C's Escape with a Win!: Boston 96-Milwaukee 91

[pvermilye@imageconversion.com (Peter Vermilye)]

The Celts narrowly pulled out a victory over the Bucks,
nearly wasting a 20 point margin (late in the 3rd quarter).  The
Bucks, who were playing without Glenn Robinson (ejected in the 2nd
quarter), mounted a furious comeback, and outscored the C's
32-13, to pull to within a point at 90-89.  But Chauncey Billups
and Travis Knight were able to hit clutch free throws down the 
stretch to put the game in the books for the C's.  Dee Brown went
on the IR earlier today and Dante Jones was activated.

The Celtics were clearly benefitting from a mini-training camp,
Pitino held over the last several days, as they were playing a much 
improved brand of defense and offense to open the game.  After the
2 clubs traded baskets for much of the first period, the Celts scored
the last 5 points of the period to take a 26-21 lead.

With Tyrell Brandon on the bench, the Celts opened the 2nd period in
a pressing mode, and it paid dividends as the Celts opened with a 
12-6 run to push the lead up to 11 at 38-27.  With the score at 32-25
Robinson was called for 2 rapid fire technicals in the space of 30
seconds
and ejected from the game.  At first the Bucks seemed to react
poorly, and allowed the C's to build their lead.  The Celts got the lead
up to 13 (46-33), but the Bucks closed with a rush, pulling to 48-39
just before the half.

The Bucks, especially Ray Allen seemed to be pressing (i.e. trying 
to hard and forcing things, not playing a trapping defense) at the 
start of the third.  The C's offense went off the rails itself for
a while, and they were unable to take advantage.  The Celts still
held a 10 point lead with about 3:00 to go in the quarter, when
they took off on an 11-1 run to take a 77-67 lead.  Notably, Tyus
Edney was in the game (and Brandon was not) during this period.
Aarmon Gilliam scored a basket to close the 3rd and made the score
77-59.

Apparently, it had escaped the attention of the Bucks that they
could actually lose the game until the start of the 4th.  Once
Chris Ford was able to get the concept across to them they went
to work with a vengance, especilly on the defensive end.  They 
forced the C's to turn over the ball of 8 of their first 13 
possessions of the 4th quarter, and held the Celts to just
2 baskets and 7 points over the first 8:00 of the period.  The
Bucks also got some help off the bench in the form of Ricky Pierce,
who hit a couple of 3's to help the Bucks cut the Celts lead to
84-80 with 4:00 to go.  Finally Mercer hit a jumper, and then Walker
put back his own errant shot, to stabalize the Clets at 88-83.
But the Bucks scored 2 straight hoops to pull to within a point at
88-87.  Knight got a big offensive put back, which was matched
by 2 Brandon free throws, to make the score 90-89.  The Celts
and the Bucks matched again to get to 92-91 (Billups 2 free throws),
and then the Bucks intentionally fouled Knight with 9.7 seconds left.
Travis hit both throws to seal the win for the Celts, who went on to
make the final score 96-91.

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, Knight
Bucks: Brandon, Allen, Robinson, Hill, Johnson

Players:
Billups: This is probably the optimum mode for Chauncey.  He
combined some good 3 point shooting (3-5), and solid work at the
free throw line, to score 21.  This shouldn't disguise the fact 
that he shot 4-13, had 2 turnovers and just 1 assist in 27 minutes
of playing time.  Chauncey should also get partial credit for the
virtula disappearnce of Brandon, who scored 17 points and had 4 
assists in 36 minutes of playing time.

Knight: Solid game for Travis.  Contrary to his behavior in 
the last game, he let things come to him, and made a major
contribution with 13 points, 10 boards, 4 blocks and 2 steals,
plus two big plays that helped the Celts to pull the game out
down the stretch.  Most importantly, he managed to play for 35 
minutes and commit just 4 fouls.

Walker: seemed much more judicious in his shot selection.  He was
putting the ball on the floor and driving against Hill, and then
posted up on Curry when Ford tried to match a smaller player on him.
Late in the game, though, he tried to force things, and Hill did a 
very good job on defense, causing Toine to commit several turnovers.
Walker had 7 turnovers, to go with 19 points (9-17) and 8 boards.

McCarty: also seemed much more under control.  He took his shots
much closer to the basket and shot a solid 6-10, and picked up 6 
rebounds in 28 minutes.

Mercer: recovered from his poor shooting episode against the Heat.
Went 5-9, and had 5 boards in just 21 minutes.

Bowen: Poor shooting night at 1-5, but gave the usual intangibles,
as he played for 31 minutes.

Edney: very effective in short minutes, as Pitino seemed to be
avoiding putting him of the floor agasint Brandon.  He scored
4 and had 5 assists in 11 minutes.

Minor: got some playing time with Brown being out.  Made some
solid defensive plays, but seems to be having a hard time
getting his shots in the Celtics offense.  Was 1-4 in 17 minutes.

DeClercQ: The usual, but was not called on to play much as Travis
stayed out of foul trouble.

Barros: Hit a couple of shots in the 2nd quarter to help the Celts
get the lead, but barely played in the 2nd half.

Jones: 0-3 from the floor, in just 6 minutes.

Ellison: DNP, but theoretically could have played.

Coaching:  It will be interesting to see, this year, what the
C's record is after long layoffs, as opposed to after 1 night
or 0 night breaks.  It's pretty clear that the Celts do a much 
better job of executing, especially on offense after they've 
been practicing for a few days (the defense seems to be more 
consistant).  Surely this all relates to Rick's experience
as a college coach.

The Celtcs execution on offense was much better tonight, at least
for the first 3 quarters.  They were shooting close to 50% before 
the 4th quarter dragged it down.  The ball movement was much better
and they executed efficietly in the open court several times.  This
was reflected in a very even shot distribution.  If you check the box
you'll see that nearly every Celtics was taking between .33 and .5 shots
per minute.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com