Celts lose to New Look Nets: Jersey 109-Boston 93

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

     	The Celts put forth one of  their weakest efforts of the
season in this afternoons game.  They had an excellent chance to win
as the Nets were not only suffering from the effects of turning over
half their roster in the last week, but were also missing Chris
Gatling (inner ear infection).  The Celtic's fortunes seemed to
improve even more after Jason Williams had to leave the game in the
first quarter due to his recurring thumb injury.   None of  that
mattered though, as the Celt's hearts didn't seem to be in the game.
The game was shown on NBC as part of their regional coverage. The
broadcast team of Bill Walton, Don Criqui and Phil Sims (?) easily did
the worst job of announcing a game that I've ever heard.  It was
certainly refreshing to hear a game done by a broadcasting team,  that
admitted that neither they or the two teams involved had the slightest
interest in the outcome of the game.
    	For a while though, things looked good.  Eric Williams was
matched up against Jason Williams.  Williams was unable to cover E.W.
(or do much of anything else) and Eric scored nine points in the first
5 minutes of  the game.  With the Celtics running, they got off to a
ten point lead at 20-10.  The quarter ended with the C's leading
30-23.
	At the start of the second period, the pace of the game
slowed dramatically, and both team had a lot  of trouble getting their
offense.  At the 6:36 mark the score was 36-30 (that's 8-6 Nets over 5
minutes+).  After Fox hit a turnaround to make the score 38-30, the
Nets went on a 9-0 run to take the lead 39-38.   With about a minute
left in the half, the C's had regained the lead 47-46.  Xavier
McDaniel, who did some good work filling in for Williams, hit a couple
of free throws and then the Nets stole the ball and Gill jammed home
the ball with time running out to  give the Nets a 50-47 lead at the
half.   The Celts only scored 17 points in the second quarter,with Fox
accounting for 11 of them.
	The Celts started the second half  slowly again and with the
Celts trailing 57-55, the Nets went on a 9-0 run to take  their first
double digit lead of the game (66-55).  The Celts came back with a 7-0
run of their own, getting a turnover on their only real attempt to use
the full court  press of the game.   Calipari got Sam Cassell (who had
reinjured a hip flexor in the second quarter) back into  the game and
the Celts momentum was  stopped.   The Nets ended the 3rd quarter with
an 8-2 run, to take  an 78-67 lead.
     	The Nets started the  4th period, with another run (10-5 this
time) to  push their lead up to 16 at 88-72 (pretty much the end of
the game).   The Celts made the last push of the game, and after a
conventional 3 point play by Eric Williams, the Celts were back within
8 at 93-85.   The Nets decisively put away the game with a 11-1 run to
make the score 104-86.    Carr  pulled his starters  and the game
ended with the score at 109-93.
	The Celts actually held  the Nets to a  semi-respectable .469
shooting percentage.  Unfortunately the Celts shot an unbelievably bad
(for a running game) .356.  worse, the Celts got beat in the hustle
categories.  The Nets outrebounded them 53-36, and  had an advantage
on the offensive boards 15-11.  The Nets got 8 steals  to the Celts 4
(what happened to all  those steals  the Celts were getting?)..  Each
team had 15 turnovers but the Nets got 22 points off turnovers while
the Celts got 15.
=20
Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Fox, Williams, Walker, Szabo
                 Nets- Cassell, Jackson, Gill, Williams, Montross

Players-  Walker- awful shooting game, 4-15, for 9 points.  The only
Celtic who hit the boards with 16, also 6 assists and 3 turnovers in
41 minutes.   In a very unusual turn of events was played by smaller
quicker players much of the game (due to the injuries to Williams and
Gatling).  He couldn't get his quick driving stuff to work and was
controlled on the offensive boards (4).  Was effective early in the
game taking the defensive rebounds and going the length of the court.

Eric Williams- another strong offensive game with 27 points on 9-18
from the field and 9-13 from the line. Would have had a better game,
but that hesitation on his jumper reappeared, causing him to miss
several J's that he's been making in the last month.   On the negative
side, though, in 43 minutes he had only 3 rebounds.

Wesley- Pushed the ball effectivley early in the game, but lost his
appetite for  pushing the pace after that.  Shot 4-15 from the field,
for 11 points, 3 boards, 8 assists and  1steal in 42 minutes.
Seemed to be having a tough time sticking with Cassell.

=46ox- Got off to the fast start and had 16 points in the first half.
Barely touched the ball in the second and ended with 22 points (7-10
from the field), just 2 boards, and 3 assists  in 39 minutes.  Despite
having to check 2 guards for the whole game (Kittles, Jackson and
Gill) managed to  avoid being embarrassed.

Day- The Celts bench was very weak in this game (especially compared
to the last couple).  Day scored 19, but shot 5-17, and was just
heaving the ball up  in the second half.   He did manage 4 boards and
2 steals, but also had 4 turnovers in 25 minutes.

Conlon- Really poor shooting  night for Marty at 1-6 (most of them
jumpers too). Did get 4 offensive rebounds in his 16 minutes.

Szabo-got 18 minutes tonight.  Scored 2 points and had 2  rebounds.

Hawkins- got to relieve Wesley around the 3rd quarter break (David
played all of  the first half).  I don't know if M.L. forgets he's got
Hawkins to give Wesley a break once in a while.   Kevin Edwards (the
oftinjured Nets back-up point guard) got 5  or 6 minutes in the first
half, but M.L. didn't try to get Wesley out of the game.

Coaching- I think the whole team is mentally and physically exhausted.
Calipari called a timeout, every time the Celts scored 6
uninterrupted points.  M.L., who has adopted this practice (most
coaches in the league seem to do it these days), didn't and in general
just didn't seem to be in the game.  After the first quarter the
Celtic's effort seemed very incoherent.  They were just going through
the motions.

Opposition Players of Note- McDaniel, Tross, Klein- three ex-Celtics
on the Nets roster.    McDaniel and Klein both had good games.  X
scored 15 points and had 7 boards in 30 minutes and Klein scored 6 and
had 9 boards in 20 minutes.  Tross had 7 boards in 18 minutes, but
also picked up 5 personal fouls.

Announcers of Note: Although the NBC crew did a terrible job on the
game (actually they pretty much ignored the game, in favor of playing
armchair G.M.).  Walton did have quite a bit to say about the Celtics
situation (it sounded as though he had spent some time talking to
folks in the C's organization).  He's pretty impressed with the
Celtics  position in the draft, though he was pretty critical of the
long term contracts that the Celts are holding. =20
     Walton said that the Celtics front office considers 4 players to
be "keepers", Williams, Walker, Wesley and Fox.  He also cast some
doubt on the wisdom of Bird becoming G.M..  He said that while he
though Larry certainly had the ability to do the job, he (Walton)
wasn't sure that Bird would want to give up the  good life with his
family to commit to the job.  He also said that he had a hard time
picturing Bird on the phone with other G.M.'s all day schmoozing on
the phones.  Personally I can't believe that  Riley does  that either,
and he seems to do okay.

	This game makes the C's record 11-42. They play again on
Wednesday (at home) against Sacramento.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

 =20