Nets Outscore Celts: New Jersey 117-Boston 104

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts played pretty well tonight, but in the end it was
just too much Sam Cassell, who has revived the playoff fortunes of a
team that I thought the Celts had left for dead, back in the
Meadowlands a couple of weeks ago.  The C's wasted a 43 point
performance by Antoine Walker.  Kenny Anderson played, but gave more
evidence why he shouldn't.

	The first portion of the game was very streaky.  The Nets
broke out on top 8-0.  with the score at 14-8, the C's went on a 18-2
run to take their largest lead of the game at 26-16.  The Nets started
the first quarter with a 10-2 run to close the margin to 4 at 30-26.
In a somewhat unusual move, after a couple of fumbled offensive
attempts early in the quarter, Pitino pulled DeClercq from the
starting lineup, in favor of Knight 2:00 into the game.

	The Nets continued to play well at the start of the 2nd.  They
outscored the Celts 11-4, as they retook the lead at 37-34.  The Celts
briefly fought back and held their last lead of the game at 40-39.
With Van Horn on the floor as their center (against Travis) the Nets
were able to push their lead up to 7 at 51-44.  Pitino was frantically
looking for someone to matchup against Cassell, who was wreaking havoc
against the Celts trap.  He tried Mercer towards the end of the half,
really to no avail.  The Nets led at the end of the half 59-52.

	Pitino had Anderson back in the game to start the second half,
and got pretty much the same results as the start of the game, as the
Nets went on a 15-8 run to push their lead up to 14 (74-60).  Pitino
pulled Kenny from the game (and he did not return).  With about 4:00
to go in the quarter, the C's led by Walker made a push and pulled to
within 4 at 79-75 (Toine hit 3's on consecutive possessions).  The
Nets closed the quarter with an 86-79 lead.   Walker had 31 at the end
of the 3rd.

	Toine continued to be hot in the first part of the 4th.  The
Celts pulled to with 4 on a Walker drive (92-88).  A few possessions
later, Toine launched a 3 that bounced off the rim, up on top of the
backboard, bounced a coupled of times, and then fell off into the
basket, to pull the Celts to within 3 at 94-91.  After Van Horn
responded with a 3 of his own, Walker put back a Barros miss for his
40th point of the game (97-93, 6:00 to go).  Walker kind of ran out of
gas at this point, though, and without his strong effort,the Celts
offense went flat.  The Nets went on a 10-2 run to put the Celts away
(107-95 with 3:00 left).  The final was 117-104.

	The Celts had one of their best non-Kenny offensive
performances of the year (and I'm not overstating the case by calling
this a non-Kenny game).  They shot .512 (unfortunately the Nets shot
.541) and were 8-17 on threes.   Their small advantage in offensive
boards was negated by the turnover situation.  for one of the few
times this season, the C's had more turnovers than their opponents
15-12.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Nets: Cassell, Kittles, Gill, Van Horn, Cage

Players:
Walker: A magnificent offensive night for Toine.  He shot 18-26,
including 5-7 on threes.  Basically when Gatling was guarding him he
went outside and when Van Horn was on him he went inside.  neither one
could lay a hand on him.   His three pointers were some of his best of
the year, in terms of form (as well as effect).  The scorer only gave
him credit for 4 boards (all offensive).  I swear that I can remember
him pulling down at least a couple of defensive ones as well.....   He
also had 4 assists, 2 steals and 0 turnovers in 41 minutes.

Mercer:  got off to a good start, but faded as the game went on.  he
shot 8-16 and scored 18 and had 6 boards, 2 steals and 3 assists in 42
minutes.  Probably only scored 4 points in the second half though.

Barros.  Played pretty well, though he couldn't handle Cassell 1 on 1.
Dana scored 13 and had 8 assists and just 1 turnover in 28 minutes.
He gave up the foul too easily when he guarded Sam, (who went to the
free throw line 20 times in the game).

McCarty: Walter is getting to more consistent.  Unfortunately the
level he's settling at just isn't all that impressive.  He scored 8
points on 4-10 shooting and had 6 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals in 27
minutes.  

Anderson: Only played for 14 minutes.  He shot 1-7, and had 3 assists
and 2 turnovers.  He's almost back, in terms of mobility, to where he
was before the C's stopped playing him 3 weeks ago.  I suspect he
should just sit out the rest of the season.

Declercq: Got off to a very poor start offensively (actually Anderson
probably would have had a couple more assists in Andrew had handled
some passes cleanly).  Pitino took him out of the game early, and
basically didn't get back in.  In 11 minutes he shot 0-3, had 1 board
and 1 foul.

Knight: scored 6 points and had 8 boards and 2 blocks in 30 minutes.
To be honest I'm not sure what Pitino liked about Travis's play (I
mean it was OK, but nothing more).  Knight gave up some easy scores to
Van Horn, and also let Gatling do some damage.

Minor: got 34 minutes tonight, and played pretty well, though he
continues to have problems getting his shot.  he scored 19 (5-7) and
had 4 boards and 5 assists.  he guarded Cassell for quite a bit of the
second half, and didn't disgrace himself, though he sent Sam to the
line a few times also.

Edney\Tabak: got very limited minutes and were no factor

Bowen: wouldn't it have been nice to have Bruce healthy for this game?
It, at least, would have been fun to see him guard Sam.

Coaching:  For one of the very few times this season , the Celts were
unable to get the ball out of the hands of the opposition's primary
ball handler.  Cassell had 29 points and 9 assists, but his biggest
contribution, was holding the New Jersey turnover total to just 12
(that's got to be very close to the season low for a Celtic's
opponent).  Every time that the Celts tried to double team him and
force him to give the ball up, he would either dribble around, or
through, the double team.

The Celts are now 34-42.  They host the Magic on Friday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com