Jazz DownBeat Celts: Utah 122-Boston 105

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

     	Early on in this contest it appeared that it might turn into
one of those late road trip blow outs.  To their credit the Celts kept
competing and midway through the fourth quarter they had pulled to
within 6 points at 100-94.  All this got them was the full attention
of the Jazz marvelous veterans down the stretch.  With Malone,
Stockton et. al. at full intensity the Jazz outscored the C's 22-11 in
the final moments of the game.
	David Wesley opened the game by scoring 8 of the Celts first
14 points and after the first 5:00 minutes of the game the Celts were
still hanging close at 15-14.  John Stockton began to get into full
ball hawking mode and stole the ball from unsuspecting Celts several
times to fuel an 8-0 Jazz run (22-14).   With the Jazz controlling the
boards (early in the game they had a 24-9 advantage on the glass) they
built their advantage up to 32-19.  The first quarter ended with the
Jazz up 35-24.
     	The Celtics got the lead down to 8 early in the second, but
the Jazz went on a lengthy 17-5 run to take a 20 point lead and
threaten to blow the Celts out of the game.  The Celts rallied behind
a stretch of good play by Antoine Walker, to outscore the Jazz 14-8
over the last 3:00 of the half, cutting the lead to 64-50.
     	Momentum swung back and forth throughout the third quarter.
The Celts fell behind by 18 at 68-50, but then recovered to pull
within 11 at 70-59.  The Jazz pushed back and got their lead back up
to 19 points at 82-63.  The Celts went on an 11-2 run of their own to
cut the lead to ten at 84-74, but by the end of the period the Jazz
had actually increased their lead by 1 (compared to the beginning of
the quarter) at 92-77.
     	Behind strong play from Rick Fox (who had been having a
miserable game up until this point), Todd Day and David Wesley the
Celts nearly halved theJjazz margin down to 8 at 96-88.    They slowly
got the lead down to 6 on a  Wesley layup with 6:00 minutes to go.
Jerry Sloan put Hornacek and Russell back into the game, rejoining
Stockton and Malone, and the playoff tested Jazz really began to go to
work.   Stockton and Hornacek stole the ball from the Celtics several
times and fed Russell  (who scored 8 down the stretch) for easy
scores.  When they couldn't get an easy score they went to Malone in
the post.  The Jazz just motored away from the Celts and by the end of
the game the score was 122-105.
     	The Celts got crushed on the boards in this game 52-27 (17-8
offensive).  Although the Celts had fewer turnovers than the Jazz
(19-15), the Jazz still took 5 more shots (and 5 more free throws).
The Celts got as close as they did largely because of excellent three
point shooting (7-13),  and from the free throw line (26-31).

Lineups- Celts -Wesley, Fox, Walker, Williams, Szabo
                 Jazz- Stockton, Hornacek, Russell, Malone, Ostertag

Players- Wesley- came out like a ball of fire after the poor
performance in Golden State Wednesday.  Shot 8-13 (21 points),=20
3 boards, 7 assists, and 4 steals in 35 minutes (nice to see him
playing more limited minutes).  He scored 11 in the first 6:00 minutes
of the game and then was quiet until the 4th , when he came alive
again.

Walker- Note: both of the box scores that I've seem from this game
seem to have attributed Walker's stats to Williams and visa versa
(since the game wasn't on WSBK, I don't have it on tape and can't
check).    In any case, Walker had his poorest rebounding game in
quite a while with just 5 boards.  He also scored 15 and had another
trey and a 20 foot jumper.  He got stuck playing Malone down the
stretch, and while he didn't get blown out, couldn't really control
the Mail Man either.

=46ox- looked as though he was going to have another miserable game as
he scored just 2 points in the first half.  The strong play of Todd
Day forced M.L. to put Fox at the 3 spot for most of the second half,
and Rick responded.  He finished with 15 points (9 in the 4th), 8
rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals in 39 minutes. Ffox not only scored
in the 4th, but took the lead in working hard on the defensive boards
so that the Celts could be in position to make a run.

Williams- Very effective getting to the line tonight (9 times).
scored 17 points, and 4 boards in 38 minutes.  With Sloan choosing to
play Antoine Carr and Carl Malone together in the 4th quarter, though,
M.L. went with Marty Conlon over Eric down most of the stretch.

Day- 3rd strong game for Todd off the bench.  Shot over 50% again at
6-10 (3-4 on treys).  Scored 21 points in 32 minutes.  Seems to be
doing a much better job of choosing his shots.  Also had 3 blocks.

Conlon- another solid performance from Marty (all the Jazz announcers
could say was that he didn't look like a basketball player).  12
points, 6 boards and 2 assists in 25 minutes.=20

Szabo- Another 14 minutes.  Scored 2 points and had a block, but was a
non-factor on the boards with 0.

Hawkins- 0-4 from the floor, for 0 points and 1 assist in 13 minutes.
Although he had 2 turnovers, the team seemed a little less chaotic
with him on the floor than it has in the past.

Lister/Hamer- 2 points and 1 board in 7 minutes.

Coaching- The experiment with Szabo in the starting lineup and Day
coming off the bench seems to be having mixed results.  Szabo isn't
producing much, while Day seems to be playing his highest quality
basketball since becoming a Celtic.  Fox seems to be far more
comfortable playing the 3 as opposed to the shooting guard position.
The best solution would be for one of the C's injured shooting guards
to get healthy and solve the problem.=20

The Celts record in now 11-42.  They are off until Sunday afternoon,
when they finish off the road trip against the Nets.

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.com



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