Celts Win Down Stretch: Boston 107-Houston 96

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The C's got a triple double from Antoine Walker and a huge
lift off the bench (62 points!) to beat the Rockets.  The Celts had
taken a 16 point lead early in the third quarter, which they proceeded
to loose to a Houston 21-5 run.  Down the stretch the Celts executed
and got some great 3 point shooting to seal the game.

	The two team played evenly for the first 8 minutes of the
first quarter.  Chauncey Billups got into foul trouble early and was
replaced by Dee Brown.  With 4 minutes left in the quarter (Dana in at
point by now), the Celts got an 8-0 to jump out to a 24-16 lead.  The
Celts lead at the end of the quarter 28-22.

	The Celts continued to get very strong play from Dana, and
they were able to take their first double digit lead of the game at
37-26 with 8:00 to go in the period.  The Rockets got a lift of the
bench from Othello Harrington and they were able to close the lead to
as little as 5 (45-40).  Travis Knight came in and made a nice
contribution, as the Celts pushed the lead back up to 10 at the end of
the half (56-46).  Barros (15) and Knight (12) helped the Celts bench
to score 34 points in the first half.

	The Celts scored the first 6 points of the game to take a
62-46 lead.  At this point the Rockets woke up (after a Rudy T.
timeout) and began to drop of the Celts and concentrate on denying
Walker the ball.  All of a sudden the Celts couldn't hit anything from
the outside, and they couldn't use the press (which had been quite
effective in the first half).    Meanwhile the Rockets pounded the
ball in down low and  outscored the C's 15-2 to cut the lead to 3
(64-61).   The Celts seemed to have no answer and instead searched
frantically for a hot hand from the outside.  With just 1:00 to go in
the quarter the Rockets took their first lead since early in the 1st
quarter (71-69).  The game was tied at the end of the 3rd 73-73.  The
Celts were outscored 24-5 in the run that lead up to the Rockets lead.

	With about 9:00 to go in the game Eddie Johnson hit a three to
give the Rockets what would turn out to be their final lead of the
game at 81-80.  The Celts got 3's from Bowen and Walker and then
topped of the run with a brilliant pass from Walker to Knight to
outscore the Rockets 10-0 run (90-81).     The Rockets were able to
cut the lead to 6 several times, but could get no closer.  The Celts
hit 3 more 3's in the last 3 minutes of the game to take an 11 point
lead 107-96 with 1:15 left in the game.  That turned out to be the
final as neither team scored over the last 1:00 of the game.

	The Celts continued their improved shooting hitting at a .461
clip in this game (including 11-27 on threes and 30-62 on 2's).
Meanwhile the Rockets shot slightly better at .478 and got to the line
more often 35-19.  Along with the extra three, the Celts helped to
make up that gap by causing 26 Houston turnovers, as against 16 of
their own, which gave them an advantage of 10 more shots taken.

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, Declercq
Rockets: Rhodes, Drexler, Elie, Barkley, Willis

Players:
Walker: Is it just my imagination or is Toine playing much better
since he made the all-star team?  Either he feels less pressure to put
up big numbers, or he's just feeling more confidence.  Walker scored
27 (3-4 on threes), had 14 boards, 10 assists and 5 turnovers.  He
made several wonderful passes for layups by Knight and Declercq.

Barros: Billups seemed to be in foul trouble the whole game, so Dana
was forced to play 33 minutes (his most in a long time).  Dana scored
23 points, had 8 assists, 4 steals and 0 turnovers.  He shot the ball
well early, but his fg% sagged as his minutes mounted.  

Knight: Maybe Travis's best game of the season, certainly the best
since he came back from the D.L.  He shot 8-9, had 4 boards, 2 assists
and a block and a steal in 24 minutes.  He had the jumper working, and
also made several nice drives to the basket (once he drove past Willis
from beyond the three point line).

Bowen: Pitino was insisting after the game that Bowen has the
potential to be a great 3 point shooter.  Bruce was 2-2 tonight and
scored 10 points (to go with 5 boards).

Brown: Scored 7 points and had 3 steals.  Hit some jumpers early, but
at least he stopped shooting when his shot went away.  In both halves
Dee came into the game when Billups got in foul trouble, so that he
actually played point for a few minutes in the game.

Mercer: It was a good thing that the C's bench responded, because,
with the exception of Walker the C's starters were hopeless.  Mercer
shot 3-13, had 7 points, 3 boards and 3 turnovers in 33 minutes.  he
did have a big jumper and a nice block on Drexler down the stretch.

Billups: was in foul trouble most of the game (he picked up 5 in just
11 minutes of playing time).  He just seemed out of sync for most of
the game.  Shot 2-5, and had 2 assists.

McCarty: Shot 1-6 and didn't get a rebound.  He did have 4 assists and
2 steals in his 28 minutes.

DeClercq: Actually played reasonably well, with 4 points, 3 boards,
and a steal in his 11 minutes.  But Knight was playing so well, and
the team needed so much help offensively that Andrew barely got to
play.

Thomas: Played for 12 minutes and had 2 boards, but no points in 12
minutes.

Minor: Got 5 minutes when Pitino was casting around for someone to
help the team out of it's offensive doldrums in the 3rd quarter.

Edney: DNP.....

Coaching: Maybe the best game of the home stand.  The Celts continued
their improved play offensively and managed to press enough to push
the tempo.  Once again , Rick was a little slow to react when the C's
hit the skids offensively.  Maybe Pitino just realizes that this club
is going to go through peaks and valleys offensively and he shouldn't
take it so seriously.

The Celts are now 21-24 on the season.  They play in Charlotte on
Tuesday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com