Griz Maul Celts: Vancouver 109- Boston 106

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

     The Celtics lost to Vancouver for the second time this season,
tieing them with the Grizzlies for the fewest wins in the league as of
this date (although Vancouver still has more losses).  Once again the
inside power of Reeves and Abdur-Rahim was the key to the game.
Dee Brown, who made a brief cameo appearance in the debacle against
Phoenix, is once again out of the lineup (big toe again).  On the
asset side of the ledger, Tommy said that E.W. checked out fine and
should rejoin the team in Portland for the game on Sunday.
     Both teams got off to smooth offensive starts (or lackluster
defensive starts, depending on your point of view).    This time the
Celts were double teaming passes to the post and as a result,
Grizzlies rook Roy Rogers was getting loose for easy baskets early.
The Celts nearly had the score knotted at 16-15, but the Griz extended
their lead to 5 at 20-15. The Vancouver advantage got as large as 6
(32-26) before Antoine Walker closed out the quarter with two
consecutive baskets to make the score 32-30 at the end of the quarter.

     Things were continuing pretty much apace, when David Wesley
fouled Moten  (who hit both free throws).  M.L. rested Wesley at this
point, and with Greg Anthony out for the Griz the two respective
offenses ground to a halt.  After 8 consecutive possessions without a
score, Fox hit a three (nearly his only contribution of the game), to
pull the Celts within 2 at 46-44.   The C's were down by 3 (52-49)
with the ball in hand and a chance to tie going into halftime, when
they turned the ball over, and Vancouver scored an easy basket to take
a 54-43 lead into halftime.  Abdur-Rahim was the Celt's chief
tormentor in the first half with 20 points.
     At the opening of the second half the Grizzlies decided to
exploit the Reeves-Conlon matchup.  Big Country scored 10 of the first
15 Vancouver points of the second half, and propelled the Grizzlies to
an 11 point lead at 67-56.   From somewhere, the C's coaching staff
got the idea of putting on a press (The C's, having concluded that
they are among the league's elite, have largely given up this practice
in recent games).    The Celts forced the Grizzlies to turn the ball
over on 3 straight possessions and went on an 8-0 run to close the gap
to 67-64.   Unfortunately the Celts offense began to sputter and the
Grizzlies were able to rebuild their lead to 9 at 74-65.  The Celts
went back to the press and went on an 8-2 run to get to within 3 again
at 76-73.  Off of some incredibly poor play by Fox late in the third,
the Grizzlies mounted another 5-0 run to take an 8 point lead.  .  The
Celts scored the last 3 points of the quarter from the free throw line
to go into the 4th trailing by 5 (83-78).
     Day and Walker were the mainstays for the Celts in the 4th, as
the Celtics struggled to get the lead.  Vancouver aided the Celts
cause mightily through some abysmal free throw shooing.  At one point
in the game the Celts had attempted 19 free throws to the Grizzlies
32, but the Celts had actually scored more points from the line 16-15.
With about 5:00 to go in the period, Todd Day hit a three to give the
C's the lead 97-94 (their first advantage of the game).   The
Grizzlies began to recover their eye from the free throw line.  With 2
minutes left in the game, Day missed a three, and Wesley fouled
Edwards (Wes's fifth) to give Vancouver a 1 point lead 103-102.
Conlon missed a three on the next play (24 sec. clock running out),and
then the Grizzlies ran a play that isolated Anthony on Wesley on the
low box.  Wesley fouled Anthony (his sixth!) and Anthony scored the
basket to give the Griz a 4 point lead.    After Walker scored his
28th point of the game on a turnaround, and Walker and Hawkins
combined to steal the ball, the Celts had a chance to tie, but Walker
was rejected on the other end.  That was pretty much the whole game
except for the shouting as the Celts went down to defeat, 109-106.
     It's getting to sound like a broken record.  The Celts got
outshot from the field .568 to .436.    Luckily for them the Griz were
hapless from the free throw line (24-45) while the Celts shot a solid
18-23.  The Celts won the hustle categories with 12 steals and 17
turnovers caused, to 11 steals and 14  for  Vancouver and the C's had
an edge on the offensive boards 17-10.  One stat the Griz had an
advantage in that made a large difference (I thought) was blocks where

Vancouver had 15 (including 4 by Blue Edwards and 3 by Moten) to the
Celtics 3.

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Day, Fox, Conlon, Walker
                 Griz- Anthony, Moten, Rahim, Rogers, Reeves

Players- Walker- 12-22 from the field for 28 points, 13 boards (only 3
offensive), 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks in 45 minutes. For the
second game in a row he tried some jumpers (2-4).  Although his shots
seemed just as strange as ever, he did get some of them to go tonight
(maybe that's why he didn't have so many offensive rebounds?).

Day- 29 points on 12-29 from the field, in 41 minutes.  Seemed to end
up with the ball in his hands nearly every possession down the
stretch, and kept heavin' em up.  Hit a fair number with 12 points in
the 4th quarter, but also missed his fair share.  Oh yeah, 0 assists.

Wesley-  16 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists and 5 steals in 43 minutes.
Shot 6-13.  Either he or the coaching staff decided to run a pick and
roll, with Wes and Conlon about 10 of the last 12 times the Celts had
the ball.   Vancouver just kind laffed, let'em run the pick and roll,
slid right through, and Wes just passed the ball along the perimeter,
until it fell into the Day black hole.  Some of those possessions I
don't think that the Celt's even got the ball inside the three point
arc. =20

=46ox- better stat line than I would have thought, from seeing the game
(the Vancouver scorers must slant towards Canadians).  Fox had 11
points (4-15 shooting), 2 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 3
turnovers in 29 minutes.  Personally I thought he had 6 turnovers if
he had 1, but maybe I was confused by the 3 or 4 times he got his shot
blocked.  Meanwhile on the defensive end Rahim was killing Rick.  Off
of Fox's best 2 week stretch as a pro, he stunk up the General Motors
Center (Hey, and I like Rick).

Conlon- Best offensive game as a Celtic, as he had 10 points (4-7), 6
boards (all offensive) and 7 assists.  Every time that Marty got the
ball in the high post, something good happened.  Naturally the Celts
went away from it down the stretch, instead utilizing Marty in those
pointless pick and rolls (Marty just isn't fast enough).  The
defenisve end was another matter as Marty matched up against Reeves
for all of his 29 minutes, and was the proverbial lamb led to
slaughter.

Hawkins- got 24 minutes tonight (I think he should try to get paid by
the minute on his next 10-day contract).  8 points (2-5), 4 boards, 1
assist, but 3 turnovers.  Continues to deliver solid but uninspired
play.

Lister- got the other half of the Big Country beating, but Marty had
Reeves so primed that he couldn't miss a shot if he'd wanted to.
Lister played 17 minutes, had 4 points, 5 rebounds and an assist.

Szabo- 7 minutes, most notable for the 4 fouls. Brent needs to work on
getting rebounding position, instead of trying to tip the ball away
from the guy who had the position.  It looks to me that he commits a
loose ball foul on every offensive rebound opportunity.

Hamer- 3 minutes?

Coaching- I thought that for the second game in a row the Celts came
out flat, especially on the defensive end.   It wasn't until halfway
through the third quarter, when the Celt's got that nice run off the
press that they began to play with any energy.  Of course they always
look bad when they double the post.    The C's are so mechanical when
they double down.  Every time the ball goes into B.C. (a real
throwback player if you ask me), the Celts doubled off the top of the
key.  Reeves throws a skip pass to the man the double leaves,  Without
even looking at the basket that guy (usually Moten) throws the ball to
the guy on the off wing (Rahim, usually), who then whips the ball down
to Rogers on the baseline, for an easy drive to the basket.   Some
variation of that sequence must have happened ten times.  You have to
make an inexperienced team like Vancouver think once in a while.
     The offensive set down the stretch were just as bad.  the Celts
ran the same pick n'roll 8 plays in row, and couldn't get anything out
of it except 3 pointers for Day.  No one can run the same play against
an NBA defense (even the Griz) that many times and have it work.
After the game (according to ESPN) M.L. was crediting his players with
giving the good effort, but just not being able to hit the big shot
down the stretch.  Just not true.  The Celts hit big shots at least
three times down the stretch, but M.L. kept putting them in position
to loose again.  If Vancouver isn't miserable from the free throw line
the Celts would have lost, by double digits, to putatively the worst
team in the league, for the second time in two weeks.

The C's record is now 11-38.  They play again this Sunday in Portland.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com  =20


      =20