Oh No! Not Again!: Philadelphia 127- Boston 125

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

     Ouch!  The Celtics put forth a rather lackluster effort this
evening, in losing to the Sixers for the second time this season (the
Celts are now responsible for 28% of the Sixer's wins this season).
The Celts got some clutch play down the stretch to make the game close
and to send it into overtime, but they really didn't deserve to win
tonight.  The Celts had Wes, Day, Fox, Williams, Walker, Dee, Conlon
and Szabo available tonight.
     It looked for a short time as though the Celts would play the
same style of sparkling basketball that they have for the last two
weeks, and take this game easily.  On the first possession of the game
(after Walker tried to steal the tap), they forced the Sixers to take
a timeout to inbound the ball.  The Celts got 5 turnovers in the first
4 minutes of the game and took a 15-9 lead.  But the Celtics had a big
leak in their defense as Rick Fox was unable to check Stackhouse, and
the Sixers began to come back.  Philly went on a 17-4 run to take an 7
point lead (26-19).  The Celts came back and rallied to get within 4
by the end of the period (30-26).
     The Celts got some nice play from Todd Day and Marty Conlon to
begin to pare away the Philly lead at the onset of the second quarter.
Dee Brown hit a jumper with 5:00 to go in the period to give the Celts
their first lead since early in the first a 44-43.  The Sixers
responded with an 8-2 run to take a six point lead, and held on to
take a 5 point lead into halftime at 56-51.
      The Sixers continued their strong play to start the second half
with a 9-2 run to push their lead to 12 at 65-53.  They had gotten the
lead up to thirteen at 70-57, when M.L. put the heavy duty pressure on
and the Celts responded with 3 76er turnovers and a 9-2 run.  The
Celts rode that momentum to close to within 1 point at 82-81 at the
end of the 3rd quarter.
     Off the solid last portion of the 3rd period I thought that the
Celts might take the game in hand in the 4th.  The Celts could never
get over the hump, and slowly fell further behind.  With 4 minutes to
go, the Sixers held a 105-99 lead.  With 2:00 to go the Sixers led by
the same margin at 109-103.  Rick Fox came up with a couple of steals
and the Sixers were called for an over and back to allow the Celts to
cut the lead to 2 at 109-107.  McClean hit a J, but Day responded with
a 3.  Then Walker committed a foolish foul to give Weatherspoon a 3
point play (114-110: 26 seconds to play).  Wesley fed Walker for a
layup and after Iverson missed 1 of 2 free throws, Day hit another 3
to tie the game at 115, with just 6.3 seconds left.  Day fouled
Stackhouse with 2.2 seconds to go, but Eric Williams hit David Wesley
with a 70 foot pass to set Wes up for a lay-up and send the game into
over-time (117-117).
     The Sixers scored first in the overtime, but the Celts scored the
next two baskets to take a 2 point lead at 121-119.  After Stackhouse
tied the game at 121, Day scored a basket and was fouled, but (at a
critical juncture as it would have put the Celts up by three with 60
seconds left) missed the free throw (123-121).  On the next
possession, Day overran Rex Walters and left him open for a three
which gave Philly the lead at 124-123.  Walker scored on the next
play, but the Celts fouled Iverson to give the lead back (126-125).
Marty Conlon got a pretty good look on the next possession, but missed
the 19 foot jumper and Iverson hit another throw to boost the Sixer
lead to 127-125.  Dee Brown took a three pointer with about 4 seconds
left, but missed and the Celts were unable to get another shot off.
Sixers win 127-124.
     An amazing loss for the Celtics.  They took a mind-boggling 27
more shots than the Sixers (one less free throw), but they shot only
.417 to the 6ers .545 and .667 at the free throw line to .806.  The
Celts had 18 steals and caused 29 Philadelphia turnovers to 16
turnovers of their own.  They also had 27 offensive rebounds to the
Sixers 11 (in fact they had 27 offensive rebounds to their own 22
defensive boards).  But of course with that large a field goal
shooting percentage the Sixers outrebounded the Celts by 7.  One of
the big differences in this game and the last 6 or so that the Celts
have played, is that the Sixers were able to keep the Celts from
capitalizing on the turnovers and offensive rebounds.

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Day, Fox, Williams, Walker
         Sixers- Iverson, Walters, Stackhouse, Weatherspoon, Cage

Players- Wesley- Played 49 of the 53 minutes.  Shot 8-16 for 24
points, 11 assists, 7 boards and 2 turnovers.  Iverson outscored him
by 2, but Wesley played the better game overall.  In the second
period, Iverson dribbled the ball way out to his left and Wesley tried
to swipe at it.  As soon as he did, Iverson crossed over to his right
hand and was gone.  Willie May (the Sportschannel sideline guy/clown)
dubbed the move "Reach and Teach".  Iverson tried it again in the 4th,
but Wesley wouldn't bite a second time.

Williams- Another pretty active game as Eric had 20 points on 7-19
shooting, 9 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals, also 4 turnovers.  Did a
pretty good job against Weatherspoon.

Day- generally a very nice game.  27 points including 10 in the last 7
minutes of the game.  Shot 9-19 (including 5-7 from 3 point range).
Also had 6 boards, 3 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals in 31 minutes.  He
also made a couple of bad mistakes down the stretch (in keeping with
his general policy of not favoring either team by too much).
    =20
Walker- 19 points and 11 rebounds (including 8 offensive) in 38
minutes.  Seemed a little overexitable tonight.  After Stackhouse beat
him in the second period, it appeared that he was going to rap
Stackhouse on the top of his head with his (Antoine's) fist.  For some
odd reason the refs (who were kind to the Celts, on the whole) called
a double technical on the Walker and Stackhouse.  Then (according to
Willie May) he and Wesley were screaming at each other during the 4th
quarter  (I don't have any more info than that).

=46ox- Maybe his worst game of the year.  3-13 from the field, 6 points,
1 rebound, 2 assists and 4 steals.  He just got killed by Stackhouse,
although in the second half when M.L. put him on Weatherspoon,  he did
a considerably better job.  He fouled out with about 3 minutes to go
in the OT.

Dee- with the Sixers essentially playing 3 guards and Fox unable to
handle Stackhouse, Brown got 40 minutes tonight (3rd on the team).
Although he was not particularly accurate from outside he did drive to
the basket several times on Rex Walters with good success (I know
Walters is more than a little slow, but Dee should do this against
everyone).  Shot 7-18 and had 4 boards, 6 assists and 7 steals!

Conlon- Played well with 12 points and 10 rebounds in 27 minutes.  He
is so much more productive if he hits a couple of jumpers at the start
of the game.

Szabo- Played for 3 minutes, and didn't do much.=20

Coaching- I thought that M.L. got outcoached by Johnny Davis tonight.
Davis went with the three guard lineup, and although it was apparent
pretty early that Fox couldn't guard Stackhouse (who had 21 in the
first half and a new career high of 38 in the game), M.L. didn't
respond with his own three guard lineup (Brown, Wes and Day) until
well into the third period.  The three Sixer guards scored 91 between
them (though they combined to play 150 minutes).
     I think that M.L. was trying something new tonight.  Rather than
trying (futilely) to press for the entire game, the Celts played
fairly standard defense for most of the game and only pressed for
fairly short periods of 2 or 3 minutes in length.  Given the short
bench this is probably a necessity.  But the Celts were too relaxed
during the non-pressing periods and made it easy for the Sixers to
score.

The Celts record is now 9-28.  They play again Friday against the
Magic.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com