Celts beat T.B.'s: Boston 111- Portland 105

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

     Things looked very bad, with 5:35 seconds left in the game.  The
Celts who had trailed by as much as 23 points early in the 3rd
quarter, had gotten to within 4 at 85-81.  It looked as though the
Blazers were resuming control of the game, though and after Chris
Dudley hit two free throws (now there's a bad omen), Portland was up
by 9.  The Celts outscored the Blazer 26-11 over the last 5:25 of the
game and scored on 12 straight possessions (all of them as a matter of
fact) to win going away (that prorates out to 222 points over a full
48 minutes).  This game marked the NBA debut of Steve Hamer.
     The Blazers jumped out on top in this one.  They got some good
shooting from the outside by Cliff Robinson to take leads at 15-8 and
21-14.  The margin was still at 7 at the end of the quarter (32-25).
The Celts were definitely not running or pressing.
     The Celts were trying to get back into the game in the second
quarter, but the strong play of the Blazers young front line players
(O'Neal, Wingfield and Trent) frustrated the effort.  Hamer came into
the game with about 6:00 gone in the period, and scored a basket and
had a block.  The C's were trailing by 9 with 4:00 left in the
quarter, when the Blazers exploded for a 11-2 run to push the lead up
to 18 at the half.
     The Blazers continued their run at the start of the third with
another 5 straight points, building their lead up to 23 at 67-44.
Rick Fox responded with a three,  and the Celts for the first time in
the game went into the pressure defense.  They went on a 26-9 run to
pull to within 6 at 78-72.  The Celts had actually knocked another
point off the lead just before the end of the quarter, but Kenny
Anderson hit a near miraculous three pointer from 35 feet (with Rick
=46ox draped all over him).  Score at the end of the third was 85-77.
     The C's got the lead down to 4 (85-81) about 2 minutes into the
fourth quarter.  Isaiah Rider got into the act and scored a couple of
baskets to help the Blazers regain control of the situation.  After
Chris Dudley (the all-time leader (follower?) in lowest (highest?)
free throw percentage) hit two free throws, the Blazers had a 9 point
lead with 5:35 left.  The Celts responded with a 13-4 run to tie the
game.  After the two teams traded baskets (100-100), Rider hit what
looked to be a huge three with 1:30 left.  Wesley (who had not been
shooting the ball well) came right back down the court and replied
with a trey of his own. (103-103): 1:20 to go).  Robinson missed a
jumper on the next possession and Fox hit a three to give the Celts
their first lead of the game with 56.4 seconds to go (106-103).  Gary
Trent got the Blazers to within a point at 106-105, but Wesley came
back with a driving layup from a very tough angle (and he was fouled
by K. Anderson to boot, but it wasn't called), to put the C's up by 3
(108-105: 25.6).  Anderson missed a rather wild three, and Williams
was fouled and hit one of two free throws (109-105).  After the
Blazers missed another jumper, Rick Fox put the icing on the cake with
a layup with the clock running out.  C's come out on top 111-105.
     The same story that we've come to know so well over the last
three weeks or so.  The Celts got outshot (.489-.441) and outrebounded
48-44.  But the Celts had a big advantage in offensive rebounds and
turnovers, which allowed them to take 5 more shots from the field and
14 more free throws.  The Celts also got good three point shooting at
8-16, although the Blazers shot 9-18 themselves.  During the big
offensive run at the end of the game (very few of those baskets were
on the break, by the way), Wesley had 9 points (out of his total of 20
for the game), Fox 8 and Walker 5.  The Celtics 5 starters played 215
out of the 240 minutes, but they looked fresher at the end of the game
than the Blazers did (the Portland starters played 154). =20

Lineups- Celts- Wes, Day, Fox, Williams, Walker
         Blazers- Anderson, Rider, Robinson, Trent, Dudley

Players- Wesley- Again he was having a poor shooting game up until the
final minutes.  Had 20 points, on 7-16 shooting, 7 boards, 11 assists
and 3 steals.  Totally outplayed Anderson.

=46ox- M.L. said the game that this was one of the best games of the
season for Rick. I have no idea what game M.L. was at tonight.  This
was flat out the best game of Fox's career.  33 points on 13-22
shooting (5-6 from behind the arc), 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 6
steals.  Fox had a great 1st quarter and saved some clutch shooting
for the end of the game.

Walker- Just a horrible shooting game.  He shot 7-22, and seemed
hopeless for much of the game.  For the second game in a row the
athletes on the Portland (obviously it was the Miami front line in the
last game) frontline seemed to stymie him.  But he did play a solid
floor game with 6 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks.

Williams- A quiet consistent game.  18 points, 6 boards and 2 steals.
Definitely got the worse of the matchup with Gary Trent, who is a
bull.

Day-  Semi off-night for Todd.  He scored 20, but shot 7-15 including
1-5 on threes.  Chipped in with 6 boards, 2 assists and 1 steal but
also had 4 turnovers.  He did keep Rider in check up until the closing
moments of the game, when Rider hit some very tough shots.

Lister- 2 points and 7 rebounds in 16 minutes.  Was a stabilizing
force on the boards.  He had 5 defensive boards in 16 minutes, while
the rest of the team had 21 in 226.

Hamer- Played for 6 minutes, and was certainly not impressive.  His
one basket was on a wide open jam, and his block was more accidental
than anything.  Of course you can't tell anything off his first game
of the season.

Coaching- I was going to give M.L. a lot of credit for this win.  I
thought he took an intelligent approach to getting the most out of his
starters, as he got 25 minutes out of Lister, Hamer and Szabo, and I
believe had 4 of his 5 starters on the floor every minutes of the
game.  I thought that he didn't try to get the Celtics to press the
entire game (as this would clearly have been impossible with the
limited roster).  Instead he channeled  the press into a few short
periods of time.  The Celtics outscored the Blazers 52-20 over about
11 minutes in the two runs in the third and 4th quarters.
     But M.L. ruined it all, by admitting that he was on the players
for not giving a good defensive effort in the first half (I thought it
was a combination of the normal questionable Celtics half-court D,
poor halfcourt offense and the intentional decision to pace the game).
It turns out it was all an accident.

Opposition Players of Note- The Portland front line- Trent, O'Neal and
Wingfield were all veeerry impressive.  Trent is like a miniature Carl
Malone, while O"Neal looks like Cliff Robinson (whether that's good or
bad is up to you) with young Springy legs.  And Wingfield is just a
potential monster.  D'antonio (?) had 14 points, 12 boards and 2
blocks in 24 minutes.  And that was with Sabonis and Wallace hurt.
This has to be the deepest front line in the league.

The Celts record is now 10-31 (out of the cellar, I believe). Their
next game is against Vancouver on Sunday evening (Home).  2 in a row
anybody?

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com



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