Celts-108 lakers-102

The Celts managed to rebound from the manhandling received at the hand of the spurs on friday night to hand the Lakers only their second loss at the forum so far this year. The Celts controlled the tempo of the game from start to finish. They also outrebounded the Lakers by 6 and outstole them by 4. The game was by no means a runaway as the Lakers were in it right up to the last minute. When a steal by Billups led to a dunk by Mercer and the rest of the scoring was done from the free throw line for both teams.

Walker and Billups both had strong games and McCarty contributed with a very strong first half. Knight also chipped in with14 points and some effective defensive work down the stretch. Elden Campbell was hampered by foul trouble most of the night as the quicker Celts had him reaching and getting in trouble when he was in the game. He still managed to score 18 in only 24 minutes of play. Our old friend Rick Fox seemed especially determined not to lose this game as he dropped 27 on the Celts tonight. Pitino opted to not employ full court trapping for the most part as it was only used a couple of times in the middle of the first half.

The Celts broke out to an early but small lead 3 minutes into the start of the game. Early in the first Campbell picked up to quick fouls and was replace by Sean Rooks. This in my opinion was very much a key to the Celtic win. The Celts relinquished the lead twice in the quarter but it ended with the lakers up two at 26-24. McCarty seemed to be left alone most of the first half as he found himself with an open look at the basket or the victim of a personal foul.

At the start of the second quarter the teams went back and forth with no team gaining an edge over the other. It was at this point that McCarty seemed to explode with energy and was everywhere at once. This ignited a Celtic surge wich brought the lead up to 10 and forcing the Lakers to a time out. The Celts were then victims of a couple of bad breaks and the momentum was lost but they managed to hold on to the lead for the rest of the half.

In the third the Celts kept the Lakers at bay with the help of Billups who hit two big threes. The Lakers once again battled back and were able to catch the Celts and take the lead momentarily at 68-67. But Billups seemed to singlehandedly weather the storm putting the Celts back on top. Once there Antoine and Knight kept them there for the rest of the quarter.

The fourth some more of the same as the offense was supplied by Walker and Knight and the rest of the team came up with some timely defensive stops. At one point the game was reduced to the trading of baskets back and forth but with the Celts maintaining the lead and the clock running down it seemed the Celts were on their way to a win. The Lakers on the other hand had different ideas as they closed to within three with less than a minute to play and with possesion. With a minute left Walker shot a three that wedged itself between the rim and the backboard. The ensuing jump ball went to the Lakers and Fox capitalized from the line to bring the score to 104-99. Billups was then run over by Eddie Jones(at least that is the way I saw it)Jones proceeded to dunk the ball. The Celts took the ball at half court and the ball was inbounded to Billups. He then missed a jump shot from in the paint. The lakers had possesion at this point only to have Van Exel lose control and the ball which was opportunistically scooped up by Billups. He then passed up court to a wide open Mercer who glided in for the easy lay up.

Overall a good effort all around for the Celts ending the Lakers 4 game winning streak. It was really good to see the team step it up on the road and not wilt in the presence of a supposedly upper echelon team. The team does look somewhat tired though as a lot of fast breaks ended with one guy leading and the rest of the team trailing half heartedly. The officiating seemed to conspiring with the home team as far as breaking momentum when the Celts seemed to start to pull away. Walker especially spent alot of the game pleading his case to the refs. At one point it seemed Pitino called a 20 just to be able to jaw at the ref himself. The Celts did have and edge from 3 point range as the Lakers shot a dismal 2-12(.167). The Celts shot 5-16(.313) with Billups going 3-5.

Walker: An excellent game in any facet as Antoine went 11-23 with 13 boards and 28 points. He coughed the ball up 3 times but got a couple of steals. A good showing from the line as he went 6-7. Also the recipient of Art's dunk of the game. He came down on a fast break faked the behind the back pass and threw down a monster dunk over a deffender.

McCarty: Great first half as he got many open looks. The Celts lost assist numbers as he was the recipient of dishes after the drive into the paint by a teammate only to have the play end in a personal foul as the defenders had to resort that. Once again was the spark plug that got the Celts going.

Billups: played 31 minutes went 6-14 had a team high 8 assists and 5 steals. One blemish was his 6 turnovers. But he did come up with a big steal down the stretch. Showed some grit in the middle of the third hitting two big threes to keed the Lakers down.

Knight: He seemed determined to beat his old team tonight. He went 6-9 with 14 total points. Travis did come up with some gritty defensive plays down the stretch. Especially against Campbell who just pushed him around during the previous meeting.

Pitino abandoned the full court pressure for one game and seemed to concentrat on individual matchups in the half court sets. Still a fast pace game as both teams broke the 100 point barrier. The Celts only managed 2 more shots and only forced 4 more turnovers. Pitinos decision to attack the Laker big people with the quicker Knight seemed to pay dividends as their most effective low post threat spent half the game on the bench.