C's Swat Hornets: Boston 102-Charlotte 96

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	Another quality win for the Celts.  Admittedly the Hornets are
going through a tough stretch in their schedule (this was their 4th
game in the last 5 nights), but they are a smart, veteran team that
seemed to have some pretty good ideas on how to attack the press.  The
Celts slowly wore them down as the night went on, and would have won
by a greater margin had it not been for a shooting drought of biblical
proportions on the part of Antoine Walker.

	Early on, though it looked as though the Hornets might handle
the Celts pretty easily.    The Hornets took leads at 11-7,  and 15-9.
Vlade Divacs played a critical role in breaking the press, and
distributing the ball.  When Dave Cowens tried to bring his bench into
the game, though, the press became effective, and the Celts ended the
quarter with a 9-4 run to close the gap to 1 at 23-22.

	The Celts started out the 2nd quarter with a 6-0 run off some
nice work on the defensive boards (especially a huge jam by Walter
McCarty off a Walker miss).  The Celts got some nice offensive help
from Barros and defensively form Roy Rogers.  With about 2 minutes
left in the quarter, Ron Mercer hit a jumper to give the C's a 43-36
lead.  The Hornets were able to get a Glen Rice 3 just before the end
of the half to close the gap to 4 at 45-41.

	About 2 minutes into the 2nd half, Walker hit one of his few
shots of the game to give the Celts a 55-47 lead.  At this point the
Hornets became much more determined (especially David Wesley), and
began to slowly close the gap.  The Hornets tied the game at 62-62,
and then took a brief lead at  73-72.  On both occasions the Celts
responded with a burst of their own, and they managed to take a 77-73
lead into the 4th.  After combining for 86 points in the first half,
each team put up 32 in the 3rd.  The Celts got very effective shooting
from Barros and Mercer.

	As seems to be becoming  Fleet Center tradition, the crowd

was on its feet and calling for the press to start the 4th.  At this
point the press began to take its toll on the Hornet starters,
especially Divacs.  The Celts generated turnovers off the press, and
the Hornets stopped attacking the basket when they did break the
press.  The Celts opened the quarter with a 12-6 run to push the
margin to 9 at 88-79.  With 4:00 to go in the period,  the Celts took
their biggest lead of the game at 94-83.  At this point, I think the
Celts assumed that the game was over, and they seemed to lose some of
their intensity.  The Hornets kept plugging away, and managed to pull
to within 6 points at 96-90, despite missing 5 free throws down the
stretch.  Mercer rescued the Celts from their slumber by hitting a
couple of big jumpers to pull out the win 102-96.

	Another huge turnover differential game for the C's as they
caused 22 wrecks on the part of the Hornets, while coughing up the
ball 12 times themselves.   They also shot .481 from the field (which
is scintillating when you consider that Walker was 3-21).  They held
the Hornets to .464 shooting and after some early indication that they
might have some trouble on the boards managed to stay pretty even
(35-39).

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Bowen, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq.
Hornets: Wesley, Phills, Rice, Mason, Divacs

Players:
Walker: Before everyone gets all over Walker, I really think his lack
of offence had a lot to do with Anthony Mason.  Walker couldn't hit
from outside (0-5 on threes), and Mason just mauled him when he tried
to go into the post (and the refs were not giving Toine much respect).
A few times, Walker tried to drive on Mason from the outside, but if
he did get around him, the help defense was solid.  Still, by Walker's
standards this night was a disaster.  He scored 10, had 5 rebounds, 6
assists, 1 steal and 3 turnovers, on top of the 3-21 in 46 minutes of
playing time.

Mercer: Very nice game for Ron, who really had the jumper going.  he
was taking solid shots and ended up with a 13-21 for 28 points (a new
career high, I believe).  He also tallied 8 rebounds and 3 steals in
33 minutes.  All this despite tough, determined defense from Bobby
Phills.

Barros: another solid performance by Barros, who scored 18 (7-10), and
had 6 assists and 2 steals in 25 minutes.  Ever since he came to the
Celtics, Dana has always had trouble making decisions about his
offense.  All of a sudden that hesitation is gone.  Dana seems to be
playing instinctively.  He also seems vastly improved on defense (he
drew a very nice charge from Wesley, for instance).

McCarty: just another very solid game.  I mean, when Rice outscores
the guy playing him by just ten points (and Rice played 10 more
minutes) you've got a shot against the Hornets.  McCarty (and Bowen
and Minor) did a good job of keeping Rice from getting to many clear
shots.  Walter had 13 points (5-9) and 5 assists in 33 minutes (he
fouled out at the very end).

Billups: with the really solid play by Barros, Chauncey's minutes were
a little scarce, but he did score 13, and pick up 4 boards, 4 assists
and 2 steals (3 turnovers as well) in 22 minutes.  The Celtic's points
outscored the Hornet's 31-13 and matched them in assists with 10.

DeClercq: an unsung hero tonight, with 7 points and 10 boards in 24
minutes.  He also did a fine job in the front of the press, being
effective and avoiding too much foul trouble (he had 5).

Rogers: gave the team a big lift in the second quarter with a couple
of stalwart rejections.  He got some minutes in the second half over
Thomas.  Did score a hoop, but still looks lost on offense.

Thomas: very quiet game, and I don't think he played in the 2nd half.
Had 2 points and 0 rebounds in 12 minutes.

Minor: Really didn't get to play until the 4th quarter, but came in
and gave the team a lift with 6 points, a board and 1 steal in 8
minutes, when McCarty got into foul trouble.

Dee: Just got 4 minutes until he made a mistake on defense and was out
again.

Edney: Got into the game for 2 minutes in the first quarter.  He
turned the ball over and was sent back to Siberia (which had
moderately worse weather than Boston last night).

Coaching: I think an overlooked effect of the press is to deny the
opposition the use of their bench.  The Hornets starters were able to
handle the C's press and even to exploit it as long as they were
fresh. Aas soon as Cowens went to the bench, the Celts stepped up the
pressure and forced him to go back to his starters.   All of the
Hornets starters played at least 32 (Divacs just isn't in good enough
shape to play this tempo), and Phills and Wesley probably would have
joined Mason and Rice with over 40 had they not fouled out.  Del Curry
was so bad on defense that he only played for 17 and Geiger was only
in for 7.  This just adds to the Celts advantage in the 4th quarter.

The Celts record is now 13-12 (Hosannah).  They are off till after
Christmas, when they go on the road to play the Spurs on the 26th.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com