C's Pull Rabbit out of Hat: Boston 109 - Phoenix 102

     The Celts were only able to get 7 minutes out of Alton Lister
this evening, so they essentially went the entire evening without a
player over 6' 9".  But they took advantage of some turbulence on the
part of the Suns, to pull out a rare win 109-102.  The Celts won with
big time efforts from David Wesley and Todd Day, to outscore the Suns
33-24 in the final quarter and win the game.
     At the start of the game it looked as though the contest might be
over by the end of the 1st quarter.  The Celts fell behind 17-6, as
little known Suns offensive phenom, Mark Bryant, was teaching Eric
Williams a little needed lesson in humility (Bryant had 18 points in
the 1st quarter).  M.L. got things straightened out and the Celts
started to climb back into the game.  The C's had pulled to within 7
at 27-20 when Ainge pulled Kevin Johnson for rookie Steve Nash.  The
Celts put on the press and ate Nash up like so much Canadian Bacon, as
the C's outscored the Suns 10-4 over the last two minutes of the
period to go into the second trailing by 1 point 31-30. =20
    The Celts continued to play well at the start of the second
(including a nice contribution by Szabo), and after two consecutive
=46ox baskets lead the game 48-41.  Ainge called a timeout (and got his
best players into the game) and the Suns went on a 10-2 run to retake
the lead (51-50).  The Suns led at the end of the second period 54-53.

Under the Celtic pressure the Suns committed 15 turnovers in the first
half.
     Apparently (M.L. related after the game) Lister had said that he
would only be able to play limited minutes tonight, so M.L. chose to
start him in the second half.  Lister did his usual stalwart job on
the boards, but the Celts were unable to make much headway.  Finally
Wesley hit 2 jumpers in a row to give the Celts a four point lead with
about 4:00 to go in the quarter (74-70).  M.L. tried to give Wesley a
break, and play Dee at point, but the Celts fell apart without Wesley
on the court.  The Sun outscored the C's 6-0, to retake the lead (M.L.
quickly got Wes back into the game). The third period ended with the
score at 79-76, in favor of the Suns.
     Todd Day was lighting up the Fleet center without the benefit of
electricity at the start of the 4th quarter.  He hit three consecutive
treys, and then Dee Brown hit a spectacular driving lay-up to give the
Celts a 7 point lead with 6:51 to go (91-84).  But the Celts couldn't
find a way to stop the Suns (especially Danny Manning).  With 3:20
left in the game, Day fouled Person (who scored the hoop) and the Suns
pulled to within 2 at 99-97.  Wesley hit a lay-up and Bryant hit 1 of
2 from the line.  The two teams had scored on 11 straight possessions
at this juncture in the game.  All of a sudden though, both team went
cold, and were unable to score until Marty Conlon made a very nice
steal off of a Suns inbounds play which led to a Dee Brown lay-up (C's
103-98).  But on the next play Dee had to foul K.J. (103-100) and the
team traded baskets to make the score 105-102 with 45 seconds left.
Wesley drew a foul going to the basket to put the Celts up 5 again,
and on the nest play Johnson made a poor pass to Bryant who turned the
ball over.  With 15.8 seconds left the Suns fouled Fox who iced the
game with two more free throws.  Celts win 109-102.
     The Celtics won this game in the turnover column.  They had 14
turnovers compared to the Suns 26.  This allowed the C's to get a
dozen more opportunities at the basket. The free throw shooting didn't
hurt, either, as the Celts were 28-31 (Walker missed all three).  This
made up for the Suns superior shooting .539 to the Celts .459.  In
truth, the Celts did a pretty good job of playing the entry passes
(and got quite a few of those turnovers off them), but once the pass
made it into the post the Suns were automatic.
    =20
Lineups- Celts - Wesley, Minor, Fox, Williams, Walker
         Suns- Johnson, Chapman, Horry, Bryant, Williams

Players- Day- It was flowing in the 4th quarter tonight for Todd.  He
ended the game with 25 points (9-18) shooting, 3 boards and 2 steals
in 26 minutes.  As Tommy never tires of pointing out, Day is the ideal
player for this style of basketball.

Wesley- Carr should dock Wesley's pay as he was only on the court for
39 minutes tonight.  Wesley did a really good job on KJ in the first
half but Johnson began to take it to him in the second.  Wesley scored
22 (6-12 from the field: 10-10 from the line), had 8 assists, 2 steals
and 1 turnover.  Another very solid night.

=46ox- 14 points (6-13), 7 boards, 4 assists, and 0 turnovers in 25
minutes.  Very nice, but he was not on the floor in the 4th (Conlon
and Day played most of the quarter).

Williams- he was blown out of the game psychologically in the first
quarter when Bryant rang him up for 14 points or so.  Had 6 points, 2
boards and 2 steals in 27 minutes.  For some reason when he got the
ball in the post, tonight, he tried to get the turnaround off really
quickly instead of throwing in 3 or 4 fakes before shooting like he
usually does.  It probably got him rejected 2 or 3 times.  Hit another
jumper.

Walker- officially listed as the starting center in tonight's game.
Had 11 points (5-13), 7 boards, 2 steals and 3 turnovers in 36
minutes.  Manning gave him serious trouble down the stretch.  Didn't
get to the offensive board much tonight.  Maybe his rep is beginning
to precede him.

Minor- scored 11 on 5-13 shooting in 24 minutes.  Once again the Celts
were unable to get him many shots that he was comfortable with.

Dee- Came in very handy tonight (again this is much more his style
than a downtempo game).  Shot 6-9 (12 points), had 4 assists and 2
steals in 25 minutes.  When Johnson began to get it going in the
second half, M.L. was able to bring Dee's fresh legs off the bench and
switch Wesley onto an easier assignment.  Made all the difference in
the world.  Not that Dee completely shut KJ down, but it gave him a
different look and took some pressure off Wesley.=20

Conlon- Marty did yeoman's work tonight.  After Bryant had the
incandescent first quarter, Marty played him the rest of the game and
did a darn good job.  Conlon scored 6 points, had 7 boards, 3
turnovers and a mind boggling 6 steals (personally I think that the
scorers  were a little generous on that one).  But Marty really did
overplay the entry passes and came up with several nice steals.  At a
critical point in the 4th, the Suns were inbounding the ball, and it
appeared that Kevin Johnson totally lost his man, and broke free under
the basket.  When the inbounder(?) tried to rifle the ball to Johnson,
Marty neatly stepped out from behing his man and grabbed the ball as
it flew pass.  He quickly hit Wesley with a pass (who in turn hit Dee
Brown for an easy lay-up).  If Marty can bottle this game and uncork
it at will he'd be very valuable for the rest of this season.

Lister- has a hamstring pull.  He played for the first 7 minutes of
the third, but couldn't go back in when it tightened up.  Had no stats
to mention, though his mere presence helped out when he was in the
game.

Szabo- got 3 minutes around the first/second quarter break and
actually played quite well.  He had 2 points, a steal and a block to
show for it.

Coaching-  Another patented M.L. Carr small-ball triumph.  He really
didn't seem to happy after the game though (I think that what happened
to Ainge during the game had him upset: he was definitely
commiserating with him as they walked off the court together). =20
     Although the Celts won tonight, and pretty much played the style
that M.L. apparently intended they play at the beginning of the
season,  I wonder why M.L. didn't want to double down on the Phoenix
big men.  The suns really don't have that many three point shooters
anymore (just Chapman and Person actually), so the C's wouldn't have
been hurt badly.  It must be demoralizing for Williams to be hung out
to dry in game after game.

Opposition Coaches of Note- Danny Ainge- With about 7 minutes to go in
the game, with the Suns fighting for their lives, Ainge inserted
Robert Horry (who started the game, but was played sparingly in the
second half) into the lineup.  Horry committed offensive interference
to probably take a basket away from the Suns, then on the next Suns
possession launched a three pointer that missed the basket by two
feet.  Ainge took him out of the game,and on his way back to the bench
Horry started yelling at Danny.  Ainge yelled back and Horry threw a
towel in his face, and huffed his way down to the end of the bench (I
think this might have had a negative effect on the concentration of
the Sun's players on the court).  Danny didn't do anything (during the
game), and afterwards when Carr was talking to him he was smiling
(that tight lipped smile- not the one where he's really happy).
     Anyway, I thought that Danny made a couple of mistakes in this
game.  First he let his guys run, when common sense would have
dictated that if they slowed the game down they'd have the Celts dead
to rights.  I'm all in favor of sticking to your own style most of the
time, but once in a while you're just playing into the oppositions
hands if you do it.  And the Suns kept trying to go to Bryant, who
after the first quarter when he scored 18, had 6 the rest of the game.
I thing Bryant averages around 6, and when a guy has the first quarter
of his life, you just say thank you very much, and go on about your
normal way of playing.  After the first quarter Bryant shot 1-4 with 3
turnovers (which is about what you would expect).  And Steve Nash's 6
minutes were a disaster.

The Celts play against the Admiral-less Spurs (and why the hell does a
team named the Spurs need an Admiral anyway) on Wednesday night (2 in
a row?????).  This makes the Celt's record 7-23.=20

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S. As a tie in with the Celtics-Knicks throw back weekend,
Sportschannel is airing a show called Celtics Dynasty, about the 57-69
Celtics, this Friday at 6:00 p.m.=20