The Buck Doesn't Stop in Green Bay (at least not last night): Milwaukee 118-Boston 96

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	Another preseason evening with more negatives than positives.
The Celts were out of this game by the end of the first quarter, and
excepting for 5 minutes around half time never were able to compete
with the new-look Bucks.  Antoine Walker only played 13 minutes in the
game.  He came out early in the 2nd quarter and did not return.  Bruce
Bowen was injured while successfully drawing a charging foul from
Bucks rookie Jeff Nordgaard .

Positives-Knight- Continues to be the 2nd most consistent Celtic,
after Toine.  Had 16 points and 8 boards in 26 minutes.  Did a good
job on the defensive boards tonight.  I can't say that Milwaukee has a
lot of guys who go aggressively to the offensive board, but Travis had
things under control when he was in there.  And of course continues to
shoot the ball well from the outside and run the floor.  Pitino has
all of his big men out front on traps a lot and they seem to have a
lot of trouble getting back into the play, once the ball goes over
their heads.

Edney-Was responsible for the only decent Celtic's stint of thegame as
he came in late in the 2nd quarter, and then started the 3rd.  When he
came in the Bucks were leading by 23 and the C's got the lead down to
13 early in the third period.  Tyus had 9 points and 3 assists in his
12 minutes of playing time. Hhe was able to break down the defense and
get to the basket and score, or dish off.  He was particularly
effective playing with Knight and

Chris Mills- who had his best night so far as a Celt.  Mostly thanks
to Edney, who fed him for several 18 foot jumpers of penetration and
really got Mills od the snide (?).  Clearly Mills needs a point guard
to help him get some shots.  Chris scored 13 points on 5-10 shooting
in 27 minutes.

Dee- close call if Dee is a pos or neg.  He scored 16 points on 6-10
shooting in just 22 minutes.  It seemed to me that when Dee was in the
game as the point, the offensive flow was poor, and that the press was
less intense.  May have been the guys he was in with though.  He did
have the Dee Brown bounce which usually means that he's going to paly
well.

Washes- Walker- 0nly played 13 minutes and really didn't get into the
flow of the game at all.

DeClercq- He hustles.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  That's the last time I'm
going to mention DeClercq and his hustle until he accompanies it with
some quality basketball.

Barros- only got 6 minutes.  Not enough time to have any impact at
all.

Massenburg- Sneaks into the wash category based on his 7 rebounds.
=46rom watching the game though, he seemed quite invisible.

Coleman/Cunningham- To little time in the game to make any comment.
Cunningham did come in and score a couple of quick basket, but I tend
to thing that was a fluke.

Negatives-  Billups- I suppose that this might be controversial, as
Chaunce scored 12 points in just 18 minutes and was 2-2 on threes
(both in ultra-mop-up time in the 4th).  But he continues to exhibit a
complete lack of point guard skills.  He doesn't have his head up when
he's bringing the ball down the court, and he rarely tries to pass the
ball to a teammate in position to score unless he's gotten himself in
trouble and is trying to bail himself out.  I would say his point
guard skills are about where David Wesley's were 3 years ago.  So if
he works as hard as Wesley, the C's should have a hell of player, just
in time to sign him to a big contract extension.

Mercer- Played 39 minutes tonight.  Shot 4-15 from the field, had 1
board and 3 assists.  Did have one real nice drive to the basket early
in the game, but other than that was ineffectual.

Minor-Can't seem to get any good looks at the basket in this setup
(also suffering from the lack of a point guard?).  And he's not good
on the press wither.  He's just not an instinctual defensive player,
and will take a great deal more time to catch on, if he does at all.

Ellison- Seemed out of control tonight.  He just appeared briefly, got
a couple turnovers and messed up the press a couple of times.  I don't
know if it's helpful to jerk him out of the game with just 7 minutes
of playing time though.

Coaching- Heinsohn & Cousy didn't give any indication that A.W. was
hurt so I assume that Pitino just wanted to look at other players
tonight.  There was a distinct change in the style of the tams play on
defense between the halves, as the Bucks shot 28 free throws in the
first half and just 9 in the second.  I don't know if that was a break
down in intensity or if Pitino told his guys to cut out the cheap
fouls.
	The Bucks just obliterated the press.  Ray Allen (who played
this style in college) was especially effective in making great
decisions.  The Bucks only had 11 turnovers in the game and the Celts
came up with just 5 steals.  I thought that the press did force the
Bucks to use a little more of the clock, and that the C's did cause a
couple of 24 second violations.
	The offense was also dreadful.  Actually the C's shot 32-70
(45%), but most of the success came in the 2nd half when the Bucks had
no reason to play any "D".   Except for the moments when Edney was in
the game the Celts were freelancing on their own.

Opposition- The Bucks looked pretty good tonight.  Of course the Bucks
lead the NBA in fast starts followed by collapses, so that should be
no real surprise.  I didn't think that Brandon and Hill played all
that well  (Brandon had 17 points but it was all individual stuff:
he's not running the team yet).  Ervin Johnson was a total non-factor.

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.com

p.s. The last quarter of the C's game got preempted for the Bruins
again.  Does anyone out there know which Celtic games are going to be
preempted this year?