Suns Toast Celts: Phoenix 131- Boston 100

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

     OHMYGOSH! In an exact schematic duplication of the Celts first
west coast road trip of the year (if you remember, the Celts played LA
tough on December 27th, and then got clobbered in the second game of
the back-to-back against Sacramento on Dec. 28th) the Celts were torn
apart by Kevin Johnson and the Sun's fast break.  The final score
understates the magnitude of the C's defeat as Danny Ainge called of
the dogs shortly after a third quarter 17-0 run put the Suns up 97-59.
Dee Brown made an appearance for the Celts for the first time in three
weeks (M.L. was clearly confused by having 4 guards available for the
same game).
     The Celts kept the score close for the first portion of the first
quarter.  Off of a David Wesley three, they had a brief lead at 16-15.
Even at this point though, the Suns were scoring with ease, but the
Celts were shooting well themselves and had managed to steal the ball
several times.  The Suns began to take better care of the ball, and
the Celts began to cool off from the field.  With the Suns leading
25-22, Phoenix went on a 7-0 run to take a 32-22 advantage.  The Suns
led by the same ten point margin 38-28, at the end of the quarter.
     The Suns really broke things open at the start of the second
quarter, with a 15-4 run at the start of the period (53-32).  M.L.
actually used a 4 guard lineup as he had Wesley, Day, Brown and
Hawkins (along with Lister) in at the same time.  Unfortunately this
lineup was as unsuccessful as everything else that M.L. frantically
tried in the second period.  About 9 minutes into the second period,
Kevin Johnson snagged his 10th rebound of the half(!), to complete a
first half triple double (14 pts., 13 assists).  The quarter ended
with the Suns leading 74-45.
     The Celts made an attempt to get back into the game (or ease
their total humiliation a little) at the start of the third.  M.L.
started Lister in place of Conlon, and the Celts outscored the Suns
14-6 at the outset of the period, to pull to within 21 at 80-59.
Ainge called a timeout, and told his players that if they would play
hard for 5 more minutes, heds give them the rest of the night off.
The Suns were motivated enough by this promise that they scored 17
uninterrupted points to take a 97-59 lead.  Danny took his starters
out, and trash time officially began.  The Suns were up by 40
(108-68), when the Celt's lone highlight of the quarter occurred.
With time running out the Celts missed a shot, and the ball bounced
out nearly to half court where Antoine Walker gathered the ball in and
launched and hit a 30 foot shot to close out the quarter.
     Playing against the far end of the Suns bench, the Celts flirted
with reducing the margin to 30 points for most of the fourth period.
Walker, inspired by his success at the end of the third period, hit
another jumper to make the score 113-79.  A few minutes later he hit
another 3, to make the score 115-82.  The Celts got the  lead down to
29 with 1:00 to go in the game, but the Suns scored one more basket to
make the final score 131-100.
     Obviously every statistical category was more or less a disaster
tonight.  The Suns shot .585 from the filed to the C's .389.  Of
course we know that the Celts have been able to make the score close
in games where they had similar disadvantages.  This night, though,
the Celts got clobbered on the boards (the Suns had 54 boards to the
Celts 31, 14 offensive rebounds to 8: which considering that the Celts
missed 19 more shots than the Suns is pretty bad).  The Celts did get
to the line 34 times (Suns 36).  The C's had 15 steals in the game,
but the Suns committed exactly 15 turnovers (which means that the Suns
committed no unforced errors; traveling or offensive fouls?). =20

Lineups- Celts - Wesley, Day, Fox, Conlon, Walker
                 Suns- Johnson, Person, Ceballos, Bryant, Tisdale

Players- Walker- Had a new career high in points with 29.   15 of
those points came in the final moments of the third quarter or the
4th, after the suns mainstays had left the game.   Toine played 43
minutes, shot 12-28, had 9 rebound and 3 steals.  Hit three jump shots
and looked pretty good doing it.=20

Wesley- Actually didn't play that badly, as he scored 17 points and
had 7 assists in 31 minutes.  Although K.J burnt him a couple of
times, most of Johnson's damage was done on the break.  Wesley clearly
came out shooting the ball, and was hitting some jump shots early.

=46ox- Worst shooting game in a while and as the score got worse and
worse was forcing things.  Played for 30 minutes, had 15 points (he
was 3-11 from the field, 9-10 from the line, 0-4 on three's), 2
boards, 7 assists and 3 steals.  Played pretty good defense against
Ceballos.  I wonder if some of Rick's habits on defense aren't having
a corrosive effect on the rest of the team.  Fox constantly gambles on
defense, but still does a pretty good job when he doesn't make the
steal.  The rest of the players on the team have started to gamble the
same way, but can't cover up as well. The team has started trying to
get steals instead of playing good pressure defense.

Day- second awful shooting game in a row.  4-17 tonight, 6-8 from the
line.  Had 14 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals in 36 minutes. =20

Conlon- Marty's ankle still isn't 100%, and I think it hurt him
tonight.  Only played 20 minutes, had 6 points, 2 boards.  Wasn't
active on the boards at all.

Dee- In again.  played for 18 minutes, and scored 4 points and had 3
assists.  Was not very active by his normal standards.

Hawkins- Played for 25 minutes, scored 7 points, had 5 assists and 3
turnovers.  He made bad passes for turnovers several times, trying to
push the ball quickly up court.  Hawkins plays tough man-to-man
defense (doesn't every guy fresh out of the CBA), but so far there is
no evidence of Wesley's good defensive instincts.

Lister- got 16 minutes, but had only 2 points and 3 boards.  He had a
blocked shot and two goal tends in his first 5 minutes in the game.
but slowed down a lot after that.

Hamer- His longest stint as a Celtic with 12 minutes.  Had 1 point and
5 boards.  It sure doesn't look like the rest of the Celts are
impressed with his offense in practice.  They don't even try to get
him the ball.

Szabo- 9 minutes, 4 points and 4 boards.

Coaching-  The first total letdown by the team in a long time (since
that game in Sacramento on Dec. 28th).  In a way, this game points out
how heroic the Celtic's effort has been over the last month and a
half.  The big factor in the Celts loss tonight was the rebounding, as
they got killed on the boards.  But if someone had told me last
December that the Celts were going to play Walker at Center for 43
minutes with Conlon and Fox playing the power forward (or Williams) I
would have predicted that they would be overwhelmed on the boards.
     It's only been the tremendous effort of the starting five, plus
Conlon that's allowed the C's to be competitive on the boards (and
thus generally competitive overall).  We've gotten used to Walker
getting double digits on the boards and Fox, Day, Conlon and Wesley
chipping in with another 20 defensive rebounds to keep the Celtics
afloat.  The surprising thing isn't that the Celts couldn't put out
the effort on the boards tonight, it's how well they've been doing
over the last 6 weeks.

Opposition Players of Note- Kevin Johnson- speaking of guys who could
have been in the top 50 all time.  K.J. is only 30 and is planning to
retire at the end of the season.  Off tonight's performance, he's
retiring in his prime.   He had 22 points (7-9 from the field), 11
boards, 17 assists, 4 steals (and 5 turnovers) in 34 minutes (I think
that he played every minute up until the two minute mark in the third
quarter) .   He was in total control on the fast break, and dominated
the game for the first 3 quarters.  He was two for two from three
point range and seems to have added that element to his game.  I'm
sure that he's been frustrated by his many injuries, and I suspect,
the slow down style that so many teams in the league play, but it will
be a pity if he retires so early.

The Celts play again Friday night in Vancouver.  If you remember,
after that bad loss in Sacramento, they came back and won their first
road game of the season the next game against Denver, so perhaps that
bodes well for Friday's game.  The team's record is now 11-37.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com=20

=20