Bulls Beat Celts: Chicago 117-Boston 106

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	After the effort (or lack thereof) on Sunday against the
Hawks, one felt fear and trepidation heading into tonight's game
against the Bulls.  The Celtics put up a pretty respectable effort,
though, and while they certainly didn't extend the Bulls, they kept
the game close well into the 4th quarter.  Inevitably, the Bulls
played about 5:00 minutes of concerted defense, which was enough to
put the Celts away.  In something of a shock (at least to me), the
Celts signed ex-Bull Stacey King to a ten day contract.  Antoine
Walker, despite the sprained ankle he suffered in the game on Sunday,
was able to play.
	The C's and the Bulls started off the game slowly on offense.
Scotty Pippen and Eric Williams carried the load for both teams early
as the Bulls took a 10-9 lead, 6:00 into the game.  Both teams began
to heat up as the quarter went on.  The Bulls built a 26-21 lead
before Antoine Walker hit a 3 to pull the C's within 2.  Williams
ended a 15 point quarter, with a conventional three point play to tie
the score at 29.  The Celts earned the tie on the basis of 7 steals
and the resulting fast break points.  The Bulls badly outshot them
from the field.
	The Bulls opened the second quarter by scoring on the first 7
possessions (7 points by Jason Caffey) to take a 45-33 lead.   Robert
Parish hit a turn around jump shot to put the Bulls up 16 at 53-37.
David Wesley took advantage of Steve Kerr at the point to score 7
points in the last 3:00 of the period and led the Celts back to within
8 (59-51) as the half ended.
	The Bulls scored on their first 4 possessions of the third
period to extend their advantage to 11 (68-57).  But Fox and Welsey
began to heat up from the field and the C's went on a 14-4 run.  After
consecutive treys by the two, the Celts had pulled to within 1 point
(5:44, 72-71).  With 3:53 left in the period, Eric Williams scored
another 3 point play, to give the C's the lead 80-78.  The Bulls ended
the period with a 6-2 run to take an 86-84 lead into the final
quarter.  Stacey King made his first appearance in a Celtic's uniform
late in the quarter.
	Briefly, the Celtics matched the Bulls basket for basket at
the start of the 4th quarter. With 9:00 minutes to go in the game the
C's were trailing 94-92.  The Bulls tightened up on defense, though,
and held the Celtics scoreless for the next 5:00 of the game.  The
Celts played decent defense themselves and were still only trailing by
9 after Walker hit a couple of free throws (103-94, 4:00).  The Bulls
threw another 8-2 run at the Celts (and Jordan passed John Havlicek on
the all time scoring list), to make the score 111-97.   M.L. pulled
his starters and the Bulls wrapped up the win 117-106.  King scored
his first basket as a Celt on the last play of the game.
	Despite all of Tommy's grousing about the refs, the Celts had
a big advantage in free throws with 35 to 20 for the Bulls,  and they
hit 30 out of the 35.  That wasn't nearly enough to make up for the
miserable Celtic's shooting (.402, Bulls .538), which was not really
attributable to the Bulls defense as the C's missed any number of easy
shots..  The Celts got 13 offensive rebounds to the Bulls 16 and had
only 13 turnovers to the Bulls 17.  Off course the Bulls out rebounded
the Celts by far, in total 51-37.

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Fox, Williams, Walker, Szabo
                 Bulls- Harper, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Longley

Players- Williams- had a tremendous first half with 21 points.  He
looked very active and quick, scoring on any of the Bulls who tried to
guard him one on one.  Only scored 6 in the second half as the Bulls
selectively doubled down on him.  Ended the game with 27 points on
8-10 shooting (and 11-14 form the line).  He only took 2 shots in the
second half.  Also had 7 boards and 2 steals in 39 minutes.

Wesley- got off to a very slow start in the game.  Scored 21 points on
6-19 shooting (7-7 from the line), 5 boards, 7 assists and 5 steals.
He only hit a couple of jumpers, but had good success late in the game
driving to the basket against Steve Kerr.  Played 42 minutes.

Walker- Tommy was speculating that Walker played tonight despite the
ankle sprain, because the C's were playing his hometown team.  If
Antoine thought that his friends and family would be impressed by his
effort I think that he was mistaken.  He scored 20, on 8-22 shooting,
but did have 9 boards, 6 assists and 4 turnovers in 43 minutes (I
don't know how bad a sprain it could be if he played that much).
Pippen really gave him a tough time on the defensive matchup as Walker
couldn't keep up with Scotty running around on the perimeter and keep
him from driving, also.  Walker did have one really nice drive against
Pippen, as he made a nice crossover 16 feet from the basket and blew
past Pippen.

=46ox- Started of the game slowly, but shot better in the second
quarter.  Took 10 three's in the game (hit 3).   Scored 19 points on
7-16, had 3 boards, 8 assists and 2 steals in 42 minutes.  He played
fairly well against Jordan and made it hard for Michael to get the
ball.  Once Jordanl got the ball, though, it was a different story, as
Rick couldn't cover the drive and put enough pressure on Michael's
shot to cause him trouble.  Jordan shot 13-23, and the Bulls scored on
at least 3 of his other misses as the Celts had to help out on his
penetration, and the other Bulls took the opportunity to crash the
offensive boards.

Day- M.L. apparently thought that Fox was a better match up on Jordan
than Day, so that Day only played when Jordan was off the court, or
when the Bulls went to a three guard lineup.  Todd had a miserable
shooting, night, blowing 4 or 5 easy shots (several were point blank
lay ups).  Day scored 4 points (1-10) and had 2 steals in 16 minutes.
Day wasn't taking bad shots (only 2 of his shots were three's) he just
couldn't hit tonight.

Marty- scored 9 points (3-6) and had 5 boards in 27 minutes.  Made a
couple of nice plays against Rodman.  But Jason Caffey really
embarrassed him one on drive.

Szabo- 2 points, 4 boards and 2 steals in 11 minutes.  Played with
some real hustle especially in his stint in the second half.

King- got 5 minutes, and scored 2 points and had a rebound.  Walker
(who might have known King back in Chicago) seemed to be trying to get
him the ball to score at the end of the game.  He finally succeeded on
the last play.   I'm not sure I understand this pickup, but it can't
possibly hurt.

Hawkins, Lister, Hamer- Played for 15 minutes total.  Had 2 points and
3 boards.

Coaching- The team seemed to have regained it's equilibrium after the
debacle on Sunday.  Especially in the first quarter they played hard
and got the break going for some easy baskets.  If they had been able
to hit some of the  easy shots they missed they might have been able
to make the Bulls work for this one.

Opposition Players on Note- Parish- Got to play 8 minutes tonight.
Only scored 2 points, and had 2 boards.  Still looks active.  I think
that the Bulls are trying to find a little playing time for him, in
case they want to use him against some of the big guys in the
playoffs.  Though Jason Caffey (18 points, 7 boards) played more time
at center than Parish or Longley combined.

The C's record is 12-51.  They play at Dallas on Thursday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S. the Mavs just beat the Knicks 91-83 (!) .  That makes Thursdays
game critical ?!?
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