Blazers Top Celts: Portland 118- Boston 106

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	Even though the score wasn't as close as in a couple of their
games on the west coast swing, this was probably the C's best effort.
Of course that was in large part due to the reappearance of Eric
Williams, who had a fine game.   With only 3:00 left in the game the
Celts were trailing by 2 (102-100) but Isaiah Rider scored 3 straight
buckets (part of his 40 on the evening) and that was pretty much it
for the C's.  Hawkins had twisted his ankle towards the end of the
Vancouver game, but was able to play anyway, this evening.
     The Celts started off the game with a lot of energy.  Carr had
them pressing at the start, and they managed to get a couple of
turnovers out of the Blazers as well as several easy fast break
baskets.    The Celts led 12-6 after the first 4:00 minutes of the
game.  Portland came back with a 6-0 run to tie the game.   The teams
traded baskets form that point through the end of the quarter when the
score stood at Boston 27- Portland 26.
     After the Celts had scored the first 4 points of the second
period to take a  31-26 lead the Blazers went on an 18-4 run to take a
44-35 lead.   With the score at 48-40, Rasheed Wallace picked up his
third foul of the half, and had to sit down.  The Celts took advantage
of Wallace's absence to go on an 8-2 run, to pull to within 2 points
(50-48) with 1:30 left in the half.    In a harbinger of things to
come, Rider scored the last 7 points of the half to give the Blazers a
9 point lead going into halftime 57-48.
     Both teams got off to a bit of a slow start in the 3rd quarter,
but the Celts slowly cut down the margin while holding the Blazers
(who were settling for some very questionable shots) nearly scoreless
over the first 3:00 of the period.  Finally the C's tied the score at
59-59, and the Blazers called timeout.  Newly energized, Portland went
on an 11-2 run to regain the nine point margin they held at halftime.
With about 3 minutes left to go in the period, Carr tried to go to one
of his small backcourts (Wesley-Hawkins) which left Wesley trying to
guard Rider.  A couple of plays later,  Gary Trent committed an
offensive foul for his 4th of the game (Wallace was already on the
bench with his 4th) so Carlissimo put augmon on E.W.  The two
mismatches pretty much canceled each other out.  The Blazers were
leading by 8 with the clock running out, when Hawkins grabbed the
ball, dribbled the length of the court, jumped above three blazers and
threw in a wild three (the buzzer sounded while the ball was in the
air).  That made the score 81-76 at the end of the third period.  =20
     E.W. scored the first 4 points of the 4th quarter to cut the
Blazers margin to three (the Celts would go to Williams in the low
post on 1/2 of their possessions in the 4th).  As would be the pattern
for most of the final stanza. the Blazers immediately responded with 6
points of their own to make the lead 6 (87-80).   the C's got to
within 2 again at 93-91, and 100-98, but could never hold the Blazers
scoreless on the next possession to get a chance to tie or take a
lead.   The c's had their last good shot as Walker hit a nice 12 foot
jumper to pull them within 2 at 102-100 (3:03 left in the game).
Rider lost Day two plays in row for 15 foot jumpers and after a couple
of Day free throws hit a turnaround to give the Blazers an 8 point
lead 108-102 with 2:10 left in the game.   The Celts started to foul
intentionally, and the Blazers (not a good free throw shooting team)
hit their free throws down the stretch.  The Blazers went on to win
the game 118-106.
     The big story in this game (if your a Celts fan) was the
emergence of the Williams-Walker tandem.  They combined for 54 points.
Since the Blazers were without their two centers (Sabonis and Dudley),
W&W got to play the whole night against forwards and it made a big
difference.  The Celts were outshot again .447-.538, but made back a
good part of that by going to the free throw line 49 times (ten more
times than the Blazers despite the intentional fouls at the end of the
game).  The Celts also had an edge on the boards as they were up 13-9
on offensive and 44-38 total.  The deciding stat of the game, though
was turnovers as the Celts had 22 to the Blazers 13.  Portland was
very well prepared for the Boston press.

Lineups- Celts-Wes, Day, Fox, Conlon, Walker
                Blazers- Anderson, Rider, Robinson, Trent, Wallace

Players- Eric Williams- Maybe his best scoring game as a Celtic.  He
put up 26 (9-15 from the field and 8-14 from the free throw line),  in
just 33 minutes.  Despite it seeming, early in the 4th quarter, that
Eric might foul out the whole Portland team, the Blazers steadfastly
refused to double.

Walker- Scored 28 points (9-21), had 14 rebounds (but for the second
game in a row,was limited on the offenisve boards: 2 this time) and 4
assists, but also had 4 turnovers.   Tried to post Wallace a couple of
times, and got his shots sent back the other way for this trouble.
Continues to try the jumper with mixed effect.  Hit 2 more tonight
(including one 3).  Also had at least 1 airball.

Wesley- Off game as he only took 6 shots form the field (2-6) had 12
points, 8 boards, 6 assists, 3 steals and 6(!) turnovers.  Anderson
picked his pockets couple of times.  The guy is just worn out.

=46ox- Did I say that he stunk up the General Motors Center(Vancouver)
on Friday.  Well he didn't leave the Rose Garden smelling like roses
either.  8 points (3-8), 4 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2
turnovers.  I have to believe that the trade rumors have him upset. He
did do a pretty decent job with Robinson though.  On one of his
baskets he didn't even touch the ball, as two Blazer rebounders
knocked an Eric Williams missed free throw back through the basket for
a basket, and the scorers gave it to Rick as he was closest Celtic.
=46ox did have another 3 steals tonight.  If he can catch Eddie Jones
for the league lead he would be only the second non-guard to lead the
league since M.L. Carr did it back in the 78-79 season.

Day- Todd was scorched by Rider (40 points, 13-19 shooting).  Rider
could shoot over Todd or dribble around him any time he wanted to. Day
scored 13 (3-12), and had 5 boards and 3 turnovers.  Day got 41
minutes as Carr couldn't think of anyone else to put on Rider (and
neither could I for that matter).

Conlon- Only got 18 minutes tonight with E.W. back, but played pretty
well.  6 points, 5 boards and 2 assists.

Lister- Alton's best game in a while as he had 10 points, 5 boards (4
offensive) in 15 minutes.

Hawkins- Very quiet game as the score at the end of the third quarter
was his only activity of the game in 11 minutes.  Had 3 points and 2
assists.

Coaching- a better quality of effort tonight, but the Celts were also
up against a more talented team than they've been playing  on this
road trip so far.    Carr had better fish or but bait on  this fox
deal,cause it looks like  it's driving Rick nuts (though I would think
that Fox  would love to go  to LA).=20
     The Celts tried out a new play tonight, with pretty good success.
=46ox would feed E.W. about ten feet from the basket, then would trot
past Eric and made a half hearted attempt to post his man about 3 feet
from the basket, then continue on through.  I suppose that the point
of this was to make Portland double with a player at the top of the
key instead of with Fox's man.  In any case Portland never did double
and Eric exploited the low post postilion pretty well.

Opposition Players of Note: Rasheed Wallace.  Cousy and Hiensohn kept
repeating throughout the game that they thought the Bullets were
idiots for trading Wallace and keeping Webber during the last  off
season.  Personally I didn't think that the guy playing for the
Blazers tonight bore any resemblance to the rather tentative kid who
played for Washington last year.  Wallace had 22 points on 9-15
shooting, 9 boards and 2 blocks in 33 minutes.  He was big, mobile,
aggresive and impressive. =20

TheCelts record is now 11-38.  they play again tonight in Seattle
(shudder).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com
 =20