No Subject

	Kenny dominated the game at the start, stealing the
first pass the Kings attempted, and turning it into an easy
basket for Antoine Walker.  That started off an 18-7 run 
(which of course put the C's ahead by that margin).  The C's
were up 23-13, when Dana Barros replaced Anderson.  Dana
immediatley hit a 3 to put the C's up 13.  The Kings did 
stabalize a little towards the end of the quarter and trailed
31-22 as the period ended.  For maybe the first time all 
year the Celt's (well, Kenny actually) were successful
in creating tempo on the offensive end.  There were 54 
possessions in the first quarter.

	At the very start of the second quarter the Celts
were able to increase the lead to 35-22.  When Kenny came in 
Dana, though, he really didn't get involved in the C's 
offense.  With the tempo lagging seriously, the Kings held 
the Celts to just one basket over the next 5:00
of the game.  Meanwhile the Kings scored 13 points 
(constiuting a 13-2 run) to tie the game at 37-37.
Finally Anderson regathered the reins (kinda ruins that
cruise metaphor) and scored 6 ponts in a row for the 
C's (43-40).  The C"s got the lead back up to 6 at 
51-45, but they then suffered a couple of defensive
breakdowns as the Kings beat them downcourt with
long passes.  The Kings scored 6 straight to tie
the game again (for the last time) at 51-51.  On
the next play Mercer hit McCarty for an easy jam, 
and then Dana followed a McCarty steal with a 3
to give the C's a 56-51 lead going into the half.

	Anderson was firmly in control again, as 
the Celts dominated in the 3rd.  The Celts pushed 
the lead up to 65-55, after two great offensive
rebounds by Mercer.  They finished off the quarter
with an 8-1 run to take an 88-68 lead into the 4th.

	The Celts pushed the lead up to 96-72 early
in the 4th quarter.  Kings coach Eddie Jordan signaled
his surrender by going to the far end of his bench,
but Pitino refused the gambit, and put his starting
lineup back into the game.  It backfired on Rick, 
as the King's bench outplayed the C's starters 8-0
and cut the lead to 96-80.  Finally the C's got 
things back in order and with the C's leading 105-87,
Pitino, with about 3:30 left, took Anderson and Mercer
out of  the game in favor of Edney and Jones.  The 
rest of game was garbage time, as the Celts won by 
a final of 111-94.

	The Celts had nice advantages in turnovers
and offensive boards in this game that resulted
in them taking 98 FGA and 16 FTA compared to the
Kings 70 and 37 (that's the equivalent of taking
18 more shots).  Since the Celts shot almost as
well as the Kings (they would have shot better if
not for a half dozen easy layups, when the Kings 
got behing their transition defense) that resulted
in an easy win.  The Celts had an 48-40 advantage
in boards (19-11 offensive) and had 17 steals and
caused 23 King turnovers (compared to 12 of their
own).  Maybe the best stat of the night, was that
the Celts converted those 23 turnovers into 35 
points, far better than their normal ratio.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Minor, Walker, DeClercq	
Kings: Johnson, Richmond, Owens. Williamson, Stewart

Players:
Anderson: His teammates still aren't used to the idea
that Kenny should control the ball on every possession,
and that can lead to  trouble.  But when he is in charge 
offense runs so much smoother.  Kenny scored 21 points,
on 8-12 shooting, had 9 assists, 3 steals and 0 turn-
overs in 31 minutes.  It just doesn't get much
better than that.  The most impressive thing was the
way he pushed the tempo at the start of the game.

Walker: He's still adjusting to Anderson's presence.
Toine came out of his rebounding slump in the second
hald of the game (exactly how do you go into a
rebounding slump anyway?) as he had 9 second half 
rebounds.  Which gave him 10 for the game to go
with 25 points (10-23), 1 assist and 6 turnovers.
He seems to be trying very difficult passes since
Kenny joined the team.  Toine just played 32 
minutes tonight, one of his lows for the season.

Mercer: Another in a series of strong games by Ron.
Took a lot of good shots (7-15) and played sound
defense on Richmond.  He scored 15, had 6 boards,
6 assists, 5 steals and 4 turnovers.

DeClercq: got off to a fast start, then got in
some foul trouble.  He scored 7 and had 4 boards
in 18 minutes.

Minor: had another nice floor game, with 9 points
5 boards, and 3 steals in 23 minutes.

Barros: very strong offensive effort for Dana.  He
scored 14 (6-10), had 3 assists and 0 turnovers in
just 14 minutes.  You can't beat the punch the Celts
diminuitive points had in this game: they combined
for 37 points (14-25), had 14 assists, 4 steals and
1 turnover in their combined 48 minutes!

Pervis: was the recipient of some nice passes in this 
game.  He scored 9, and had 5 boards in 19 minutes.

Bowen: got 23 minutes and had 2 points (so what?),
5 boards and 2 steals.  Plus helped out with some
strong D on Richmond.

McCarty: Had some good moments in the game, but
overall was quiet.  Scored 4 points in 20 minutes.

Knight: had a couple of blocks, scored 2 points and 
racked up 5 fouls in 12 minutes.

Edney: I thought he might have gotten into the game a
bit earlier.  Scored 2 points and had 2 assists in
just 3 minutes.

Jones: got into the game for 3 minutes, and got off
3 shots.  Hit 1.

Coaching: Team still has some adjustment to Anderson's
presence, but as long as they get results like this it
shouldn't be hard.  I loved the quick temp early in
the game.  If the Celts can combine that with the press,
they will have a powerful combination.  I look to
see a 100 shot game soon.

	I thought it was a bit funny that Pitino
put the regulars back into the game, early in 
the 4th, and then they had such a hard time
getting back into the groove.  I think that NBA
player really enjoy those moments when they can
sit back on the bench and relax, feeling that 
they've done a good job.  Rick probably
should have recognized that.

The Celts host Golden State of Friday.  The Celts 
are now 26 and 30 on the season.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com