Bullets Edge Celts: Washington 112- Boston 106

     This was a difficult loss for the Celts, but at the same time it
was also encouraging.  For the first time the Celtics actually
extended their running and pressing tactics to the very end of the
game, not as a matter of desperation, but as a sound practical game
plan.  The Celts were down 103-94 with 3:00 to go in the game, but
starting with a Fox lay-up off a made basket, they outscored the
Bullets 10-1 to tie the game.  4 of the 5 Celtic baskets in the run
came off the break.  Unfortunately for the Celts, with the game tied
at 106 with 25 seconds left, Chris Webber hit a very lucky basket and
then proceeded to miss 3 consecutive free throws (the C's failed to
get the rebound twice), before Rod Strickland hit two free throws to
ice the game.  Dana Barros was unable to play tonight.  Heinsohn said
that he might be headed for season ending surgery.
     The game started out close with a 10-10 tie 4:00 into the first
period.  But Eric Williams drew Gheorge Muresan's second foul of the
game and hit 2 free throws to put the Celts up 16-10.  The C's went on
to grab leads of 24-14, 27-16 and 33-20 on their way to a 36-25 lead
at the end of the quarter.  Todd Day distinguished himself with
several brilliant passes and overall the Celtics looked to be far more
energetic than the Bullets, who played last night.
     Surprisingly, Carr who only made one substitution in the first
quarter started the second with four of his starters still in the
game.  The Bullets, with fresh bodies off the bench, took advantage of
good play by subs Chris Whitney and Jerrin Jackson to go on a 19-2 run
to take a 44-38 lead.  The Celts battled back and got the lead down to
4 at 50-46.  The Bullets were able to extend their lead to 62-54 at
the half.  Washington outscored the C's 37-18 in the second quarter.
     The Celts started came out again  and played dazzling ball to
start the third, as they went on a 17-8 run to take the lead back
(71-70) halfway through the quarter.  And Carr hung them out to dry
again, as he didn't make any substitutions until the 3:00 minute mark
of the period.  By this time the Bullets had gone on a 15-4 run of
their own to take an 85-75 lead.  The Celts trailed going into the 4th
88-80.
     The Cetls cut the lead down to just 2 at the start of the 4th off
an 8-2 run, but the Bullets retaliated and drove the margin back up to
8 (96-88). With roughly 6:30 left in the period, Wesley committed his
fifth foul and Carr took him out.  It was not until the 4:40 mark that
M.L. had his starters back on the court together (albeit with Dee
instead of Day).  The Celts immediately closed the lead on two E.W.
free throws (101-94).  On the next play Walker stole the ball, but Fox
missed the chance to cut the lead further.  Then they held off a Rod
Strickland drive only to give up the offensive rebound/score to
Calbert Cheaney (103-94).  Within seconds Fox, running on the made
basket, scored a lay-up.  On the next C's possession the team ran
again, but Walker blew a makeable lay-up.  Then Walker came up with
another steal, with Fox converting a difficult runner (103-98).  Dee
and Fox combined to steal the ball, and Wesley scored the layup
(103-100).  After Dee hit a jumper Webber hit one free throw(104-100).
Then the Celts ran again and Wesley hit a 15 foot jumper (104-102).
The Celts got another turnover, and Williams drove into the paint and
hit an 8 footer to tie the game at 104.  The Bullets broke the press
on the next possession and Cheaney hit a lay-up (106-404).  But
Williams hit a 16 foot jumper to tie the game again (106-106).  On the
next play, Webber bulled his way through a Celtic double team, picked
up the foul and got his shot to crawl over the rim and sink through
(108-106).  Webber missed the free throw, but the Bullets got the ball
back.  Fox fouled Webber again, and this time Webber missed both free
throws.  Once again the larger Bullets were allowed to push the
Celtics under the basket (the Celts had good position) and got the
ball back.  The ball ended up in Webbers hands again, but he wa able
to pass the ball to Strickland, just before the Celts put him on the
line again.  The C's fouled Strickland instead and Rod hit both throws
to make the score 110-106 with less than ten seconds left.  After
another trip to the line the game ended with the score 112-106.
     The important stat in this game turned out to be the Bullets
extremely accurate 3 point shooting.  The Bullets went 6-9 from behind
the arc, while the Celtics shot 1-10.  This more than made up for the
Celtics 15 steals and 23-15 advantage in turnovers.  The Celts kept
the rebound situation under control (until the last 30 seconds),
actually getting the same number of offensive rebounds as the Bullets
(as usual they missed 6 more shots than the Bullets so they actually
should have had more).  The Celts shot .495 from the field compared to
the Bullets .518.  The Celts total of 15 steals marks the 5th time in
the last 6 games that they've had more than ten (an average of ten
would make a team second in the league in steals- the C's are
currently 4th).

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Day, Fox, Williams, Walker
         Bullets- Strickland, Cheaney, Howard, Webber, Muresan

Players- Wesley.  Generally one of his finest nights.  22 points, 5
boards, 14 assists (a career high I think), 3 steals and 4 turnovers
in 42 minutes (even with foul trouble).  Played good defense against
Strickland, although i think that towards the end of the third period,
Rod began to take it to Welsey.  It would have been a good time to go
to the Dee-Wes back court to keep the pressure of Wesley on the
defensive end, but Carr didn't do it.  The critical fifth foul that
Wesley committed with 6:30 left in the game was actually a little
foolish.  Chris Whitney broke behind the defense and Wesley fouled him
to save a lay-up.  Under normal circumstances a good play, but Wesley
is too important to pick up his 5th foul that way.  I haven't
mentioned it, but one area were Wesley has shown tremendous
improvement recently is in his running of the pick and roll play.  He
started out with Fox, and has begun to run it with other players on
the team.  From somewhere he's picked up a knack of threading a bounce
pass between the two defenders rather than trying to pass over them.

=46ox- a rather un-Foxian stat line of 21 points (10-15), 2 boards, 1
assist , 3 steals, 2 blocks and 1 turnover in 35 minutes.  He also did
a brilliant job on Juwan Howard.  The Bullets kept throwing the ball
into Howard in the post, expecting the Celts to doubleteam.  Instead
the Celts played him even up with Fox, and many times when Howard
turned to shoot, Fox would strip the ball from him.  Although Howard
shot 8-16 (and made several of those baskets when Fox was not on the
floor) he also had 7 turnovers.

Williams- Eric seems to have broken out of his doldrums.  Shot 6-16,
but was 8-8 from the line for 20 points and 11 boards in 40 minutes.
=46or the 5th game in a row, the opposition chose to play their center
against Williams and the power forward against Walker (What! Is there
a newsletter?).  But Muresan was too slow (he couldn't keep Williams
form driving to the basket if he backed off him by 90 feet).  Williams
picked up a couple of fouls on him early and Muresan was eliminated as
a factor in the game (Gheorge played all of 14 minutes).

Walker- 7-14 from the field, 14 points, 12 boards (6 offensive), 4
assists and 3 steals.  He kept Webber under control, though certainly
Webber won the matchup.  Did all of his damage on the break or on the
offensive boards.  A negligible factor in the half-court offense.

Day- had a very good game passing the ball with 4 assists, any of them
fit to grace a highlight reel.  Also had 12 points on 4-9 shooting and
2 steals, but M.L. went with Dee in crunch time again.

Dee- shot poorly from outside, but had a nice floor game and got some
points off the break.  Scored 9, had 4 assists and 2 steal in 27
minutes.  Was 0-5 from three point range.

Conlon- another gritty game for Conlon, with 8 points, 5 boards and 3
assists in 21 minutes.  Even he was able to blow past Muresan for a
score.

Lister- maybe it's time to give it up.  Lister played for 4 minutes
and registered 1 personal foul.  That's it.  He probably can only run
the length of the court twice as fast as Muresan, which is far below
the standard at your local gym.

Sxabo- Didn't live up to Masked Man rep, but he hustled as usual.  I
notice M.L. only plays him in one half a game.  I wonder if his
physical condition dictates this?

Coaching-  Tommy Heinsohn got as close to being critical of M.L. as he
ever does over the substitution patterns, tonight.  And as much as I
hate to agree with Tommy (even when he's right (not all that often) he
repeats himself so much you get tired of hearing it) I think he was
dead on about this.  Carr basically says to his core of 6 or 7 players
"Go out and play as hard as you can for as long as you can, and then
I'll leave you in for another 3 or 4 minutes to give the opposition a
chance to wipe away all the good you did by playing so hard".  But
you've got to give him credit too.  His players keep coming back for
more of it.
     I also question M.L.'s decision to lift Wesley, when he picked up
his 5th foul with 6:30 left in the game.  Altough the Celts didn't do
badly with Wes out (they were outscored 5-3), just a couple more
points might have made the difference in this game.  I think that if
Carr had called David over and told him that he was going to stay in
the game and he'd better damm well not get his 6th foul, it would have
worked.  Oh well, here's to second guessing.

Opposition players of note: Rod Strickland- I got confirmation of what
I suspected to be the case from looking at the Washington boxes.  He
isn't really running the team, Webber is.  Strickland gets some
assists just because he's holding the ball before someone hits a jump
shot, but other than that most of his offense comes of his own
penetration for scores.  He shot 5-14 tonight and did have 9 assists,
but they were of the lame hockey variety (last guy to touch the ball
before the shooter gets the assist).  Few of Strickland's passes
actually improved the teams offensive position.  The team actually
played better when Chris Whitney was playing the point.  Unfortunately
for the Celts, Strickland did hit an uncharacteristic 9-9 from the
free throw line.

The Celts are now 9-27 (.250).  They're off until Wednesday night when
they play the Sixers at home.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com


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