Clips Whip Celts: Los Angeles 116- Boston 112

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

    Just when it seemed that the Celt's injury situation couldn't get
any worse, it does.  Eric Williams reported being light headed this
morning in L.A., so he was stuffed on a plane and sent back to Boston
for testing.  The Celts got strong performances from Marty Conlon and
their new back-up point guard Michael Hawkins, which gave them a good
chance to win the game.  But the C's couldn't execute at critical
moments down the stretch, and the Clippers (who didn't play all that
great themselves) were able to pull the game out.
     The Celts (and especially Rick Fox) started out the game ablaze.
=46ox hit his first 4 shots of the game and had 4 steals in the first
quarter to push the Celts to a 23-17 lead.  The Celts where leading by
the same margin with seconds left in the period, when Malik Sealy hit
a three to cut the C's lead to 36-33 at the end of the first quarter.
     On the first Celtics possession of the second quarter, Loy
Vaught, committed his third foul of the game, and had to go to the
bench.  His backup, Charles Outlaw, came in and did a pretty solid
job, so Vaught's foul woes didn't make much of a difference.  About
three minutes into the period, Michael Hawkins, made his first NBA
appearance, and didn't waste much time getting onto the board. as the
Clippers overloaded the floor away from him, so he drove around Pooh
Richardson, scored the hoop and picked up the basket (made the free
throw!), topPick up his first three points.   With Hawkins playing the
point and Wesley on the bench, the Celts looked a little shaky, but
managed to stay in the game.   On a Rick Fox free throw, the Celts
lead with about 4:00 minutes to go in the period at 51-49.  The
Clippers went on a 13-3 run to end the quarter with a 62-54 advantage.

The Celts were lucky to be in the game as Walker and Day were a
combined 3-21 in the 1st half, and the Celts shot 34% in the half
compared to the Clippers 55%.
      The Clippers continued their strong play, at the outset of the
third quarter as they went on a 14-6 run to push their lead up to 16
at 76-60.  Between the 4:00 minute mark in the second and the 7:00
minute mark in the third, the Clippers outscored the Celts 26-9.  M.L.
put Hawkins back into the game (Wesley moved to the 2 guard) and Fox
and Walker began to get hot.   The Celts went on a 10-0 run to pull to
within 6 points at 76-70.   The Clippers pushed back and got their
lead back up to ten at 85-75.   The Celts mounted another 7-2 run to
cut the lead to 5, 89-84 at the end of the third quarter.=20
     Early in the 4th quarter, Todd Day (who finally, got his stroke
going) hit a three to pull the Celts to within 3 at 91-88.  Michael
Hawkins hit two threes in a row to give the Celts a 94-93 lead (their
first since the score was 51-49).  The C's pushed their lead up to
three at 96-93.  But the Clippers stormed back and regained the lead
at 103-101.    Wesley replaced Hawkins and the Celts managed to gain a
slim lead at 112-111, after a very errant Todd Day 3 was rebounded and
put back in by Antoine Walker.   Loy Vaught scored on the next play
(Clips up 113-112).  Wesley threw the ball away on the next play, but
the Celts stole the ball back.  On the next play, Wesley heaved up a
awful shot (the scorer must have wondered whether to score it as a
missed shot or a turnover).   Wesley fouled Derrick Martin on the next
play (after the Celts decided not to foul intentionally).  After
Martin hit both free throws (115-112), Wesley missed a long three.
Charles Outlaw, who had missed 4 straight free throws up until this
pint hit one throw to push the Clippers lead up to 4 at 116-112.  Just
tom complete his humiliation Wesley missed a meaningless three as time
ran out.  The Clippers won 116-112.
      The Celts got their field goal percentage up to .409 after the
bad start in the first half.  But the Clippers still outshot them by a
wide margin at .534.  The Celt made up most of the difference at the
free throw line as they hit 27-35, while the Clippers, were 16-23.
Very uncharacteristically the Celts heaved up 25 threes (they made 9).
while the Celts had an edge on the offensive boards 19-12, for the
second game in a row, they didn't realize any advantage in turnovers
(more evidence that the Celts have stopped pressing), with each team
committing 17.=20

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Day, Fox, Conlon, Walker
                Clippers- Martin, Sealy, Rogers, Vaught, Wright

Players- Wesley- Only played 38 minutes, but rather than giving higher
quality (over the lesser quality of minutes), David responded with a
poor game.  He had 9 points on 4-15 shooting, 2 boards, 2 assists, 1
steal and 3 turnovers.  Down the stretch, he was terrible, and may
well have cost the Celts the game.

=46ox- 44 minutes, 27 points (9-17 shooting, 4-8 on threes), 6 boards, 4
steals and 3 turnovers.  Rick started of the game hot, then played
rather poorly through the second and the early third quarters (exactly
when the Celts were playing poorly), but came back late in the third
quarter.  He did get victimized by the Clippers in the low post quite
a few times, as his usual, let them post and then steal the ball
routine, wasn't working that well.  Now averaging 26.6 points per game
over the last 5 games.

Walker- Just had a miserable first half as he shot  2-11.  Came back
with 15 points in the second half, as he concentrated on the running
game and the offensive boards.  Scored 19 points, 16 boards (9
offensive), and 3 steals.  Ended up the game 8-20 from the field.
Twice, in the second half, he dribbled the length of the court and
scored.

Day- Abysmal shooting night at 5-20, though he leavened that with 7-9
from the free throw line.  Scored 19 points, had 5 boards and 3
turnovers.

Conlon- scored 17 points (6-10), 7 boards, 3 assists, but 2 turnovers.
Also played pretty solid defense on Vaught..  Early in the game the
Celts went with the high post offense they tried last game and Marty
racked up a couple of easy assists.  But late in the game they went
back to the futile low post game.  Marty made a couple of big plays
down the stretch.

Hawkins- Can't have a much better first game in the league than this.
14 points on 4-5 shooting, 2 assists and a steal in 17 minutes.  Had 4
three point plays in the game (two long balls, two conventional).
Seems to have a good head for the game, and at least tonight he was
playing within himself.  Clearly suffered from not being familiar with
the Celts players.  Seemed sound on defense, and very competitive.  Of
course he's only 6 feet tall, so that may cause some problems.

Lister- 17 minutes, but only had 5 points and 3 boards.  The quick
leapers of the Clippers were beating him to the ball off the boards.

Szabo- Surprised everyone at the end of the third by trying a  three
pointer.  He missed everything, but luckily Fox was there to put the
ball back in.  6 minutes, 2 points, 2 boards.

Hamer- got 2 mintues.  Did not impress.

Coaching-  Same comment as always. M.L. got the guys to give it a good
effort even though they had good reason to fold.  It looks as though
Hawkins can be a solid backup and that M.L. should be able to rest
Wesley more.  Hopefully, that will in turn cause a return of the
running\pressing game.
     I thought that the Celts got too conservative late in the game.
They tried to go to Walker or Wesley, rather than letting Wesley do
the point guard thing, and Antoine going to the offensive boards.
Even off of missed baskets the Celts were walking the ball up the
court at the end of the game.

This game makes the Celts record 11-36.  They play again tomorrow
(Wednesday) night in Phoenix.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com =20
      =20