Celts Survive: Boston 88- Toronto 83

[pvermilye@imageconversion.com (Peter Vermilye)]

A win is a win is a win.  Keep telling yourself
that.  The Raptors managed to marginally out-ugly the Celts,
who played rather poorly themselves.  But it counts and the 
C's are in no position to be picky.

	Early on though, it looked as though the Celts might
bring their "A" game and dispatch the Raptors early.  They
jumped out to a 12-6 lead and seemed to be playing well, despite
early and ominous indications that they would have major problems
controlling their defensive boards.  The Raptors outscored the C's
8-1 over the final 3 minutes of the period to take a 22-17 lead 
at the end of the quarter.

	The Celts came on strong at the start of the 2nd, and assumed a 36-29
lead after a Greg Minor layup off a feed from Walker.  The Raptors
managed to pull to within 3 (36-36), but the C's closed out the half
with a 6-2 run to take a 42-35 lead.

	The Celtcs started out the 3rd in style as well, and, propelled
by some opportunistic play by Ron Mercer, were able to assume a 10 point
lead at 52-42.  This was the Celts high water mark of the game.  After
this the Raptors tightened their defense (or maybe the C's loosened
their offense) and they gradually cut into the C's lead.  They started
off with a 5-0 run to cut the lead in half at 54-49.  The two teams
traded baskets for the rest of the period, as the Celts led at the
end of the quarter 66-61.  The 3rd quarter marked the complete collapse
of any pretense, on the Celt's part, of controlling their defensive 
boards.

	The Celts came out at the start of the 4th playing strong 
defense and managed to hold the Raptors to just one basket over the
first 4:00 fo the period.  The C's were less than awesome on 
offesne themselves, but did manage  to score 5 points themselves,
increasing their lead to 8 (71-63).  Doug Christie really stepped
up for the Raptors, and led them on an 8-3 run to tie the game at
79-79 with 50 seconds to go.  On the next play, Antoine Walker 
found Walter McCarty open for a 3 pointer, which McCarty nailed
to give the C's the lead.  After the Raptors failed to score on
the next possession, they intentionally fouled Billups (who was a 
rock from the free throw line in this game).  Chauncey hit both
free throws to give the Celts a 5 point lead.  Despite some shaky
free throw shooting by Dana Barros, the Celts survived to take 
the 88-83 win.

	The stats from this game are gruesome.  The C's shot .417,
while the Raptors hit at a .385 clip.  The game was close because
the Raptors got 9 more offensive rebounds than the Celts (25-16),
leading to Toronto taking 6 more shots than the C's and 2 more free 
throws.  While the Celts caused 24 Toronto turnovers they negated
that advantage by turning the ball over 23 times.  About the only 
positive you can find is that the Celts were 7-16 from three point 
range.

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Bowen, McCarty, Walker, Ellison
Raptors: Stoudamire, Christie, Williams, Camby, Miller

Players:
Billups: Chauncey got off to a really slow start in this game.
He only played 7 minutes in the first half, and Pitino was so 
revolted by the play of both he, and Edney, that he started
Barros at the point in the second half (who he them quickly
replaced with Billups).  As I mentioned above, Chauncey was big
down the stretch from the free throw line, hitting 10-11 on the 
game.  That and 2 three pointers that he hit (one of which was 
crucial for the Celts in crunch time) make his stats look 
acceptable.  He scored 18 points on 3-8 shooting.  But he had 4 
assists and 6 turnovers.  To the credit of all the C's point guards
Stoudamire was a total non-factor in this game, scoring 8 points 
(2-13) and getting credit for 5 assists in 42 minutes.

McCarty: had a nice game for himself.  Apparently, against all
common sense, Pitino has been encouraging Walter to shoot from
the outside more, and it seems to be paying off.  McCarty hit
2-3 on three pointers, scored 12 points, had 5 steals and only 
2 turnovers in 42 minutes.

Walker: Very mixed bag for Antoine.  He was 0-4 on threes, and shot
8-22 overall.  He was upset about the officiating all night long
(he eventually did get to the line for 4 attempts, but clearly felt
that he should have been there many more times).  He did get 9 boards
and 6 assists.

Bowen: usual workmanlike game.  He scored 5 points and had 7 boards
in 24 minutes.  I think that Pitino tried to avoid playing him at
forward, because Walker palyed Slater and McGrady so much, and the 
Celts needed size to keep them off the boards (not that it did much
good).

Ellison: They must give out bonuses to the Toronto scorers for 
recording blocked shots.  They gave out 11 to the C's and 16 to
the Raptors.  Pervis got credit for 3, which was about the only
positive thing he managed to do in his 20 minutes of playing 
time.  

Thomas: Surprisingly was on the floor for much of the 4th
quarter.  I'm not sure why, as he managed 5 points, 3 boards,
2 of those cheap blocks and 2 turnovers.

Mercer: Hit a couple of jumpers which was encouraging.  He got most
of his points going to the basket, as he seems to be making
the adjustment to the oppositions playing him for the jumper.
He seemed to have trouble keeping up with Christie on the defensive
end, and at the end of the game, Pitino was shuttling Mercer out
of the game on defensive possessions.  Ron had 12 points on 6-10
shooting, but committed 4 turnovers in 20 minutes.

Edney: got into the game, but seemed to have trouble with the
collapsing Toronto defense.  Scored 2 points, 2 assists and 2
turnovers in 12 minutes.

DeClercq: for the 2nd game in a row, had a lot of trouble
catching the ball.  Muffed several easy opportunities.  Had
4 of those blocks, 2 points and 4 boards in 14 mintues.

Dana: scored 8 points in 15 minutes.  Twice down the stretch
he went 1-2 at the free throw line.

Minor: gave the Celts a little energy tonight.  Had 5 points and 3 
boards in 14 minutes.

Jones: DNP

Coaching: What is it with the Celts and offensive fouls setting
screens?  They got another one tonight, and must be averaging
one a game over the course of the season (at least).  The refs 
seem to be calling this closer than they have in the past, but
the Celts seem to get at least twice as many as their opposition.
Does Rick have a different interpretation of the rules than the refs?

The Celts record in now 11-12 (3-6 on the road).  

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com