Milwaukee 103- Boston 98

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The New, new-look Celts were on display tonight, and in many
respects the results were edifying.  Walter McCarty got the start, and
seemed to inject the entire team with boundless energy and enthusiasm.
He'd be worth having on the court, even if he didn't do anything else
(and he displayed  some very effective offense, in addition).  In the
end, though, substance triumphed over style, and the Bucks won on the
strength of strong games by Glenn Robinson and Ray Allen, despite the
absence of Hill and Brandon.

	(My cable company is still in it's preseason shake down period
and was unable to get the Celt's up on Sportschannel until 10 minutes
into the first period: When the game did finally appear the score was
22-18 in favor of the Bucks).  McCarty made some nice offensive moves,
scoring 7 points in the first quarter.  The Celts trailed at the end
of the 1st period 28-24.

	The Celts opened the 2nd with 6 unanswered points to take the
lead 30-28.  Massenburg came into the game and had his first stretch
of effective play in any of the games that I've seen.  The Bucks
managed to retake the lead at 37-34.  With Ray Allen and Glenn
Robinson back into the game the Bucks went on a 19-7 run to push their
lead to 53-41.  The Celts mounted a mini-rally at the end of the
period to pull to within 8 (55-47).

	The C's opened the 2nd half with Toine, McCarty, TK, Mercer
and Barros.  This unit was extremely effective together and quickly
pulled the Celts to within 1 point on the strength of a 13-6 run.  The
passing and scrambling defense from this group was impressive.
The Bucks reasserted themselves toward the middle of the period and
got the lead back up to 6 at 70-64.  Chauncey Billups probably played
his most effective segment of the preseason as he put up 7 points over
the last 4 minutes of the period.  The C's tied the score with at 77,
but Tim Brough hit a 3 on the last Bucks [possession to give them as
80-77 lead heading into the 4th.

	Billups continued to play well in the 4th scoring another
basket and feeding Knight for a nice jam.  Dana Barros drove to the
basket to tie the game at 89.  With 2:30 left in the game, Glenn
Robinson jammed to give the Bucks a 3 point lead 97-94.  On the next
possession Knight took a rather wild 3, but made up for with a really
nice block of Ray Allen.  The Celts got to within a point at 97-96 and
then at 99-98.  The Celts couldn't score again, though, and the Bucks
preserved their unbeaten preseason record, 103-98.

	The Celts shot reasonably well tonight, hitting 35-68 from 2
pints range and 22-27 form the line.  Unfortunately they stook 17
three's and only converted on 2 of them.  They did very well in the
hustle categories with 18 offensive boards and 12 steals, but lost
most of that momentum with 23 turnovers.


Lineups:
Celts: Barros, Mercer, Walker, McCarty, Knight
Bucks: Perry, Allen, Robinson, Curry,  Johnson

Players
McCarty: A great debut for McCarty.  I expected quickness, athleticism
and defense and McCarty fulfilled those expectations.  In addition, he
has a much better jumper than I expected, and is a pretty good passer.
He also puts the ball on the floor well.  Walter has a bit of a funny
jump shot, in that he really doesn't get the ball up on his
fingertips, but shoots it off the palm of his hand.  It kind of looks
like a George Gervin release (for those of you who remember back that
far).  Pitino made the point in his post game press conference that
McCarty makes a big difference in the defensive scheme in that he can
help with the press at mid-court and still get back to the baseline in
time to play effective half court defense.  Pitino played McCarty for
42 minutes, and got 17 pts, 5 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block.


Dantae Jones: Love his first name.  2/10,  0 assists in 15 minutes of
playing time.  Very athletic, but seems to be in search of a brain at
this point.  Heinsohn reported that Pitino was yelling "Take good
shots" after Dontae released the ball.

Toine: played 35 minutes, shot 9-17, scored 23 pts, 10 boards and 5
assists.  Personally I thought that he wasn't touching the ball often
enough, especially when Billups was in the game.  Although Toine is
still turnover prone, the offense should be going through him, nearly
every half-court set.  Made a tremendous effort against Glenn Robinson
on defense down the stretch, though the results were not so edifying.

Billups: 10 pts, 6 assists and 3 turnovers in 18 minutes.  Chauncey is
getting more comfortable, and displayed a dazzling crossover dribble
(though he was being guarded by Jeff (NOGUARD) Nordgaard at the time).
There was even a nanosecond, when he was cruising down the lane on a
penetration, when he reminded me of Tiny Nate.  Still a long way to
go, but you can begin to see why folks were high on him.

Knight: The Celtics best moment of the night, were when Walker,
McCarty and Travis were on the floor together.  They seem to play
quite well together (and of course, Travis, as well as the two
Kentuckians, played in a system like this in college).  Had 10 points,
3 boards and 2 blocks in 17 minutes, as he was plagued by foul trouble
in the first half.  Sown the stretch, he made several very
questionable decisions, especially launching 3's with a fair amount of
time on the clock.  Also lost the ball (tho the refs should have given
it back to him).  The lack of a real point guard showed down the
stretch.

Mercer: Quiet night for Ron, with 8 points and 1 assist in 32  minutes
of playing time.  Managed not to get toasted to badly by Ray Allen.

Barros: Only played 11 minutes and shot 1-6. Was on the floor for the
C's rally at the start of the 3rd period.

Massenberg: came in and played well in the second quarter, but went
back into his shell the rest of the game.  Ended up with 7 points, 3
boards in 23 minutes.

Bowen: very impressive on defense, seemed energized by McCarty's
presence on the floor.  8 points and 2 steals in 19 minutes.

Dee: Forgotten man.  Had 2 pts. and 3 turnovers in just 8 minutes of
playing time.

Pervis: 4 fouls in 8 minutes.  For all intents and purposes a DNP.
I think that Pervis is a reactive player on defense, and I wonder if
he'll ever be able to keep his fouling under control in this system.

DeClercq: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

Brooks, Thomas, Edney, Minor: Are these guys with the team or not?
=20
Coaching: I'm sure that Pitino is really juiced after this game.
Although, given the absence of Brandon and Hill, it's hard to say that
the Celts played that much better than they did a week ago in Green
Bay, the difference in energy level is tremendous.  You can certainly
see that if Rick can come up with 12 players who fit his system well,
the Celts would be the most exciting team in the league.  Of course,
whether they would be the best is another question.  So far guys who
fit are- Toine, McCarty, Knight, Bowen, Mercer.  Maybe's are Barros,
Jones, Billups, Brown.  Probably not's are Pervis, DeClercq and
Massenburg. Of course that hard part, will be finding enough big guys
who can play this style.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com



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