Hawks beat C's: Atlanta 100- Boston 91

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

Hi all,
	I'm not going to do a full blown recap on the game because 1)
I'm not in regular season shape yet, and 2) WSBK cut the broadcast
short, to show the Bruins game, with about 9 minutes to go in the 4th
quarter.
	The Celtics started off very slowly in the game (the Hawks led
early 13-2), but Pitino called a quick timeout, and got the C's to
taking somewhat more judicious shots.  From then on the team (which
had opened shooting 1-10) shot 43%, which certainly isn't terrific,
but is a vast improvement on the 29% from the first game.
	The C's actually built themselves a nice 59-50 lead early in
the 3rd quarter, based on a 17-5 run.  Lennie Wilkins called a
timeout, got his team refocused and from then on the Hawks solidly
outplayed the Celts, outscoring them 50-32 the rest of the way to take
the game.

Players- A.W.- Actually not that impressive a night.  Despite the 32
points and 12 boards, shot 13-30 and had 5 turnovers.  BUT, the
improvement in Toine's game over last season is astonishing.  His
jumpshot has continued to improve over what we saw from the 2nd half
of last season.  I think we all expected this, but it's good to see
the Walker worked hard during the off-sesaon.  But remember all those
crazy shots he took (especially in the first half of the season: I
remember commenting that 1/2 his offensive boards came off his own
crazy missed shots).  I thought that he would grow out of taking them.
Well he hasn't!  He still takes them, but now THEY GO IN!  I know it's
hard to believe, but all those spin shots and little hooks are
working.  The next challenge for Antoine is learning how to deal with
all the traps and doubleteams he's going to see because they're going
to be coming.

Billups-Just to be brutal, I have to say that for a point guard taken
3rd in the draft, this guy is way behind schedule (Yes, it's very
early).  The Celts played the T-Wolves in preseason last year and
Marbury looked much better than Billups does now.  He clearly has the
ability to drive to the basket (he made on real sweet move against
Mookie), but you wouldn't guess that he had ever played the point in
his life.  He doesn't display any playmaking ability at all. Only
played for 15 minutes.

Mercer- seemed to be a little more in the game than Billups, but
really didn't do anything to make you sit up and take notice.  Like
Billups was only in the game for 15, and did manage to hit a couple of
shots.

Mills-Hmmm...it seems to me that Mill's jump shot is a little
different than last year.  At least it looks awkward, and I don't
remember noticing that.  He didn't attempt any three's in this game at
all.  I also remember him making some nice drives to the basket
against the C's last year, but with Mutumbo on the court he wasn't
doing much of that either.

Knight-Hit some nice jumpers, but didn't do much else.  Early in the
game, the Hawks went after him in the low post with Mutumbo, and it
looked as though Travis might foul out of the game in the first 5
minutes, but Atlanta lost interest.  Certainly is not going to be much
of a barrier to the  better offensive centers in the league.
Interestingly, though, the C's didn't trap down to help him.  He and
AW are a little simpatico, though.  Toine fed him on an alley oop for
a nice jam, and they tried to hook up again later.  Travis should be a
good wingman on the break if the C's can ever get it up and going.

Dee- Got the start at the 2 guard spot, but didn't get much done.
Very much settling for the outside shot, and was, as usual, outmatched
against Steve Smith.

Dana- Had a nice little night for himself as he was going to the
basket.  Hit 4-8 and went to the FT line 7 times.  Nice job, but he's
still no point.  The Hawks didn't try to abuse him, probably because
Lennie already knows that Mookie can score on Dana at will.

DeClercq - Very much as advertised.  A gritty hustler, but lacks the
skills to be any more than a bench player.  He plays hard "D" and runs
the court well.

Bowen- whatever this guy has done to impress people, was not on
display last night.  He only got 14 minutes, and is most certainly not
any kind of NBA point guard.  Doesn't seem to have much of an outside
shot (and doesn't seem to think that he does).

Pervis- fouled out in 11 minutes.  He was very aggressively trying to
guard Mutumbo, but mostly kept fouling him.  Again the Celtics didn't
trap down, and Pervis just can't handle big guys by himself.  On the
good side, though, Pervis does look healthy, and seemed to shoot the
ball fairly well.  As usual we'll just have to keep out fingers
crossed.

Lorenzo Coleman- only  played 5 minutes, but definitely showed some
post skills and an ability to get to the offensive boards.  Much more
polished than you would expect for a project (miles ahead of Steve
Hamer, for example).  Didn't show any real toughness on the defensive
end though.

Edney- A waterbug and possibly the closest thing the Celts have to a
real point guard (which is scary).

Minor- Only got 4 minutes.  Trouble in River city?

Massenberg- 7 minutes and was pretty much invisible when he was on the
court.

Coaching- Pitino is very intense, and does a nice job of using
timeouts.  He clearly has the players thinking that they better be
playing hard.  The following things surprised me, though:

1) Although the Celtics press on every single possession, they don't
use the halfcourt trap much. They don't generate any steals off the
press, so that when they do cause a turnovers, it's usually a
traveling violation or an out-of-bounds.  So they still have to
execute in half court to score.

2) They don't run.  Well actually they run a lot, in the sense of
moving their legs real fast, but they don't make outlet passes to
advance the ball up the court and try to get an easy score before the
opposition defense gets settled.  When they do take a quick shot it is
usually a poor one.

3) not much 3 point shooting.  The team only took 8 (Walker and Barros
accounted for 7 of them).  Clearly this is partially to do with  the
new 3 point line, but I thought that the Knicks took more three point
shots than that, back in the 80's when Rick was there.  The Celts did
take an awful lot of shots between the college 3 line and the new NBA
arc though (which can't possibly be a good idea).

4) This isn't surprising, but it's not a good thing.  The Celts are
fouling a lot.  The Hawks went to the line 54 times (the Celts went 31
times).  That probably translates into a 6 point disadvantage.  In
fact the Hawks scored 19 more points from the line than the Celts, but
most of that was due to superior free throw shooting.

All in all, Pitino has his guys playing very hard, but doesn't seem to
have made much progress in instilling his system yet.  I think it's a
fair guess that the early part of the regular season will be rough (as
many have predicted).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com


Atlanta Hawks 100, Boston Celtics 91

BOSTON (91)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Walker          38 13-30   3-4  2-12  3  5   32
Mills           29   2-6   0-0   1-7  1  3    4
Knight          27  4-10   2-2   1-3  1  5   10
Brown           33   1-5   2-4   0-3  3  2    4
Barros          25   4-8   7-7   0-4  1  2   16
Bowen           14   2-5   0-0   1-3  1  3    4
DeClercq         9   1-3   3-6   1-2  0  2    5
Billups         15   1-1   0-0   0-0  2  1    2
Mercer          15   2-4   1-2   0-0  1  1    5
Ellison         11   2-3   0-0   1-5  0  6    4
Edney            8   0-3   2-2   0-0  2  2    2
Coleman          5   1-4   0-2   4-5  0  2    2
Massenburg       7   0-1   1-2   2-4  0  1    1
Minor            4   0-1   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         240 33-84 21-31 13-49 15 35   91
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.393, FT-.677. 3-Point Goals:
4-8, .500 (Walker 3-4, Brown 0-1, Barros 1-3).
Team rebounds: 10. Blocked shots: 4 (Mills 2,
Walker, Knight). Turnovers: 17 (Walker 5, Knight
3, Brown 2, Mercer 2, Bowen, Coleman, Edney,
Ellison, Minor). Steals: 5 (Brown 2, Walker 2,
DeClercq).


ATLANTA (100)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Corbin          23   4-9   5-6   1-7  0  4   13
Henderson       20   1-5   0-0   1-6  0  1    2
Mutombo         26   2-5 11-16  3-14  0  4   15
Smith           31  5-13   8-9   0-2  1  5   18
Blaylock        38  5-11   2-3   1-3  9  1   12
Miller          21   3-6   5-6   3-8  0  1   11
Bond             6   1-2   0-0   0-1  0  2    2
Brown           28   5-7   5-8   0-4  3  3   15
Crawford        12   0-3   2-2   1-3  1  1    2
Gray            24   4-8   1-2   0-1  1  1    9
Recasner        10   0-2   1-2   0-0  1  0    1
Laettner         1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         240 30-71 40-54 10-49 16 23  100
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.423, FT-.741. 3-Point Goals:
0-7, .000 (Smith 0-2, Blaylock 0-4, Bond 0-1).
Team rebounds: 8. Blocked shots: 6 (Brown 3,
Mutombo 2, Blaylock). Turnovers: 15 (Blaylock 5,
Gray 2, Henderson 2, Smith 2, Crawford, Mutombo,
Recasner). Steals: 4 (Blaylock 2, Brown, Corbin).
____________________________________________
Boston             18   24   27   22  -   91
Atlanta            24   21   21   34  -  100
____________________________________________
Technical fouls: None. Flagrant fouls: None.  A:
7,200. T: 2:21. Officials: Don Vaden, Mark
Wunderlich, Tony Brothers.