Hornets Sting Celts in OT: Charlotte 122- Boston 121

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

*** Disclaimer- the Bruins were playing tonight and preempted the ***
*** Celt's broadcast on WSBK.  So I had to listen to the RealAudio***
*** rebroadcast (the Charlotte annoucing team), on ESPN.  They***
*** had some technical probelms at the end of the overtime, and***
*** I'm a little sketchy on the details.  I'd welcome additional***
*** comments. =20

	The Celts lose another close one, bowing to a magnificent
effort by the Hornets front line, as Glen Rice scored 48 and Anthony
Mason had a triple double.  They had a lead with 35 seconds to go in
regulation, when Glenn Rice hit a 24 foot three pointer to tie the
game.  The Celts had a chance to win in regulation, but Wesley missed
a three.  Again they had the ball with 23 seconds to go in overtime to
take the lead, but Vlade Divac tipped the ball away from Eric
Williams.  Mugsy Bogues (the greatest on again-off again player in the
NBA since Bill Walton) did not play tonight.
	The Celts got off to a quick start, and after a 5 point
possession (Walker scored and was fouled, missed the free throw, szabo
got the rebound and Fox hit a three) they led 10-6.  The Hornets went
on a 12-2 run and took an 18-12 lead, midway through the period.  The
Celts got Conlon and Day into the game and they helped the Celts to
respond with a 13-7 run to finish the quarter with a 29-27 lead.
	Todd and Marty continued their strong play at the start of the
second and led the Celts to an 18-9 run for an 11 point lead (47-36).
Dave Cowens called a timeout and tried to get his guys straightened
out.  Temporarily they responded and got the C's lead down to 3 at
54-51.  With Donald Royal trying to guard Williams, Eric abused Royal
and led the Celts to a 62-55 lead going into halftime.
	Surprisingly, the Hornets did not start the third period fast,
as the Celts actually extended the lead to 11 points again at 69-58.
=46inally (as expected) the Hornets got it in gear, and went on a 13-2
run to tie the game at 75 apiece.    Rick Fox, who had been quiet up
till this point, got his offence into place, hit a couple of shot and
led the Celts back into the lead.  The C's led by 5 at the end of the
quarter 88-83.
	The Hornets whittled the Celts lead down through the early
stages of the 4th quarter, and finally managed to tie the C's at 93-93
with 8:30 remaining in the game.  Rick Fox capped a 7-0 Celtic run
with a three at the 4:37 mark, and it looked momentarily as though the
Celts might actually have control of the game at 105-97.  NAH!
Del Curry and Rice (18-27 in the game)  hit consecutive threes to tie
the game again at 107-107 (2:48).   With the score tied at 109,  Rice
hit 1 of 2 free throws to give the Hornets a 110-109 lead (1:43).
Eric Williams converted two free throws and then Antoine Walker drove
to the basket and scored to put the Celts up 113-110, with 35 seconds
left.  Rice lost his man off an Anthony Mason screen and drilled a 3
pointer from 24 feet away to tie the game with 21 seconds remaining on
the clock.  The Celts got the ball to Wesley and ran an isolation for
him against Tony Smith.  Wesley, who had be using Smith whenever he
felt like it throughout the game, was unable to drive and had to
settle for a three pointer which missed.   The refs put .4 seconds
back on the clock and the Hornets tried a miracle inbounds play, but
couldn't get anything going.  OVERTIME.
	After the Hornets had gotten on on top to a 117-115 lead. Fox
hit a seemingly huge three to give the Celts their first lead of the
overtime period at 18-117 (3:05 left).  A couple of plays later Tony
Smith fouled Wesley, but David only hit one of the two free throws
(Celts up 119-117 2:00 left).  With 1:00 left Rice hit a jumper to
give the Hornets back the lead with 120-119.  On the next play the
Hornets doubled off conlon.  The C's got the ball to Marty and he
drove to the basket to give the Celts a lead, 121-120 with 48 seconds
left.  But Smith broke free for an open layup and the Hornets had the
lead back (122-121).   Smith fouled Todd Day on the next play, but the
refs ruled that it wasn't a shooting foul (I guess), and the Celts set
up to go to Eric Williams for the last shot.  Divac stole the ball
away from Williams though, and won the game 122-121.
	The Celts had another decent shooting night, hitting .478 from
the field and .444 from three point range.  As usual, though, the
Hornets shot better at .540 from the line.  The Celts parlayed 3 more
offensive rebounds and an advantage in the mysterious team rebound
category, to take 5 more shots from the field than the Hornets and to
go to the line 9 more times.  With yet another close loss the Celtics
record in games decided by less than 5 points is 3-17.

Lineups-Celts-  Wesley, Fox, Williams, Walker, Szabo
                Hornets- Smith, Pierce, Rice, Mason, Divac

Players- Wesley- virtually got the night off, as he only played 51 out
of a possible 53 minutes.  Scored 16, on 5-12 shooting, 7 boards, 9
assists nd 2 steals.  The Charlotte broadcasters insisted that the
Celts started off the game with Wesley guarding Glenn Rice.  I don;t
know if they were smoking or what?

Williams- Nice evening for Eric, as he scored 26 (9-20) had 7 boards
and 2 assists.  One thing I didn't get from listening to the broadcast
was how the Celts dealt with the defensive assignments on the front
line.  I thought that Walker was guarding Mason most of the time, so I
really don't know if Williams had Rice for big chunks of the game or
what.

Walker- 20 points (9-16), 8 boards, and 7 assists (6 in the first
quarter).    Also 4 turnovers.  Was 1-2 for 3 land.  He almost got
into it with Rice at one point,and the Charlotte announcers were
expecting a double technical, but the refs just called a foul on
Walker.

=46ox- Poor shooting night a 5-16 (tho 4 of them were treys so the math
isn't that bad).  Hit some huge shots down the stretch, as most of his
offense (13) came in the second half and the OT.  Seemed at various
points to be guarding nearly everyone on the court.

Day- Had a very hot first half, but dropped off in the second.  Scored
18 points in 34 minutes, but shot just 6-14.  Had 14 of his points in
the first half.

Conlon- Another very strong game by Marty as he had 15 points on 6-9
shooting, and 9 rebounds in 29 minutes of play.  I know that when
Marty first showed up on the C's roster I was pretty sceptical about
his ability to do anything other than hit a 14 foot jump shot, but he
is a far better player than I ever suspected (that doesn't mean that
he's good, just that my opinion of him was extremely low).  Definitely
worth the league minimum.

Szabo- The Charlotte guys were making fun of Szabo, but actually Brent
played OK.  Had 5 points and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes.

Hamer- A stealth appearance as he played for 4 minutes, had 2 rebounds
and 4 points.

Coaching- Another good effort by the Celts and another failure of
execution in crunch time.  My personal theory is that the C's coaching
staff has had to spend so much time teaching these guys the basics,
that they've never had time to work on the execution of plays that
they may only use half a dozen times a year, but make so much
difference down the stretch in important games.  That, plus the Celt's
lack of defense, has pretty much killed them in the close ones.

Opposition Players of Note: Divac/Mason- did you know that Vlade Divac
just turned 29 years old? (Mason is more than a year older).  These
two combined for 42 points, 32 rebounds, 21 assists, 5 steals and 4
blocks.  Do you think that Cowens would be up for coach of the year if
the Hornets till had L.J. and Kobe Bryant (or whomever they would have
taken with that pick)?=20

This game makes the C's record 12-48 (for a crisp .800 losing
percentage).  They have the Knicks at home tomorrow night.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com