Toine seems to be taking all of his shots
(expecting offensive rebounds) from either the three point line or the
low post.  Walker's low post game isn't strong enough for him to be
going to it 20 times a game (he's never going to be Carl Malone).   He
needs to (and he has the ability to) mix up his game, with drives and
short jumpers, so that it's not so easy for the defense to key on him.

Billup:- Chauncey got short stints in the first and 3rd quarters, and
played quite well.  In the third, he made his best play of the year,
so far, when he ran a crossover at Murdock, went around him easily,
drove right down the lane, and shuffled the ball to Walker for an easy
jam.  He was totally under control, and made the pass without leaving
his feet.  In the 4th quarter, Pitino let Chauncey loose, and Billups
immediately returned to his old ways, driving, leaving his feet, and
getting caught up in the air.  Chauncey had a pretty nice line in the
game, with 17 points, 1 assist, 2 steals and 2 turnovers in 23
minutes.  He was 3-4 on three pointers, and looked very good taking
the shot.

Knight: Travis came out tonight determined to take some shots, and he
certainly did, launching 16 in his 34 minutes of playing time.
Unfortunately he hit almost nothing with his jumper, and scored most
of his 5 baskets on offensive rebounds.  He also had 7 boards, 2
assists, and 3 steals to go with his 13 points. =20

Mercer: Horrible shooting game at 1-9.  The thing is, even when he
misses, his shots look so good that you don't notice that he's missing
them.  He only  scored 2 points, and had 3 boards and 2 assists in 20
minutes.

Edney: The Heat certainly knew what to expect from Edney and they laid
way off him, and dared him to take the jumper.  As a result, Tyus was
ineffective (as he has no jumper) and ended up with 3 points and 1
assist in 13 minutes.

Barros: Couldn't get the shot going tonight, as he shot just 1-4 and
scored 4 points in 13 minutes.

DeClercq: Played for 16 minutes and didn't foul out.  A career high?
Actually Andrew showed a lot of hustle, at one point diving into the
crown and vaulting 2 rows of chairs to save a ball.  He scored 4
points and had 5 boards.  Have you noticed that, while Declercq moves
fairly well, he can't stop.  Almost all of his fouls come, when he
charges a player, trying to stop a shot, and can't stop himself from
running into the opposition.   Maybe he needs new sneakers.

McCarty: shot 10-11 from the free throw line, which made up for
another lousy night from the floor at 3-10.  In an encouraging sign,
thought he snagged 8 boards (including 5 offensive) in his 35 minutes
of playing time.

Dee: another in a string of poor shooting nights.  As we know too
well, Dee will not go to the basket, and try to find another way of
scoring when his jumper isn't connecting.  He scored 2 points, had 6
boards and 2 assists in 23 minutes.

Bowen: Another solid little game, with 9 points on 4-7 shooting, and 4
boards in 21 minutes.  Bruce had a very sharp play in the 2nd half,
when a Heat player rushed him at the three point line.  Bowen pumped
faked him into the air, and drove right around him for an easy floater
from 10 feet.  Really, from watching the rest of this year's Celtics,
you wouldn't think that it was a legal play.

Minor: I thought that he played pretty well, during Bowen's absence,
but he seems to be mired down in that 12 man spot against.  Got 6
minutes of pure garbage time.

Coaching:  The most discouraging game of the year, from the point of
view of Pitino's new system.  The Heat defeated the press so easily,
with long, alert passes that it's hard to believe that it could ever
work against them.  If Rick had an answer to what they were doing, he
certainly wasn't wasting it on this game.
	The key was the speed of the Heat big men, especially Issac
Austin and Mark Strickland, who were able to steam down court and get
unassailable postilion under the basket, before the Celts could even
get their traps set.  The Heat guards, just waited until the traps
started to close a little bit, then skipped the ball over the heads of
the C's players to the big men camped out under the basket.  Easy 2's.

The C's are off until this Wednesday evening, when they host the
Bucks.  Their record is now 7-11.

Bill Cooper
wfcoope@tiac.com