Magic Spell Celts: Orlando 104-Boston 99

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	If you didn't already know which of these teams was in the
playoff hunt, you certainty wouldn't have been able to tell from this
game.  The Celts, who had been trailing by 5 at the start of the 4th
period, briefly held the lead at 99-98, with 2:15 to go in the game.
The C's out executed the Magic down the stretch, but the Celts missed
3 open three pointers and turned the ball over 3 times on unforced
errors.  Any of these, reversed might have won the game for the Celts
	Both team started out slowly on offense.  The Celts parlayed 6
early points by Eric Williams into a 11-9 lead midway through the
first period.   David Wesley got hot for the C's in the second half of
the quarter, but Darrell Armstrong came of the bench to give the Magic
a boost and help them to a 29-28 lead at the end of the period.
	The Celts had tied the game one third of the way through the
second quarter (38-38, when the Magic opened the first real lead of
the game with a 7-0 run (45-38).  The Celts went to the press and
Antoine Walker scored 8 straight for the Celts to make up most of the
deficit, but after Dee Brown hit a three to pull the Celts to within 3
at 54-51, the Magic scored the last 5 points of the half and led
59-51.
	The Celts got some more hot shooting form Wesley, to start the
third and went on a 14-4 run to take a 65-63 lead. The Celts built
their advantage up to 4 at 76-72.  The Heat ended the quarter with a
13-4 run (Armstrong and Penny) to take a 5 point lead into the final
quarter (85-80).
	The Celts slowly chipped away at the Magic lead throughout the
period and finally tied up the game on a Conlon jumper at the 4:40
mark.  After a Seikaly basket Dee made a great steal off Hardaway and
ran the length of the court for a layup to tie the game again at
97-97.  After Horace Grant went 1-2 at the line, Eric Williams drew
another foul and hit both free throws to give the C's their first lead
since midway through the third period at 99-98 (2:15 to go).  Rony
Seikaly backed Marty Conlon down for a hook shot to score the Magic's
last basket of the game (and their last good look thanks to solid
Celtic "D" down the stretch) with 2:00 to go.  On the next paly Fox
attempted a three from the top of the key, which bounced of the rim.
The Magic tried to go back to the Seikaly/Conlon matchup, but Marty
responded and forced Seikaly to a weak shot which missed.  On the next
play, Wesley passed to Conlon, who immediately threw the ball back to
Wesley to reverse the ball to the weak side.  Wesley couldn't handle
the hard pass and he was called for over and back, when he retrieved
it from the back court (1:07 left).  On the next possession the Magic
tried to go to Hardaway, but Fox denied him everything and the Heat
were forced into a desperation 30 footer to avoid a 24 second
violation.  With 39 seconds to go, the Celts called timeout and set up
a really nice play to get Williams the ball about 5 feet from the
basket, to get the shot or the foul.  Williams lost control of the
ball off his dribble and the Celts were denied another good
opportunity.  With just 20 seconds left the C's were forced to foul
and Grant hit both throws to give the Magic a 102-99 lead.  On their
(really) final opportunity, Dee Brown penetrated and pitched to Wesley
for a very good 3 point attempt that missed.  Todd Day tipped the ball
to Dee, who had drifted to the three point line, but Dee missed his
trey also.  The Magic secured the rebound and the C's fouled again.
Brian Shaw hit both free throws to establish the final score at
104-99.  The Celts did have a final possession but committed another
unforced turnover.
	The Celts best defensive effort in a while as the Magic shot
.458 from the floor to the Celts .425.  The Magic did hit 10-22 on
three while the Celts were just 5-19.  The C's continued their
excellent free throw shooting at 20-23.  In a reversal of a recent
trend the Celts recommitted to the boards and outrebounded the Magic
53-39 and 19-13 on the offensive boards.  But the Celts gave it back
in turnovers as they committed 19 to the Magic's 14.

Lineups- Celts- Wesley, Fox, Williams, Walker, Szabo
                Magic- Shaw, Hardaway, Scott, Grant, Seikaly

Players- Walker- A very impressive game for Walker.  While he didn't
shoot well, he did the biggest thing that a franchise player needs to
do and that was to adjust his game to give the team what they needed.
After the recent problems on the boards, Walker set a new career high
with 21 tonight, 18 defensive (out of a total of 47 on the C's
defensive board).  Unfortunately for the Celts, Antoine was 8-24 from
the field, though I would not say that his shot selection was bad.  In
the first half particularly, Walker took his defensive boards and
pushed the ball up the court numerous times to start the break.  He
scored 19 points and had 5 assists (also 4 turnovers) in 41 minutes.
Briefly in the second quarter M.L. went to a small lineup with Antoine
at center.  It worked quite well but M.L. didn't go back to it.

Williams- 17 points on 5-11 from the field and 7-8 from the free throw
line in just 29 minutes.   Threw some wonderful fakes at the Magic,
who had no one to guard him.  So why the short minutes?

Wesley- 7-18 from the field for 19 points, but had just 3 assists (and
4 turnovers) in 37 minutes.  Walker pushed the ball up after the
offensive rebound so often that it cut into Wesley's assist total. =20

=46ox- tremendous defensive job on Penny down the stretch.  Really held
Penny without a look at the basket over the last 3 minutes.  Penny
didn't score in the final period and only took 1 shot.  Fox had 12
points on 5-10 shooting and hit the boards himself with 7 rebounds in
35 minutes.  shot 0-4 from behind the arc.

Conlon- Scored 10 points on 3-7 shooting and also had 10 boards in 31
minutes.  Played very hard and was effective against the larger
Seikaly.

Brown- Played well with 10 points and 4 assists in 26 minutes of
playing time.   Drove effectively several times and either scored or
dished.    The question, though, is whether he justifies taking
minutes from Williams?

Day- got 23 minutes, as Carr felt he had to have a tall guard to
counter Hardaway for the entire game.  Did not shoot the ball for the
first 8 minutes he was in the game!  Ended up with 7 points on 3-6
shooting and 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Szabo- Got called for 3 fouls very early in the game trying to muscle
Seikaly.  Scored 2 points, and had 2 boards in 8 minutes.

Hamer/Lister- got ten minutes between them and scored 3 with 3 boards.

Coaching- This was a really interesting game on matchups.  And
frankly, Carr whipped Adabato's butt all over the court on them (I
wasn't impressed with the job Richie did in this game at all).  The
Magic started out the game trying to post Brian Shaw on David Wesley!
Just useless.  Carr got Walker onto Seikaly a few times and just
killed him.  The only thing that you have to question about the C's
game plan was keeping Williams on the bench so long.  Right now he is
easily the C's most potent offensive weapon and the Celts have to get
him more looks than they did tonight.=20
	 Interestingly Penny didn't play the point all night long, as
Armstrong or Shaw were on the court for the entire game.  So the Celts
were never faced with the problem of having Wesley defend against a
taller , strong offensive player.  This was poor strategy on the
Magic's part.

Oppoosition Player of the Game- Darrell Armstrong- saved the Magic's
bacon tonight.  Scored 17 points, had 6 assists and 3 steals in 24
minutes.  Stripped Wesley and went in for an easy score in the second
quarter.  In the second half Wesley tried to do the same thing.  David
got the ball and headed for the basket, but Armstrong jumped in the
air at least a foot higher than Wes and blocked his shot.

The C's record is 13-54.   They visit the Hawks tomorrow evening.

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.com
 =20