Re: 15-10 at home

[jmc@ptc.com (Jonathan McIntyre)]

Steve Huffman said:
> Antoine Walker was real big in the fourth quarter.  He made
> two three's,  two layups, and several assists.
 
The nice thing that was different about this game was that Walker got off to 
a good start, which has usually been his most problematic time in the game. 
Walker had 4 of his 10 assists in the first quarter, and most were quite 
creative passes for layups, not the routine kind.  Something must have 
happened to get him to suddenly use his passing abilities.  It sure paid off.

In fact, the team as a whole passed extremely well, and had a high number 
of assists.  They looked like a real TEAM out there both offensively AND 
defensively, instead of just a bunch of individuals on offense, which is 
a very encouraging sign.  
 
> Dana Barros made two threes, and Bruce Bowen also
> had a three pointer down the stretch.  Barros finished the
 
Pitino and Bowen both said after the game that Bowen has been working on his 
outside shot a lot lately.  In each of the last 2 games, Bowen put up some 
3-pointers, and I would scream at the TV, NOOOO! that's not your shot! 
At first he missed them, but then, he hit one 2 games ago, and last night 
he hit TWO, and looked good doing it.  Pitino said Bowen has the chance to 
become a Chris-Ford-like player, someone who was a great defender, who then 
learned to become a great 3-point shooter.  Of course, in Ford's case, he 
didn't take 3's early in his career because they didn't HAVE 3's until late 
in his career, but he set the early mark for 3-pointers in a game (5 at that 
time, I think) and quickly became one of the best. 
 
Bill Cooper said:
> 	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

The Celtics' strategy was set up before the game by Gorman/Heinsohn, as 
they described how Houston played the night before in Philadelphia, and 
Olajuwon was out, and the average age of the Houston starters was over 
32 years, while the average age of the Celtics' starters was under 22 years! 
The Celtics' best option seemed obvious: lots of pressing and trapping... 
tire the old men early, and put it away in the fourth when they're wiped 
out.  But they didn't up the pressure until 8 minutes into the game, 
which, as Bill describes, is the time when the C's opened up an 8 point lead. 
They kept up the pressure and the lead through the half and early into the 
3rd, and then their energy seemed to disappear.  They got noticeably slower 
once the lead reached 16 points.  Right after that, the Rockets stormed
back with that 21-5 run in the third.  Fortunately, all the C's had to
do was up the energy in the 4th and the old men of the Rockets fell apart.

> 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.

Great analysis of the use of Minor.  I was actually impressed with this 
move when Pitino brought him in, because so few coaches have the guts to 
go with a lower-quality player with fresh legs when his better players 
are running low on energy and not playing well.  I wish coaches would do 
this more often, because the worst that can happen is they'll do no
better than the starters, but usually their energy disrupts the momentum 
that the other team has built up, and no matter what the fans get a more 
active, entertaining game and a chance to see someone who rarely plays. 

Excellent comments from Cecil about Billups' defensive abilities!

Jon Mc