C's, Flu Take Down TWolves: Boston 93-Minnesota 89

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	Rick Pitino, in his post game press conference was quite blunt
about it.  The C's were lucky to win this one, that luck being in the
form of a flu bug that prevented Tom Guggliotta from playing in
tonight's game.  The Celts got off to a horrible start in this one,
but were able to pull the game out down the stretch, by playing
remarkable defense, nearly throwing a shutout over the last 3:41 of
the game.  The  Celts made a roster move before the game, activating
Pervis Ellison and moving Greg Minor to the IR (with the flu).  Tyus
Edney was also ill and didn't play.

	Pitino blamed it on the "just back from the West coast blues".
Whatever the reason the C's were just terrible for the first 6:23 of
the ball game.  They missed their first 12 shots of the game, many of
which were long jumpers.  With the Twolves shooting the ball fairly
well, the Celts fell behind 15-0.  Finally Travis Knight managed to
pry the lid of the basket (from about 6 inches) with a put back of an
Antoine Walker miss, to give the C's their first points.  Once they
started, the C's scored pretty easily, putting up points on each of
the next 5 possessions and pulling to within 6 points at 19-13.  After
a Carr put-back interrupted the run, the Celts got back on track and
put up another 11-2 run to actually take the lead, with about .30 to
go, on a really nice 3 point play from Bruce Bowen.  Their 15 point
lead blown, the Twolves managed to escape from the 1st leading 25-24.

	It looked as though the C's might continue their play at the
end of the 1st and take control of the game.  They got a nice
defensive play form Andrew DeClercq who held off three Twolves on the
break, and they turned some Twolf turnovers into baskets as they took
a 33-29 lead.    The Celts went cold from the field and the Twolves
were able to regain the lead at 35-33.   Walter McCarty was able to
tie the game at 37, as he swooped in along the baseline, went under
the basket and released the ball from about his waist for a circus
shot.  The Twolves were able to hold onto that narrow lead, though,
and finished the half leading 47-45.

	C's fans gat a minor scare early in the 3rd, as Walker hit his
hand on the rim trying to jam, and hit the floor off  balance.  He
appeared to be hurt and left the game for about 3 plays.  Even with
the return of Walker, the Celts fortunes seemed to be declining, as
the Twolves steadily built up a lead during the quarter.  With about
3:00 to go the Wolves had their lead up to 8 points (66-58), and the
Celts appeared to be playing (by their standards) lethargically.
Pervis and Bowen really took the lead in invigorating the team, and
the C's were able to get back into the game with the quarter ending
with the score at 69-67 (Twolves).

	Early in the 4th quarter, Chauncey Billups took charge and
scored 6 of the C's first 8 points, and the Celts briefly took a 3
points lead (75-72).  As usual, though, Billups quickly turn gold into
straw, as he made a series of weak plays, culminating in a possession
were he essentially dribbled the entire 24 second clock out.  The
Twolves were helped to an 83-79 lead with 3:41 to go in the game.
Pitino finally got Billups out of the game, and Walker started the C;s
back with a big 3 with 2:40 to go to close the gap to 83-82.  On the
next C's possession, Dana Barros hit a nice jumper off the dribble to
give the C's the lead at 84-83.  The Twolves enjoyed their last lead
of the game, off a Kevin Garnett jam, with 1:45 to go in the game.
After the Celts tied the game on a Ellison free throw, they took
permanent possession of the lead, when Ron Mercer drove the lane and
finished (87-85, 40:).  On the next play, Marbury tried to dribble
past a screen, but Mercer smoothly switched onto him, and forced
Marbury nearly off the court.  Marbury had to jump into the air
(actually off the court) and try a desperation pass under the basket,
which Pervis intercepted.  After Pervis made 1 free throw, the Twolves
still had a chance, down by 3 at 88-85.  When the Twolves tried to
feed Garnett in the post, Walker neatly anticipated the play, stepped
around Garnett and stole the ball.  He fed McCarty going to the basket
who was promptly fouled.  Walter hit both throws to seal away the game
for the Celts (90-85, 14:).  The final was 93-89.  The Celts held the
Twolves to one basket (that Garnett offensive rebound) between the
3:41 mark and a Mitchell layup with the game over with 6 seconds to
go.

	Another big advantage for the Celts in the turnover category
19-10.  No Celtic had more than 2 turnovers in this game.  The Celts
also did a decent job on the defensive boards in this game holding the
Twolves to 13 ORs while they gathered 33 defensive (71.7%).  meanwhile
the C's got 17 out of an available 51 on the Minnesota board (33.3%).
The Celts shot a poorly .386 while the Twolves shot at .425.  Of
course the Celts made up for that with a big advantage in shots taken
88-73.

Starting Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Bowen, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Twolves: Marbury, Carr, Mitchell, Garnett, Parks

Players:
Walkers: A big night for the Walker boosters, as Antoine took on the
other up and coming PF in the league, and pretty much outplayed him.
Toine scored 27 (11-21), had 18 boards (16 defensive: a new career
high), 3 assists and 2 steals.  He held Garnett to 11 points on 4-8
shooting.  I suspect that some of Garnett's trouble have to do with
the role he was forced to take breaking the press, in Gugliotta's
absence.  But Walker played a whale of a game by any standard.

Mercer: A poor shooting night, redeemed by a couple of nice plays down
the stretch.  He scored 19 on 7-22 shooting, and had 1 assists, 4
boards and 2 steals.

McCarty: Forgotten man in the 4th quarter, as Pitino went with Bowen
at SF.  He scored 10, as he hit 8-8 from the FT line, partially making
up for a 1-6 from the field.  He took some very wild jumpers tonight.
He did make some nice passes on the break and had a great block early
in the game.

Billups- Scored 6 of his 10 points for the game in a 2 minute stretch
at the start of the 4th (all on drives to the basket).  He was
emboldened by that strong play and tried to take over the C's offense
for the next 5 minutes.  He mostly dribbled the ball on the outside
waiting for the Twolves to open up a lane for him, and when they
didn't just ended uptaking a bad shot or harmlessly passing the ball
to a teammate.  Pitino called a couple of timeouts to try to get him
straightened out, but finally gave up and replaced him with Barros.
Chauncey scored 10 (5-12), had 4 assists, 3 steals and 1 turnover in
29 minutes.  Marbury was held to 12 points on 4-15 shooting.

Bowen: just wonderful defensive work.  Scored 6, had 4 boards and led
the team in assists with 5, in 27 minutes.

DeClercq: got in some early foul trouble after playing fairly well.
Pitino went to Pervis, liked what he saw, and Andrew never go back in
the game.  He scored 2 points, had 4 boards and  was the culprit who
had 2 turnovers in 14 minutes.

Pervis:  This was the best of Pervis tonight, as he had that bouncy,
coltish look about him (which usually seems to mean that he's due for
a major injury).  He scored 8, had 9 boards, 2 blocks and 2 steals in
22 minutes.  Just don't get your hopes up.

Barros: a very poor shooting night at 2-9, though both of his scores
came at important moments in the game.  Did a nice job on Marbury
though, along with Chauncey.

TK: just got into the game for 8 minutes, scored 4 points and had 5
boards.  Pitino just liked Ellison better tonight.

Brown/Rogers: got 8 minutes between the 2 of them, might as well have
been a DNP

Edney: DNP - flu

Coaching: Another nice experience down the stretch for the Celtics.  I
don't think the Celts have really blown a good chance to win a close
game this season, which is just remarkable for a young team.  Pitino
emphasized that down the stretch they continued to play aggressive
defense, intentionally trying for the steal.
	
Opposition Player of Note: Garnett:  I thought the Kevin actually
played fairly well tonight, especially in breaking the press.  Garnett
often got the ball in the decision making spot (after the press was
broken, around the top of the 3 point arc) and he did a good job of
distributing the ball from there.  He had 5 assists in the game, and
probably should have had more.  But a lot of the guys he was passing
the ball to had trouble finishing.  I suspect that had Gugliotta
played, he would have occupied that decision making role and Garnett
would have done the finished to much better effect.

The Celts are now 15-14 (11-6 at home).  They travel to Milwaukee for
a game tonight (Saturday).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com