Pistons Pound Celts: Detroit 93-Boston 77

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celtics played like a very tired team last night. They
fell victim to a strong, emotional performance by Brian Williams, as
the Pistons outscored them 31-17 over the last 14 minutes of the game.
The Celts didn't utilize the press at all in the first 2 and a half
quarters of the game, and when they did try to put it on, they clearly
lacked the energy to make it work (also, it seemed that the Piston
were much better prepared for it than the last time they faced the
C's).  Travis Knight has been placed on the injured reserve list with
the ankle injury he received on Friday night, and his spot on the
roster has been assumed by John Thomas.

	In marked contrast to the game on Friday night, the pace of
the game started out very slow.  The Celts fell behind early, with the
Piston taking a lead at 13-6.   The Celts got a nice offensive
contribution form Walter McCarty to get the lead back at 16-13.  The
C's led at the end of the quarter 22-19, despite giving up a bushel
basket of offensive put backs to the Pistons.

	The Piston began to show signs of life in the 2nd quarter,
outscoring the C's 10-4, o take a 29-26 lead.  The 2 teams traded
baskets the middle portion of the period, but finally the Pistons
permanently took the lead on a Grant Hill jumper at 37-35.  The
Pistons pushed their margin up as high as 43-37, before a Billups
jumper made the score 43-39 at the end of the half.  The 2nd period of
this game was probably the slowest tempoed period the Celts have
played this year.

	The Pistons got a jump on the Celts to start the second half
and took a 7 point lead at 48-41.  The C's, still playing a strictly
half court defense got back to within 3 at 50-47.  Finally with about
6:00 remaining in the quarter, Pitino put on the full court press for
the first time in the game.  It was a disaster.  Despite 3's by Walker
and McCarty, the Pistons outscored the C's 19-13 over the remainder of
the period.  They shredded the C's press, breaking it time after time
for huge jams by Williams.  The Pistons led at the end of the quarter
69-60.

	Things just got worse in the 4th.  Pitino was trying to get
the C's to play the press in their usual breakneck style, but the C's
just couldn't manage it.  Instead, they just gave it a half-hearted
effort, a sure recipe for disaster.  The Pistons quickly took a 77-64
lead.  Walker tried to inject some life into the offense and did
succeed in getting the lead town to 7 (77-70).  But the  Piston put
together an 8-0 run, with the Pistons stealing the ball from the Celts
3 times and converting for easy score to make the tally 89-73, and put
the game completely away.  The final was 93-77.

	This was a straight field goal differential win for the
Pistons.  They outshot Boston .506 to .429. mostly the result of those
easy scored from breaking the press.  The Celts only turned the
Pistons over 14 times (they committed 20 themselves) and had only 7
steals.  The C's did shoot well form three point range, hitting 6-14
(which makes the loss all the worse).  The Piston dominated their
offensive board, gathering 15 offensive rebounds to the Celts 18
defensive.

Lineups: 
Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, Ellison
Pistons: Hunter, Dumars, Hill, Ratliff, Williams

Players:
McCarty: Perhaps the only Celtics who displayed much energy tonight
(not surprising after only playing 13 minutes on Friday).  He shot the
ball well, and made some nice moves around the basket, scoring 19
(7-15).  He also did a credible job on  Hill, though Grant was quite
content to stay on the outside and launch jumpers in this game.

Walker: Toine is just all over the place.  A few weeks ago, he was
taking 10-15 turnarounds a game from the low post.  Tonight it was
jumpers as he tried 7 threes (made 3) and a variety of shorter shots.
He ended up shooting 8-23, and also had 11 boards, 6 assists, 3 steals
and 4 turnovers.  Walker has to recognize that his strength is his
versatility, not his ability to make any particular shot.  He failed
to get to the free throw line all  night, despite being played by the
foul prone Theo Ratliff.

Billups: Another "Not Bad" for the rookie.  He scored 12 (5-8) and had
6 assists in 33 minutes.  And he kept Lindsay Hunter (who can get very
hot) in check.

Mercer: The Slump continues.  Ron shot 4-11 tonight.  he continues to
hit "his" shots (either a straight jumper, or a shot coming of a
screen where he has enough time to put his feet together before he
launches).  Other teams have seen what his game is, and take him
seriously enough to deny him most of those shots.  Mercer is having a
very hard time finding anything else that works well for him (Hey,
Ron, you were guarded by a guy 3 inches shorter than you all night
long: why not post him, or go to the offensive boards?).  Actually,
Joe Dumars took Mercer into the post and schooled him a couple of
times, despite the height difference.

Pervis: hey, Perv played for 24 minutes without fouling out.
Unfortunately that was because Perv wasn't quite as active as he was
before he sat out those games with tendentious.  He did score 7, have
4 boards and 3 assists.  None of the Celtics big men could even make
an impression on Brian Williams in the second half.

Edney: Only played for 5 minutes in the game, and only got into the
game with .13 seconds to go in the first half.  I had the feeling that
if the game had gone better, Edney might not have gotten in at all
(as, indeed, Greg Minor didn't).  Maybe Pitino is down on Edney for
something?

Barros: With the near DNP for Edney, Dana got a tryout in the first
half, but once again couldn't get any shots, except forces.  Played
for 10 minutes, and had 0 points.
 
Bowen: actually made a couple of nice baskets and handed out a couple
of assists.  But he didn't have the same energy we're used to.  6
points, 2 boards, 2 assists and 0 steals ! in 22 minutes.

DeClercq: after the solid game Friday, he was a bit of a fizzle
tonight.  The Piston blocked several of his shots, and he got
manhandled on the defensive board.  Played 16 minutes, picking up 2
points, 4 boards and 2 assists.

Thomas: got 11 minutes tonight, but clearly in going to be no
replacement for Knight.

Jones: played for 2 minutes and didn't even get a shot off.

Minor: DNP?

Coaching: I wish I knew what Pitino's plan for tonight's game was.
The Pistons don't use their bench much (5 players over 35 minutes
tonight) and would seem to be obvious candidates for the Celtics
torture test.  Of course, Pitino may have felt that the club was too
tired after Friday night to put in that kind of effort (and off the
teams performance, I would agree with that).  But then why use the
bench so little (this had to be the lowest bench utilization of the
year , especially if you factor out the center situation)?  When Pitno
did finally go to the press,  he was trying to use tired players
against fresh.  Walker must have put in 75 minutes over the last 2
nights by the middle of the 3rd quarter.  Anyway, the results were
disastrous.  The Celts would have been better to off to stay in their
half court defense and hope that they got hot from outside: at least
they stayed close as long as they didn't go to the press.

Opposition Players of Note: (I know I've been a little lax on this).
Brian Williams had a monstrous 2nd half with 29 points (and probably
10 boards).  But it was his tremendous enthusiasm and energy that was
most remarkable.   He really changed the game by the force of his
personality.  If Collins can get half that much intensity out of
Williams on a consistent basis, the Pistons will be an interesting
team.  Dumars and Hill (both tremendous players) are both soi subdued
that it would help the Pistons a great deal to have an emotional
leader.

The Celts record is now 9-12 (2-6 on the road).  They host the Sixers
this Monday night.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S. Does anyone know if the game against Toronto on the 17th is going
to be shown on WSBK?  I thought I heard Tom Gorman Say that their next
broadcast would be after Xmas (against the Spurs).