C's Worn OUT?: Philadelphia 116-Boston 101

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

             The Celtic's preseason ended on an inauspicious note, as
they were thoroughly handled by the 76er's.  Perhaps worse,  the
Celtics did carry out the game plan, causing 34 turnovers.  The Sixers
seemed to understand the dynamics of the press quite well though, and
were very determined in attacking the basket when the press failed.
The Sixers only scored 3 fewer baskets than the Celts despite taking
32 fewer shots (and much more than made up the difference at the foul
line).

	The two teams started out the game trading baskets, or to put
it more accurately, Antoine started out the game trading baskets with
the 6ers.  Walker scored 9 of the C's first 12 points as the score
stood at 12 apiece midway through the period.  With 3 minutes left in
the quarter, the score was still close (6'ers up 22-20).  With Dee
Brown in to play the point guard, the Sixers put a press on and scored
the last 8 points of the period to take a 30-20 lead.

	Tim Thomas, Allen Iverson and Mark Davis put on a show to open
the 2nd as the Sixers scored on their first 9 possessions, outscoring
the C's 18-10 and pushing their lead up to 18.  Iverson and Thomas
both put up some real highlight film stuff, as the Celts transition
defense was non-existant.  Pitino went to a Edney/Minor backcourt
which seemed to staunch the bleeding.  The Celts slowly chipped away
at the 6'ers lead and pulled to within 9 points at 55-46.  The Sicers
put on a last minute spurt to take a 62-49 lead at the half.  The
Sixers had that lead despite an astonishing 19 first half turnovers.

	The two teams continued to trade baskets throughout the first
portion of the 3rd quarter (and, for that matter the rest of the game:
C's used the same lineup to start the 2nd half as the game).  The
score stood at 73-60 with 7:00 minutes to go in the period when Brown
called a time-out.  Whatever Larry did, it caused his guys to go on a
12-5 run that put the 6's margin up to 85-65.  The C's made a little
bit on a comeback  late in the quarter, as they pulled to within 15
(94-79) on a DeClercq 3 point play!  Tim Thomas reasserted Philly's
dominance with a huge jam on a feed from Iverson to close out the
quarter with the 6''ers holding a 96-79 lead.

	The 4th quarter was a semi-organized garbage time.  The Celts
got to within 12 at 99-87, but the Sixers pulled away again and the
result was never remotely in doubt.  Finally the game just gave up and
expired of natural causes with the score at 116-101.

	The stats from this game are so topsy turvy that it's
difficult to make sense of them.  The Celts had 25 offensive rebounds
to the 6'ers 13, largley because the Celts missed so many more shots.
The Sixers actually had more offensive rebounds that the C's did
defensive (13-12).  The rebounding position was generally so chaotic,
as the C's scrambled to get back into the play after the press was
broken, that  neither team really had any advantage.   The Sixers took
51 free throws (made 41) while the C's only took 31 (19).  The Celts
also continued to hammer away from the 3 point line, but with little
effect (4-17).

Lineups:
Celts: Barros, Mercer, Walker, McCarty, Knight
Sixers: Iverson, Jackson, Stackhouse, Spoon, Coleman

Players:
McCarty: led the team in scoring with 18 points, and also chipped in
with 5 steals in 38 minutes.  Did not score in the first half.
McCarty is so thoroughly committed to the press that he is rarely in
any kind of position to help on the defensive boards, as he had a
amazing 1 defensive rebound (of course the whole darn team only had
13).  It will be interesting to see how Pitino manages the rebounding
situation with no dominate rebounder while playing the press.

Walker: After the fast start, he scored 17 points, with 10 boards and
3 assists in 26 minutes. I kinda felt that he was unenthusiastic in
the second half after he got the very limited minutes in the first
half.

Knight: Terrible shooting from the field.  He shot 3-12, counting a
couple of offensive rebound/score combinations.  He must have been 0-9
or 1-10 on his jumper.  In the latter stages of the game it looked as
though he was hesitant to take his shot.

Mercer: seemed out of his class tonight.  Had 7 points and 2 assists
in 17 minutes.  He doesn't have much of an athletic edge, compared to
the Philly guards, and (naturally, being a rook) is far behind them in
skill and savvy.

Dana: Got some good shots early in the game, tho they didn't drop.
Didn't get embarrassed by Iverson who seems to be trying to live down
his "shoot first, look for teammates later" rep from last year.  Dana
played 17 minutes, which is the most any of the C's played at the
point guard position.  I've heard of center by committee, but I have
my doubts about the principle as applied to the point guard postilion.
He did do a good job of drooping back into passing lanes after the
Sixer's got through the first line of the press and came up with 3
steals.

Billups: only got 12 minutes.  You might have thought that Pitino
would have matched Chaunce against Iverson to give him a bit of an
education, but it didn't work out that way.  Billups was 1-4 with 2
assists.

DeClercq: finally looked like a basketball player tonight.  Scored 9
points and had 3 boards in 17 minutes (before he fouled out).  Had a
three point play, and a vicious windmill jam in the 2nd quarter.

Jones: displayed some fabulous athleticism, along with some
questionable judgement, as he had 4 points, 4 personal fouls, 2
steals, a block and at least one goal tend.  Probably the fastest
player on the team.  Can he harness all that speed and hops?

Bowen: had 12 points and 3 steals in 21 minutes tonight.  His jumper
was going well, as he hit 5-9 from the field.  He has a funny little
habit of releasing his jumper just after the peak of his jump.  I'm
sure it has the effect of making his shot hard to block from in the
paint (which is where he seems to do most of his damage), since the
blocker almost always times his jump for the peak of the shooters
leap.  But it also limits the range on his shot, since he gets no help
from his legs.

Edney: Heinsohn was saying last night, that the Celtics might release
Edney (didn't they take him on in the first place as a package deal
with Mills?).  Mostly because his contract would taste the least bad,
when they have to eat it.  This would be unfortunate, as Edney is the
only Celtics who shows any real point guard skills.  He had 4 points,
4 assists, 3 steals and 0 turnovers in just 9 minutes of playing time.

Dee: 14 minutes tonight.  Played both the point and 2- which looks
like it will be his role with the team..  Shot 2-7and had 2 turnovers.
Still no sign that he's getting comfortable with this defense (in fact
Barros seems to be ahead of him on that score).

Cunningham: is still with the team, apparently, as he played for 8
minutes.  Couldn't tell for sure, though.

Minor: Got 13 minutes, mostly in the 4th quarter.  Scored 7 points on
3-7 shooting, but had 3 turnovers.  It would be nice if Greg could get
with the program defensively, since he is the most competent of the
Celtics's 2's on offense. I'm sure he won't see much playing time
until he get's it.

Massenburg: Boy, it would be a pity to see on of the other C's get cut
from team so that Massenburg can stay.  He is totally unsuited for
this style, and you really have to wonder why he was signed.

Coaching: The Celts had 24 steals tonight, but continue to be very
poor at turning them into easy baskets. In Pitino's system (unlike
other presses), you don't seem to get a lot of steals when your
players are in position to just change direction and head down to the
other end for an easy basket.  Instead they seem to come as the first
line of the press is scrambling like mad, trying to get back into the
play after the ball's gone past them.  So they're heading in the wrong
direction and can't get turned around quickly enough.  I suspect that
this is why Pitino like 3 point shooters so much: because those are
the shots that fall open after a steal in his system, as opposed to
the layups a more conventional press yields.

Opposition player of note:
Tim Thomas: I wasn't that impressed with Thomas, the couple of times I
saw him at 'Nova last year.  But if McCarty is made to play on a
pressing team, Thomas was made to play on a press breaking team.  He
was devastating, scoring 21 points, getting 5 boards (4 offensive),
and 2 assists in 12 minutes of playing time!!!!  Just seemed to be in
the right time to exploit the opening in the Celts defense, every time
the press was broken.  Watching this game it's hard to believe that
Mercer and Billups were picked in the same round of the draft as
Thomas (much less that they were picked ahead of him).  Of course
he'll be miserable against the slow down teams in the league, but
tonight he was awesome.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com