Sixers Beat Celts: Philly 113-Boston 105

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	This was pretty much a no-show game for the Celts with the
exception of Antoine Walker, David Wesley and Rick Fox.  Walker
established a new career high with 37 points, but the rest of the
Celt's offense was moribund.  The Sixers led by as much as 29 halfway
through the third quarter.  While the C's got the lead down to under
double digits just before the end of the game, it was under Philly
control nearly the whole way.
	The Celts, especially Antoine Walker, got of to a good start.
The Celts jumped out to a 7-2 lead 3:00 minutes into the game.  Off of
three's (2 by Walker, 1 by Fox), the Celts extended that lead to
18-10, with 6:00 to go.   The C's, who had been running well up until
this point began to lose their focus and the Sixers began to get it
together on offense.  The Sixers put together a 15-6 run (8 points by
Scott Williams) to take a 27- 24 lead into the second quarter.
	Carr went heavily to his bench to start the 2nd (the C's
started Walker, Hawkins, Conlon, Day and Szabo).  Day made a couple of
nice plays to push the C's to a 31-29 lead.  Johnny Davis called a
timeout and told his guys something (you wonder why he had to save it
all season just for this crucial game against the Celts).  The
instructions worked as the Sixers went on a 22-2 run over the next
5:00 minutes, build a 51-33 lead..  Most of the offense came courtesy
of Lucious (?) Harris, who scored 14 points in the quarter.  In the
meantime the Celts offense fell apart.  They started to settle for
quick, outside shots and couldn't get to the offensive boards.  With
the Sixers scoring on nearly every play, they weren't getting any
running opportunities, either.  M.L. got desperate and started to
throw any one in a green jersey into the game.  The Celts did rally
slightly at the end of the half to score 7 of the last 9 points and
cut the Sixers lead to "just" 21 at 64-43.
	If anything the Celts offense was even more woeful at the
start of the third, as they were able to score just 5 points in the
first 6 minutes of the period.  They fell behind by a score of 77-48.
=46inally M.L. put the press on (first time in the game) and the C's
seemed to waken out of their stupor.  They outscored the Sixers 23-8
over the last half of the quarter, with Walker scoring 10 and Fox
chipping in for 8.  Unaccountably Davis took Iverson out of the game
in the middle of this run.  The Celts trailed by 14 going into the
final quarter, 84-71.
	If the Celts could have come out at the start of the 4th the
way they finished the 3rd they might have made a real game of it.  But
instead the Sixers scored the first 6 points of the quarter (Spoon was
really abusing Marty)  to push their lead back up to 20 (91-71).
David Wesley began to get his game going, but the C's still trailed by
18 halfway through the period (102-84).   The Celts scored 6 straight
to cut the lead to 12 at 102-90.  The closest the C's could come was
the final score, following a meaningless Todd Day three, 113-105.
	Of course the statistics in this game reflect a fairly even
contest (which it was definitely not).   The Celts shot .471 to the
Sixers .493.  The Celts did get outrebounded (12-15 offensive,
actually tied on total at 43).  The Celts had one more turnover
(15-14).  Tthe C's shot a pretty respectable 8-19 from beyond the arc.
=09

Lineups-Celts- Wesley, Fox, Williams, Szabo, Walker
           76ers- Iverson, Stackhouse, Weatherspoon, Coleman, Williams


Walker- This would be a pretty good best game of a career.  Walker
scored 37 (15-30), was 3-5 on three-pointers, had 14 boards (6
offensive), 6 assists, 1 steal, 1 blocks and only 1 turnover.  He hit
the jumper well, as he hit a nice pull up from 17 feet as well as the
3 bombs. The rest of his points came of the break or off offensive
boards, as he was relatively ineffective off the drive or shooting the
turnaround in half court.  Late in the game, grabbed a rebound,
dribbled the length of the court, around the whole Sixer team and
jammed.

Wesley- although David scored 24 points in this game, I would say that
he had a poor game.  He shot 8-15, had 2 boards, 5 assists and 4
turnovers.  Early in the game, he seemed to want to take the ball to
Iverson (who played more under control than Wesley, tonight).  Some of
the better point guards in the league have rung up Iverson for some
serious numbers this year, and maybe the C's coaching staff thought
that Wesley could do the same.  What it did do was cause a lot of poor
shots as Wesley didn't actually score until the end of the second
quarter.  And it took the ball out of the hands of the C's best
decision maker on the break.  The Sixers got a lot of easy points in
this game after the C's blew a chance for an easy basket on one end,
and were immediately vulnerable for the  break on the other end.

=46ox- Nice solid game for Rick, as he scored 16 (6-12), 4 boards, 7
assists, 4 steals and 3 turnovers.  Did a solid job on Stackhouse, and
made several very nice passes.

Williams- His quietest game in a while.  I'm not quite sure why he
didn't get the ball more.  He scored 13 points on 5-10 from the field
and only got to the line 4 times.  He seemed to spend a lot of time on
the perimeter in this game, rather than on the low box.  Maybe the C's
were going to save that for the stretch, rather than waste it in the
first quarter like they usually do?

Day- Another brutal shooting night at 3-10.  I don't think that his
shot selection has been any worse recently, than it was in the middle
of the season, when he was stroking the ball relatively well.  His
score 9 points, grabbed three boards and had 2 assists in 25 minutes.

Conlon- quiet game for Marty also.  Just 4 points on 2-4 shooting and
1 board in 18 minutes.  Other than Walkers offensive boards the C's
didn't score much inside in this game.  The Celt's started the 4th
quarter with Conlon on Weatherspoon, and Spoon took the ball to Marty
with good success the first three Sixers possessions (when all chance
of the C's crawling back into the game was snuffed out). =20

Szabo- 0 points, but had 5 boards and 2 blocks in 14 minutes.  Had a
really nice block against Scott Williams, angling from behind him.

Hamer- Also had a couple of good moments as he scored 2 and had 4
boards in 11 minutes

Hawkins- Didn't play to badly and even did a decent job against
Iverson for a few moments.  Seemed strangely reluctant to shoot.  Once
=46ox hit him with a gorgeous pass, for what looked like an easy 4 foot
shot.  Instead he passed the ball to Lister for a 17 footer.  Michael
did have 2 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals in 9 minutes.

Lister- 4 boards and 0 points in 8 minutes. =20

Coaching- The C's really had a hard time executing on the break
tonight.  Sure they did get some easy shots out of it, but they should
have had far more.  Worse though, they went ahead and tired to take
the quick shot, even though it wasn't there, resulting in a lot of
easy Philly shots.  Carr is using a lot of players now, but he still
isn't pressing unless the Celtics fall far behind.  It just doesn't
make sense to use all those players and not press.

The Celts are now 13-59.  They are off until Tuesday, when they play
da Bulls.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com