Celts Crush Warrios: Boston 120-Golden State 88

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	Wow! What a difference three weeks makes.  In contrast to
their game a few weeks ago, the Celts handled the Warriors with ease
jumping out to an early lead, and never looking back.  The game was so
easy that none of the Celts even played 30 minutes in the game.

[Unfortunately, Here in Central CT, Fox Sports New England, didn't put
the game on until the start of the 2nd quarter.  The score at the end
of the first was 30-15.  If anyone has any observations, I'd be happy
to hear them].

	The Celts pushed the lead up to 34-17, When Pitino put
Anderson back into the lineup.  Kenny assumed complete command of the
game, and was especially effective in getting the C's easy looks
before the Warriors defense had settled in.  By the time that Anderson
left the game again, the C's were up 49-25.  With Anderson out of the
game, the Celts continued to play fierce defense, but the offensive
efficincy decreased dramatically.   At one point the Warrios misses 18
out of 19 shots.  The lead got as high as 53-26, before the Warriors
offense sputtered back to life.  Golden State ended the half with a
6-2 run to "cut" the C's lead to 21 (55-34) at the half.

	The Celts offensive execution in the 3rd quarter was glorious!
They started off the quarter with a 9-4 run to take a 64-38 lead.  One
play demonstrated how firm the control Anderson had over the C's
offense.  Andrew DeClercq made a really nice steal, stepping around
Eric Dampier.  He got the ball to Anderson and took off down court.
Anderson moved the ball down the parquet and had a good chance to pass
the ball to Antoine Walker (who he had already hit 6 times for
assists) for a shot.  Instead he passed up that pass, and waited for
DeClercq to clear on the other side of the basket for a lay-up.  With
the score at 66-42,  Anderson hit Walker for a brillinat 1 handed
alley-oop.  Finally, with the Celts up 82-54, Kenny threw another high
lob on the break, this time for Mercer, who soared above the rim for a
monster two handed stuff.  Kenny left the game with the C's up 30 at
86-56.  meanwhile Dante Jones came into the game for his first
extended action of the season.  He scored 8 points over the last 4:00
of the quarter.  Just to show the C's fans that Anderson wasn't the
only Celt who could throw the Alley-oop, Mercer hit Jones for a two
handed stuff on the Celt's last possession of the quarter.  The score
at the end of the third was 88-60.

	The 4th was all garbage time, as none of the Celts starters
(except for Minor, when Dante Jones ran out of gas) played at all.  
The C's got the lead as high as 36 at 109-105.  The game ended with
the score at 120-88.

	The Celts managed, for the first time this season, to get off
a 100 shots.  They hit 51 of them (that's 51%, I can do that one
without a calculator) to the Warriors .371.    Most of the tempo in
the game was supplied by the Celtics offense, as they really didn't
press that much, and only caused the Warriors to commit 15 turnovers
(thanks to Mugsy for the most part).  The C's offensive efficiency was
amazing as they collected 40 assists on their 51 baskets, while
committing only 12 assists.  That's a 3.33 to 1 assist to turnover
ratio for the whole team!

Lineups: 
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Minor, Walker, DeClercq
Warriors:Bogues, Jackson, Marshall, Weatherspoon, Dampier

Players:
Walker:  Was really working well with Anderson.  He scored 21 (10-20),
had 10 boards, 7 assists, 3 steals and One! turnover in just 27
minutes.  Pitino taking him out early might have cost Toine a triple
double, but he didn't seem too worried about it sitting on the
sidelines in the 4th.

Anderson.  Just Marvelous.  The ball should be in his hands every
single possession when he is one the court.  He had 10 assists, 7
points, 4 boards, 3 steals and 0 turnovers (second game in a row), in
23 minutes.  I'm amazed, after having seen him walk the ball up the
court all these years, at how good he is at pushing the tempo.

Mercer.  Getting great shots and making the most of it.  10-14
tonight.  Had 24 ponts and 6 assists in 28 minutes.  His jumper is
nearly perfect, at this point.

Dana: continues to play solid ball with 6 points and 2 assists 9but 2
turnovers) in 16 minutes.

Minor: another solid game.  He has to love this tempo too.  15 pts.
and 6 boards in 28 minutes.

DeClercq: Just got 12 minutes (had a little foul trouble early), but
had 7 points, 5 boards and 3 assists.

Knight: I think Travis thought he was back at UConn.  8 points, 11
boards and 3 blocks in 20 minutes.  Knight has serious deficiencies in
his game, but how many 7 footers could play this pace. He had several
nice looking jump shots.

McCarty: probably the only Celts who you could say had an off night.
He shot 2-9, had 6 boards and 3 turnvoers in 29 minutes (which led the
team, by the way).    Tried to many stationary jump shots, which is
not his game.

Bowen: played for 19 mintes and scored 5.

Pervis: I think that with Travis on a roll, Pitino wanted to give him
some minutes.  Pervis got most of his minutes on garbage detail in the
4th.  Perv had 2 points, 5 boards and 2 assists in 16 minutes.

Ednay: We've been over Tyus's lack of playing time before, so I'll
just say the Tyus played almost all of the 4th and shot 3-5, for 6
points and had 3 assists, a steal and 0 turnovers. He was 2-3 on
jumpers tonight.

Jones: Dante is right up their in the Todd Day class of conscienceless
shooters.  He put up 11 shots, including 7 three pointers in just 12
minutes of playing time.  Dante scored 15 points and had 2 assists in
12 minutes.  He's not in great shape, and had to ask Pitino to get out
of the game before the 4th was over.  He probably would have tried 14
or 15 shots if he was in game shape.

Coaching: Pitino was pleased after the game, and you can't blame him.
He said that he hadn't followed Kenny that much since he left High
School! and he wasn't absolutley certain that K.A. could adapt to
playing this tempo so quickly.

	Just to add a note of caution, though, the Warriors (in
contrast to the Celts) seem to have been hurt by the recent trade.
somehow they beat the Knicks this week, but I don't think that this
game was much of a test.  I'll be looking forward to the game agasint
the Blazers on Sunday.

The Celts host the Blazers Sunday.  Their record is now 27-30.

Bill Cooper

P.S. Did you see the Portland-Indiana score (124-59 Pacers!).  Does
that help or hurt the C's chances?