Knicks Knip Celts: New York 111- Boston 98

     The desperately outmanned Celts played a valiant game this
evening, and they had the lead three minutes into the 4th quarter at
86-85.  The Knicks scored 10 straight to take a 95-86 lead and then
cruised to a 111-98 win.  Alton Lister made a brief appearance and
Brent Szabo was (re)signed to a ten day contract this afternoon.  The
Knicks were without Larry Johnson and Chris Childs.
     The Knicks got off the mark first in tonight's game, taking a 9-2
lead.  The Celts came back with 7 in a row, utilizing a full court
press to tie the game at 9.  The two team traded baskets for  the rest
of the first quarter, as the Celts used pressure to cause multiple
Knick turnovers while the Knicks shot with deadly accuracy once they
got their offense set up.  After the Knicks built a 21-17 advantage
the Celts came back with 7 in a row, then held on, to lead at the end
of the period, 29-28.
     The two teams continued to battle back and forth in the second.
The Knicks got a five point lead on some nice 3 point shooting from
Houston and Starks, but they also continued to commit turnovers, both
forced and unforced.  The Celts wound up the quarter with a 8-3 run to
grab the lead just before the half at 57-55.  The Knicks committed 17
turnovers in the first half, but hit on 19-36 field goal attempts.
Meanwhile the Celts had an amazing edge of 17 more shots attempted but
hit exactly the same number (19-53).
     The Celts extended their lead to 7 at 65-58 on a David Wesley
layup, 2:30 into the third quarter.  But the Knicks got their act
together and forced the Celts to play in halfcourt.  They outscored
the Celts 25-12 over the last 9 minutes of the quarter to take an
83-77 lead. =20
     The Celts managed another push at the start of the 4th, and on a
David Wesley steal from Charlie Ward and a feed to Eric Williams for a
jam the Celts took a lead at 86-85 (6:55 left in the quarter).  The
Knicks had only scored 2 points in the quarter to that point.  Van
Gundy called a timeout and got the Knicks heads back into the game.
They ran off 10 straight points to take  the lead 95-86.  The Celts
kept plugging and got to within 6 at 100-94 with 2:30 left.  But the
Knicks scored 6 in a row to put the game away.  The final score was
111-98.
     The Celts put forth a tremendous effort.  They were outrebounded
48-40, but they had a 16-6 advantage on the offensive boards (of
course they missed 61 shots to the Knicks 35!).  The Celts had 16
steals, 2 short of the team record.  But they only shot .371, to the
Knicks .514, a margin they just couldn't overcome.  One thing that did
hurt was a combined 0-9 on three's from Dee and Day.
    =20

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Minor, Fox, Williams, Walker
         Knicks- Ward, Houston, Wallace, Oakley, Ewing

Players- Wesley- just hounded Charlie Ward all over the court
(obviously the short minutes the last couple of games helped him out).
He ended up with 20 points, 5 boards, 9 assists and 5 steals in 43
minutes. =20

=46ox- second excellent game in a row.  26 points (9-18), 9 boards, 3
assists and 3 steals in 36 minutes.  Did a great job boxing out on the
defensive boards (actually the whole team did a great job, the Knicks
only had 6 offensive rebounds).

Williams- Must have shot 5 jumpers tonight, and missed them all.  For
the second game in a row, the opposition chose to play Williams with
their center (Ewing) and Walker with the power forward (Oakley).
Williams did get to the line 7 times and scored 12 points in 35
minutes.

Walker- Of course he got killed in the absurd matchup with Ewing (31
pts. 10-18).  He scored 10 points on 5-13 shooting, 7 boards, 4
assists (several nice ones) and 3 steals.  Hung in there pretty well
though.

Minor- quiet night but got 13 points in 28 minutes.  did a pretty good
job on Houston who had 13 points on 6-15 shooting.

Day- worked hard, but didn't have the shot tonight.  When he
penetrated the Knicks defense, he just got swallowed up,and he
couldn't hit the outside shot at all.  Shot 3-13 for 6 points and 6
boards (4 offensive) in 24 minutes.

Dee- 0-7 from the field as he settled for the outside shot.  Did
contribute 3 assists and 2 steals in 21 minutes.

Conlon- a good effort butMarty was hopelessly outclassed tonight.
Shot 4-9, had 5 boards and 2 turnovers (it seemed like ten) in 17
minutes.  Carr left him in way too long in the second half.

Lister- went out and gave it a try, but he clearly had no business
being on the floor.  He had a noticeable limp, and on one play Ewing
ran all the way around him to get a loose ball that Alton should have
gotten easily.

Szabo- is back!

Coaching- M.L. looked like a genius in the first half, but I thought
that he lost his focus in the second.  Does M.L. really believe in
this running/pressing style?  If he does, why, after the Celtics got
the lead playing that way, did he go to Lister and Conlon so much in
the second half? It seemed like his rotations were confused the whole
second half (like he wasn't paying too much attention).  You'd think
to yourself "Where's Day" and a couple of minutes later Day would get
inserted.  Then "Where's Walker" (who only got 10-12 minutes in the
second half, in favor of Conlon), and a few minutes later Walker would
come in.
     Heinsohn made the comment, that if you have to play Walker at the
4, and on top of that the other team's center is going to guard him,
then you have to encourage him to keep shooting the jumper.  Well, why
not pull Walker out to the top of the three point line and get Ewing
out from underneath the basket?  Then maybe the rest of the team could
penetrate without Patrick there to swat everything away.  Has to be
better than 0-5 on jump shots.

Oldtimers of Note:  This is the first game of the Celtics-Knicks
comeback weekend.  There was a nice ceremony at the half and 22 former
players, along with Reds Auerbach and Holzman were introduced to the
crowd. The players were:

  Celts                                   Knicks
Bob Cousy                           Dave DeBusschere
Johnny Havlicek                     Walt (Clyde) Frazier
Tommy Heinsohn                      Harry (the Horse) Gallatin
Dennis Johnson                      Johnny Green  =20
K.C. Jones                          Bernard King
Sam Jones                           Jerry Lucas
Cedric (Cornbread) Maxwell          Earl (the Pearl) Monroe

Easy Ed Macauley                    Dick McGuire
=46rank Ramsey                        Willis Reed
Bill Russell
Satch Sanders
Bill Sharman
Jo Jo White

They held a free throw shooting contest (to be completed tomorrow
night, in New York).

     Celts                                 Knicks
Cousy      1-2                         Frazier      0-2
Havlicek   1-2                         Gallitin     1-2   underhanded!
Sam Jones  1-2                         King         0-2
Sharman    0-2  (.883 lifetime)        Lucas        2-2
White      1-2                         Monroe       1-2
          4-10                                     4-10

     Everyone seemed to be having a good time.  Havlicek is taking on
a cherubic appearance as he ages.  Russell, who was very uncomfortable
about things like this when he first retired, was really enjoying
himself.  You could here his maniacal cackle over everything else.  He
also got the biggest ovation of the evening (of course L.B. wasn't
there).  He may not be the only one who's changed over the last 30
years.=20

The Celts record is now 8-24.  They play tomorrow evening in New York.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S.  The Celtics wore their throw back uniforms for the second time
this year, and they're just as ugly as the first time.  But they're
gorgeous compared to the Knicks uniforms (obviously someone told the
Knick's uniform/equipment guy to get the throw backs uni's and he
thought they said  the throw out uniform)s.  They had a hideous
day-glow orange trim around the waist and striped down the leg.
 =20
=20