Celts Blow Another One: Golden State 101-Boston 87

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts continued their pattern of lackluster play on their
West coast trip.  They played mediocre defense, totally purposeless
offense and failed to control their defensive board.    Rick Pitino
made another lineup change, moving Mercer back to the bench and
McCarty back into the starting lineup.  John Thomas, who was hurt in
the last game, was unavailable.

	The C's were very cold to start this game.  The settled for
the outside shot, and couldn't hit anything.  After Andrew Declercq
opened the game with 2 free throws the Celts were held scoreless over
the next 6:00, falling behind 8-2.   Mercer came into the game and hit
a couple of jumpers to get the Celts within 6 at 18-12, but the
Warriors scored the last 4 points of the quarter to take a 22-12 lead.
The Warriors absolutely killed the C's off their offensive board.

	The Warriors continued to play well and took a lead of 15 at
27-12 as the 2nd quarter started.  Mercer continued to shoot the ball
well, and Walker began to hit some from the field also, as the Celts
but the Warrior's lead to 7 at 41-34.  Donyell Marshall got hot
towards the end of the half and led the Warriors to a 51-38 lead at
the break.  Walker[13] and Mercer[14] scored 27 of the Celts points in
the half.

	The Celts came up with an increased level of intensity to
start the third.  DeClercq scored the first 6 points of the quarter
for the C's all off the offensive board.  Golden States offense was
still flowing, though, and the Celts really didn't get any closer.
with the score a 60-46, the Celts did get a 6-0 run together to pull
to within 8 at 60-52.    With 3:20 to go in the period, the C's inched
even closer at 66-60, after another sharp Mercer jumper.   The quarter
ended with the score at 70-62, as the Celts got 10 of their 24 points
of offensive rebound\putbacks.

	The Warriors broke the game open with a 9-0 run to start the
4th quarter, as the Celts were unable to score for the first 4:00 of
the quarter.  Chauncey Billups was pulled from the game after a
particularly poor 3 point shot.  With the score at 83-70, Pitino put
in McCarty for Declercq, and the Celts tried to get back into the game
by pressing.  They just didn't have the energy to make it work,
though, and while the Celts scored 17 points over the last 4 minutes
of the game, they gave up 18 as the Warriors won the game out with
ease.  The final was 101-87.

	The huge stat in this game was fg%, as the Warriors (not a
good shooting team) hit at .494 for the game, compared to the C's
.366.  The Celts did have an advantage on the offensive board (26-22:
hey they missed 18 more shots) and in turnovers 22-17.  This did help
the Celts to take 12 more shots than the Warriors.  The C's shot 5-19
on three's in the game.  The Celts play on their defensive board was
disgraceful, as the Warriors had 22 offensive rebounds to the Celts 16
defensive.

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Brown, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Warriors: Delk, Williams, Marshall, Smith, Dampier

Players:
Walker: Poor shooting night for Toine, as he went 8-29, including 1-5
on threes.  He did score 26, and had 12 boards, 6 assists and 3
steals.  Everyone on the West Coast seems to be concentrating on
limiting Walker's effectiveness, and playing the rest of the Celts
straight up.

Mercer: got a lot of good looks at the basket tonight and scored 20
(10-22).  He also had 6 boards, 4 assists, 5 steals and 7 turnovers.
One of the few occasions this season where Mercer has taken on more
than he can handle.

Billups:  Kind of a quiet game.  He scored 7 points on 3-6 shooting
and 5 assists.  

DeClercq: Maybe the only Celtic who played a full speed tonight.  he
had 8 boards (7 offensive) and 10 points.  For all the effort though,
Dampier also got 6 offensive boards.

McCarty: did nothing to justify being returned to the starting lineup.
he scored 6 on 2-8 shooting, had 2 boards and 3 assists.

Brown: worst game by far over the last 2 or 3 weeks.  He played for 22
minutes, and shot the ball just 3 times.  He scored 3 points, and did
have 3 steals.

Barros: Once again seemed to have trouble penetrated (hasn't really
gone towards the basket since the all-star break).  He did score 11
points on 4-10 shooting, but 3 of those baskets came in the last 4
minutes when the game was already over.  Just had 1 assist in his 21
minutes.

Bowen: another quiet game offensively.  Hard for him to match up with
the Warriors forwards who are all much bigger than him..

Minor: pretty much the same as Bowen.

Knight:  Played just 11 minutes, even with Thomas unavailable for the
game.  He actually had a couple of decent plays, and had 4 points and
3 boards.

 Coaching: Heinsohn has made an interesting comment in each of the
last 2 games.  In very general terms, he's commented that with a young
group of players, on the road, it's very difficult to keep their minds
on the games.  He specifically compared a road swing with such young
players to a "fraternity road trip".   Of course, he doesn't mention
any particular behavior, or players, but I have to think that he's
seeing something that's causing him to draw those comparisons.  

The Celts play again this Tuesday, in Sacramento.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com