Nets Top Celts: New Jersey 100-Boston 91

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	You know the end is near.  It's been obvious for a while that
many NBA teams come to play the Celts with less than their full
effort, figuring (very often correctly) that they can win the game
with less.  Today the New jersey Nets (owner of a proud 20 -46 record)
not only thought that they could get away with less than a full effort
against the Celts, but they were right!  Actually it wasn't all of the
Nets who thought that way, mainly it was Sam Cassell, who absolutely
dominated this game down the stretch.
	Both squads started off the game extremely cold from the
field.  With 6:50 to go in the quarter the Nets held a 12-9 lead.
The Nets were extremely willing to run with the Celts, but the C's
were able to turn that to their advantage.  The Celts ended the period
with a 15-3 run to take a 32-24 lead.  Carr used 9 players in the
first quarter and got some effective running and pressing, towards the
end when Cassell was out.
	It was the Nets, though, who started strong in the second
quarter.  Marty Conlon scored the first 4 Celtic points of the period.
Unfortunately it took him about 4 minutes, and by that time the Nets
had come back to regain the lead .  The Nets extended their lead to
58-55, with about 2:00  left in the quarter, but the Celts scored the
last 7 points of the half (4 by Williams) to take the lead at 62-58
before the half.
	the Nets started the third strong as well, as they outscored
the Celts 13-7, to take a 71-69 lead.  M.L. brought Dee Brown in off
the bench for Fox, and Dee helped to accelerate the pace of the game.
The Celts responded with a 15-4 run of their own to build an 81-75
lead.   But Dee fouled Sam Cassell with the clock running out in the
period and the Nets pulled to within 4 at 81-77 at the end of the
quarter.
	The Nets held the Celts scoreless over the first 5 minutes of
the 4th quarter, and scored 10 of their own (6 by Cassell) to take an
87-81 lead.   The Celts scored 3 to pull to within 3 at 87-84, but the
Nets scored 7 more unanswered to push their lead to 10 at 94-84.
With Cassell powering the Nets offense and the Celts making some
costly turnovers, the C's running game disappeared.  Cassell scored 14
in the final period, as the Nets won by a final score of 100-91.
	The Celts reverted to their poor shooting ways for this game,
with a .391 field goal percentage (the Nets shot 5% over their season
average at .462).   The Celts also hurt themselves with a 20-29 at the
free throw line (after several excellent games in the last couple of
weeks), and they shot an incredible 3-20 from behind the arc.   The
Celts made the score as close as it was by pulling down 20 offensive
boards (to the Nets 10) and by causing 22 Nets turnovers (C's 17).

Lineups- Celts-Wesley, Fox, Williams, Walker, Szabo
                 Nets- Cassell, Jackson, Gill, Massenburg, Montross

Players- Williams- Hit for 29 points (9-18, 11-13 on FTs), 8 boards
and 5 assists in 40 minutes.  Made several very nice passes, and hit 1
jumper, but was generally reluctant to shoot from the outside.  Many
times in the game he turned down the jumper, and dribbled closer to
the basket to take his shot.  a disturbing trend developed at the end
of the game, as the refs began to ignore obvious fouls committed
against Eric, as though he had hit some kind of quota and couldn't go
to the line any more times.  By rights he should have taken 4 or 6
more free throws than he did.

Walker- Huge game off the offensive boards with 8.  Scored 22 points
(9-20) shooting and 13 boards in 43 minutes.  Still seemed to have
trouble exploiting his height advantage over smaller players (except
by gong to the boards, of course).  Most of his baskets came finishing
breaks.  His half court offense was pretty miserable.

Wesley- Pretty solid game as he scored 15 (6-10), but only had 5
assists and 3 steals in 34 minutes.  He couldn't guard Cassell down
the stretch when Cassell really applied himself.  I was left with the
impression that Cassell could have scored 50 points if he had
concentrated on his offense from the start.  The pecking order for the
point guard position in this coming year free agent sweepstakes was
pretty firmly established.

=46ox- Poor shooting game as he's not getting many good looks from
behind the arc, but is taking the shots anyway.  Was 0-5 from 3land.
Shot 4-14 and 4-8 from the line for 12 points.  Did have 4 boards and
5 assists in 34 minutes.  Did a fine job against Kendall Gill for most
of the game.

Brown- I though that Dee played a very good floor game today.  He only
scored 3 points (1-5), but had 8 defensive rebounds (several quite
emphatic) which he used to help push the ball downcourt and increase
the pace of the game.  He was really skying.

conlon- Marty was very offensive minded, but wasn't  hitting from
outside.  He drove on Tross and Klein several times and made them look
silly. Hhe's been trying his jumper from further out (20-22 feet), but
doesn't get enough lift from his legs, or extension with his arm to
get the ball to the basket from that range.

Day- As his minutes decrease his game is beginning to decline.  0
points (0-5) in 17 minute, 1 board and 4 personals.  He's looking
disoriented on the court.

Szabo- got into foul trouble early again and only played about 3
minutes in the first quarter.  Played most of the third period, and
didn't do too badly.  Scored 4 points and had 3 boards in 12 minutes.

Hamer/Hawkins/Lister- Played a total of 15 minutes and were generally
ineffective.

Coaching- More effective pressing and running today than  in any game
out of the last 7 or 8 weeks.  With Dee back, M.L. continues to spread
out the minutes, though he's having a hard time settling on any one
rotation.

The C's record is 13-57.  They play this Wednesday at Washington.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com