TWolves Defeat Celts: Minnesota 94- Boston 84

      The Celts had one of their better chances to win a game tonight,
as the TimberWolves road record was only 2-14 going into the contest
(though, the team continues to gel as the season goes on).  But the
absence of Dino Radja, especially combined with the loss of Alton
Lister with a sprained ankle early in the third quarter, gave the
TWolves an insurmountable advantage in size, as the Celts played big
chunks of the game with the 3 largest players on the court all playing
for their opposition.  Dee Brown returned for tonight's game, as Dana
Barros was moved to the injured reserve list with a bone spur.
     Both teams started out the game playing miserably.  The score
stood at 10-9 in Boston's favor halfway through the first quarter, and
Mike Gorman pointed out that there had been more turnovers than
baskets scored to that point.  The Twolves, with an infusion of energy
off the bench in the form of Cherokee Parks, awoke first and outscored
the Celts 13-2 to take a 23-12 lead at the end of the period.  The
Celtics had 9 turnovers in the first period (as opposed to six
baskets).
     MOre of the same to start the second period.  The Twolves scored
the first 3 points, to increase their margin to 14.  Carr put Dee in,
and Saunders took Marbury out (in favor of veteran Terry Porter).  The
Celts applied pressure and got immediate results as they went on a
16-4 run highlighted by two Dee Brown treys (30-28).  The Celtics
continued to prosper  and held a 43-40 lead going into halftime.  they
outscored the Twolves 31-17.
     The Celticswere hot to start the second half as they scored 6
straight points to take a 49-40 lead.  They had outscored the Twolves
37-14 since early in the second quarter (just over twelve minutes).
At this point the pendulum swung the other way,as the Twolves scored 9
straight of their own to tie the game at 49 apiece.  On the rebounding
action following a Kevin Garnett miss, Alton Lister appeared to land
funny and perhaps mildly sprain his ankle (which kept him on the
sidelines the rest of the game).  After trading baskets for a few
minutes, Minnesota  outscored the C's 24-10 to end the period and take
a 73-62 lead into the finalquarter.
     With Lister gone, the Celts went really small, playing Walker at
center for most of the 4th.  The TWolves had a mini run  to increase
the lead to 16 (82-66).  Walker took advantage of his quickness to
score 6 straights points to pull the Celts to within 10 (82-72:
Walker had 10 of the Celts first 14 points in the 4th).  But the Celts
started to trade baskets with the Twolves and couldn't pull any closer
(actually they got to within 9 at 78-87).  The game ended with the
score at 94-84 in favor of Minnesota.
     Two big numbers in this game.  The Celts had  a big advantage on
the offensive boards (!) 17-6, which got them an extra 31 shots at the
basket (!).  The Twolves offset this by going to the line 37 times to
the Celtics 9 (Gugliotta went 20 times).  And the Celts had their
worse shooting game in quite a while as they shot .384 (Twolves .485).
Kevin Garnett was a major cause of the Celtics problems on D as he
registered 8 blocks (TWolves had 13 as a team, the Celts had 1). =20

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Minor, Fox, Walker, Lister
         TWolf- Marbury, Carr, Garnett, Gugliotta, Vrankovic

Players- Walker- shows how misleading a stat line can be as he had 18
points (9-19) and 12 boards in 31 minutes.  I think that if you went
back and looked at the tape carefully, you would see that at least 4
(maybe more) of the rebounds were of his own missed shots.  If you
subtract those (not that I'm suggesting a stat change here)  his stats
would show 9-15 shooting and 8 boards.  Walkers ability to rejump
quickly is amazing.  And he's tremendous at going and getting his own
missed shots (I suspect he's had a lot of practice at this).  Also hit
a 15 foot jumper tonight.

Wesley- Even with Dee back, he still played 43 minutes as M.L. tried
to get him loose for some jumpers, with Dee taking the point.  David
had his poorest shooting game in a while at 6-14 (0-3 on 3's) for 15,
and added 8 assists and 3 turnovers.  The Twolves, who played very
good one on one defense, stayed with Wesley the entire game.  Wes did
hold Marbury in check, who has rung up some teams for big numbers the
last couple of weeks.

Lister- Had 2 points and 7 boards in 18 minutes before the ankle
sprain.  It didn't look too severe.  The only Celtics who was
competitive against the Twolves size.

=46ox- miserable shooting night at 5-15, but quietly snuck in and had 14
boards (I didn't realize it till I saw the stats).  Of course the
Celts missed 61 shots in the game, someone had to get some rebounds.
Rick also had 5 steals. but offset that with 4 turnovers of his own.
Carr had Fox on Gugliotta to start the game, but it was a boy against
a large and mobile mountain, as Gugs just bulled Fox out of the way.
Carr switched Fox over to Garnett after the first two minutes of the
game.

Minor- 5-14 shooting as the TWolves were forcing him to come two steps
further off picks to get his jumpshot off, all night long.  Minor has
a great shots when the conditions are just right, but it doesn't take
much defense to throw him off either.  10 points and 3 boards in 25
minutes.

Williams- Once again the beneficiary of an injury as he got 30 minutes
tonight.  had some nice looking moves, but the TWolves front line is
too big and too quick for much of E.W.'s stuff to work against them.
Shot 5-14, and had 5 boards.

Dee- came in and played a marvelous second quarter with a couple of
three and 8 points in about 9 minutes.  But the magic wasn't there in
the second half and he ended the game with a very Brownian 4-12
shooting for 10 points, 3 assists and 3 steals.  He did go to the
basket hard several times, and got a couple of nice scores off it.

Conlon- 4 points and 2 rebounds in 19 minutes.  Marty has exactly one
move, which is a big sweeping hook shot off the left box, which he
never makes.

Coaching- We got a brief glimpse of what M.L. had in mind when the
season started in the second (and early third) quarters as the Celts
outscored the Twelves 37-14.  the Celts were playing pressure defense,
and generating points.  When that happens and the pressure is off
their half court paly everything begins to go well. =20
    Too recent trends in Celtic's play were important tonight.  The
Celts very rarely settled for outside shots.  They only took 9 three's

against a much bigger team, choosing instead to drove the ball at the
basket.  Unfortunately the refs didn't reward them at the line.
     The Celts also committed a large number of quasi-intentional
fouls on plays when the TWolves had them beat (the Twolves .485
shooting is misleading: it would have been well over .500 except for
this tactic). This was largely responsible for the difference in  free
throw attempts.  The Celts got called for 7 more fouls than the
Twolves, but went to the line 28 fewer times.   The difference was
that when the Twolves got fouled they went to the line, but the Celts
would get fouled and then take the ball out of bounds.

Opposition Players of Note- Tom Guggliotta had a monster game with 32
points, 19 rebounds and 7 assists (he should have had a triple double,
his teammates fumbled away several excellent passes).  He had an
amazing 17 defensive rebounds (the Twolves only missed 35 shots!). It
looks like Gugs has solved the riddle that so many NBA big guys, who
have some outside skills, never figure out.  That it doesn't do you
much good to have the small man skills unless you also can play like a
big guy when the situation demands it.  Otherwise you're just a 6' 4"
player on stilts.

This game makes the C's record 6-23,  They play again Sunday evening
against Phoenix (at the Fleet Center, but the game will start at 7:30,
instead of the usual 7:00).=20

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com


       =20