Kings 102, C's 99

["Cecil Wright" <cecil@hfx.andara.com>]

The Celtics had the veneer of a team searching for an identity in this game.  They played with an all-star who could not have played any worse offensively.  And it appears that the tradesters will get their wish, as both Billups and Brown were pulled from the starting lineup and were not required to remove their warmups for this one.  The question is WHERE AT AND FOR WHOM?  This pending activity did little to inspire the C's to win one for the soon to be ex-teammates and I wonder if they were distracted by the upcoming transaction.

 

It certainly didn't bother Sacramento as once again, the C's faced a team which seemed to be the best shooting team in the league.  The Kings shot the lights out in the first half especially.  In fact they shot 61% in the 2nd quarter when they extended their lead to double digits.

 

The first qtr was pretty unspectacular ball.  I was waiting for Mitch Richmond to explode, but honestly, Mercer did an impressive job on him defensively.  Too bad he could only cover one player at a time because the other guard, Anthony Johnson played like Magic Johnson, scoring 7 pts in the first along with several nice feeds for easy King buckets.  The fact that the C's were only trailing by four at the end of the first is due to Bowen who struck for 9 pts off the bench, and the persistance of Tyus Edney who forced the C's to run at every opportunity.  Unfortunately, running doesn't ensure that your offense will kick into gear when you still have a dismal shooting percentage.  The most exciting play came at the end of the quarter when Edney buried one from midcourt.  After a brief huddle by the whistlers, they deemed that the clock had expired.  Bad call as the replay clearly showed the ball in the air with a whole tenth of a second left.  It would have been a huge 3 ptr.  Alas! 

 

The 2nd qtr saw Johnson pick right up from where he left off as he accounted for 11 straight King pts before thankfully taking his exhausted self to the bench.  This inspired the rest of the K's to sizzle from the field as the 4 pt lead stretched to 18 on an alley-oop by Polynice from Hurley making it 49-31 as they hit 7/10 on fga's. The margin would've been larger if not for the work of Walter who scored 8 pts on an assortment  of moves, including determined drives to the hoop for which he was rewarded with 4 trips to the line.  The C's made an attempt to during the last 4 minutes and actually had the lead down to 9 on 2 consecutive Dana jumpers, the 2nd of which came with 1:00 remaining in the half.  But the K's hit 3 throws ending the half out in front at 55-43.  

 

The 3rd qtr started off on an inauspicious note as DQ grabbed an offensive board, appeared to get hacked, but was called for a travel.  Let me say right now that the C's were the beneficiaries of many calls by the zebras in this game, with Toine cashing in most of all at the charity stripe.  Oh yeah, Toine did score in this game.  He just wasn't able to sink a field goal until he jammed one home with 5:45 remaining in the stanza.  He was a woeful 0/11 when he finally hit the bucket.  But by then, Johnson had gone on another mini-run and Richmond finally hit a 3 and was fouled on another 3 pt attempt.  Of course, to the delight of the Arco crowd, after Mitch missed the 3rd attempt, the C's were called for a lane violation, and naturally he swished the next one.  So by the time Toine scored that fg, he had cut a 21 pt lead to a mere 19.  We tried to get back in it here and actually went on a 10-4 run to make it 79-69 on 2 Walter throws, but Hurley broke free for an easy layup off an inbounds play to make it 81-69 at the end of the 3rd.

 

After 2 King throws started off the 4th, Walter hit for 6 straight on 2 throws, a huge dunk and a jumper cutting the lead to 8 at 83-75.  Just before he went to the bench after incurring his 5th personal, of course.  Toine replaced him and immediately tried to shoulder the load as he reminded me so much of Barkley with the defender on his back.  Of course the difference is Chuck is very adept at drawing the double-team and passing to the open man.  Toine tried to bull his way in, and as I said before, was the recipient of a generous call, went to the line and hit em both.  After a Richmond layup, Bowen picked his pocket and inadvertently took a kick right in the chops.  I thought for a moment that he had re-injured his beak, but Tommy assured us that it was a cut lip with 9:09 remaining.  A Mercer jumper cut it to 5, at 86-81 with 8:00 left but the K's worked it back up to 9 on a pretty feed from Johnson to Polynice at 5:52.  Another Mercer jumper, 3 Toine throws and a big 3 ptr from Dana made the score 95-91 with 3:18 on the clock.  Shortly thereafter, Corliss Williamson missed the 2nd of 2 throws, but Michael Smith grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked it out to Richmond who absolutely bowled Mercer over and Bob Delaney called the foul on Mercer.  Richmond sank em both expanding the lead to 7 pts, at 98-91 with 1:51 remaining.  Dana hit a jumper and a layup after he stole an inbounds pass, and suddenly it was a 3 pt game with 1:18 to go.  After a King timeout, the Celts gave just an excellent defensive lesson to the K's forcing Hendrickson into a buzzer-beater as the shot clock expired.  His shot apparently scraped the front of the rim and dropped into the waiting hands of Williamson, who laid it in to make the score 100-95.  A Barros layup preceded the game ending free throws and the final score was 102-99 for the bad guys.

 

This was a game that could have been won.  We actually came back to shoot 45.6% from the field overall to their 47.9%, after the furious finish, but we missed 11 free throws with Toine, Walter and Bowen bricking 3 each.

 

Starters: Edney, Mercer, MInor, Walker and DeClercq

              Johnson, Richmond, Williamson, Owens and Stewart

 

WALKER: One of his poorest offensive performances of the year.  On the bright side, he nailed 12/15 frees and grabbed 17 boards including 6 offensives.  But clearly, his game abandoned him tonight and he must be one confused dude right now.  Shot a paltry 3/15 and ended with 18 pts in 39 minutes.  This game will fuel the Toine bashers to puff out their chests a little.

WALTER:  One of, if not the, greatest game of his pro career.  He was determined to pick up his game and did so.  He played as if he was making a statement that if anyone else is gonna be traded, you'll be sorry if it's me.  Had a quick first step on his drives, hit some jumpers and had a couple dunks.  Walter had some gittyup in him tonight.  Let's hope he can show it a bit more consistently.  Shot 6/9 from the field and 8/11 from the line with 7 boards and 2 steals.  Ended with 20 pts in 31 minutes.  TOMMY STILL LOVES HIM!

MERCER: Had a slow start as the jumper wouldn't go down at first, but refused to fold.  Got back into the flow and played stellar defence when he was guarding Richmond.  Had a couple nice runners in traffic and finally got the jumper to fall.  Scored 17 pts on 7/15 shooting, was 3/4 at the line with 4 boards in 34 minutes.

DeCLERCQ: We know what we're getting in DQ by now.  2/6 from the field, 5 boards including 3 offensive, 2 steals and 4 pts in 26 minutes.  Andrew has courage and will lead us in taking one for the team.  There are many more gifted players in the game, but I can think of few who want it more than him.  YOU'LL GET EFFORT.

EDNEY: Got the start tonight in what must have been a strange experience for him since he's had so little action lately, but he responded with an inspired effort.  To the delight of the Cooz, he pushed the ball whenever he could, made a number of professional passes, including one brilliant lead pass for a Bowen layup off a steal.  He shot 3/4 from the field, 1/2 from the line and had 8 assists and 3 steals in 20 minutes.  I think everyone would settle for those numbers, but Johnson abused him defensively.

BOWEN: Great all-around effort from BB.  Continues to prove he's the best defender on the team.  Solid showing with 6/6 shooting, 3/6 on frees.  15 pts and 4 steals in 25 minutes.

KNIGHT: I'm scratching my head over TK.  He needs to bear down on himself and play with more aggression.  His shooting won't always be there every night so he needs a more solid defensive outing each game.  Am I asking too much?  Maybe.

2/8 from the field, 5 bounds and 4 pts in 18 minutes.

MINOR: Got the start but don't ask me why.  Played 9 minutes and scored a bucket on 1/3 shooting.

ROGERS: Played for 40 seconds and seemed quite pleased with his effort.

 

Opposing players of note:

 

JOHNSON: That's guard, Anthony Johnson, the 40th overall selection last year out of the College of Charleston in S. Carolina.  (Help us out here Bentz) :)  This guy had the game of his life tonight in the absence of Abdul-Raof who normally kills us.  Would give Duncan and Van Horn a run for their money if he played like this every night, but he's averaging a mere 6 ppg against the rest of the league.  Still he played a fine game shooting 9/14 including 3/3 from outer space with 4 rebs, 3 assists, 2 steals and 21 pts in 28 minutes.  How'd he last until the 40th pick?

RICHMOND: Not one of his virtuoso performances but he knows how to do his damage.  Ended with 23 pts on 6/17 from the field (2/7 on 3's), 9/11 in frees and had 6 assists in 39 minutes.  Mercer and Bowen did a great job on him and he stil gets 23 pts.  Had a surprising rejection on Toine in the first qtr.

WILLIAMSON: Plays like a truck.  Please inject his disposition into Travis and I'd be happy.  Is always around the loose balls and is more nimble than I thought given his reputation.  21 pts on 8/15 shooting, 5/10 from the line, with 6 rebs, 4 assists and 4 steals in 34 minutes.

STEWART: Only showed what he had to.  The surprise to me was that he nailed 5 of 6 frees.  Had 8 boards, 3 blocks and 7 pts in 33 minutes.  His job is defense only.

HURLEY:  It's nice to see him back even for only 11 minutes.  To show that he's still got a little something, he was perfect from the floor with 8 pts on 3/3 shooting, 2/2 from the line and 4 assists in 11 minutes.  Not bad at all.

POLYNICE:  Didn't show too much but then he didn't really have to as every one of his mates had good nights for the most part.  Shot 3/6, 1/2 from the line, with 2 boards and 3 assists in only 10 minutes.

 

As usual, we pestered the opposition into more turnovers, 21-16, but we were only able to produce 23 points from them.  Conversely, the K's produced 25 pts off of our 16 turns.

 

C's next game is tonight versus the Grizzlies in Vancouver.

 

Cecil