Bulls Bully Celts:Chicago 90-Boston 79

[bcooper@imageconversion.com (Bill Cooper)]

The Celts have gained a great deal of confidence the last few

weeks due to their strong play, but nothing builds confidence like

5 NBA rings, and the result was on display last evening.  For much of

the night, the Bulls attitude appreared to be overconfidence, and the

C's stayed close through the 9:00 mark in the the 3rd quarter.  But the

Bulls overwhelming strength on the boards took it's toll, and the

Celts wilted in the late 3rd and early 4th quarters, as the Bulls took

control of the game.  The Celts reactivated John Thomas, sending 

Tyus Edney to the IR with the "flu".  Also Pervis Ellison and Ron

Mercer were moved into the starting lineup.



	Early on, thought, it looked to be a different story.  The

Celts jumped out to leads of 7-2 and 13-8, as the Bulls had a tough 

time getting their offense going and were committing some early

turnovers.  The Bulls got things on track by the middle of the 

period, and were able to tie the game at 13.  The Bulls pulled ahead by

5 (18-13), before the C's closed the quarter with a 7-0 run to take

a 20-18 lead.

	

	The 2nd quarter began with many of the Chicago starters on the

bench.  Early on, Chauncey Billups was able to get some good work done

against Steve Kerr, as the C's held their lead at 27-23.  Judd Buechler

came into the game and found some open spots in the Chicago defense,

as he helped the Bulls take a lead at 32-29.  The Bulls began to ratchet

up the pressure on the Celts boards, throughout the 2nd (kinda like

they were testing to see how hard the C's were going to make them

work to win the game) as they took a 43-40 lead into the half.  John

Thomas made a nice contribution in the quarter with 6 points and 

a couple of blocks.



	The Celts continued to play hard in the third, as they had

some success driving to the basket, especially Walter McCarty, who

was being guarded by Tony Kukoc.  On one play in particular, the Celts

demonstrated their tremendous defense, as MJ got a step on his Celtic

defender (Bowen, I think), and started to go up for a short 8 foot 

jumper.  He was immediatly challenged by another Celtic, and forced 

to dribble accross the lane, where he was going to try a runner.  

But another C got up on  him, and he had to pick up his dribble, and

try a very difficult fall away (nearly falling down) jump shot,

from 12 feet away, on the other side of the lane (Yes, it missed).

The score was tied at 60-60, with about 4 minutes left.  With Jordan

on the bench, the Bulls began to get their running game going, and

continued their dominance of the offensive boards, as they ended the

3rd with a 13-5 run to take the first major lead of the game at 73-65.



	The Celtic's offense struggled at the start of the 4th, producing just

one basket in the first 3:00, as the Bulls strode out to an 80-67

lead.  The Celts made a move to get back in the game 82-71.  Andrew

DeClercq got the Celts even closer, as he scored and drew the foul.  

Predictably DQ missed the free throw, but Bowen got the rebound, and

went up with a pretty good looking shot, which Caffey swatted away well

after

it had reached it's highest point.  The refs missed the call completely,

and (according to Tommy) admitted as much to Pitino when he questioned

the call.  But the damage was done as the Bulls went on a 5-0 run]

to seal the game away at 86-73.  The final was 90-79.



	Boards, Boards, Boards.  The Bulls had 24 offensive boards to

the Celtics 25 defensive.  That's right.  The Bulls were just as likely

to recover a missed shot of their own as the Celtics were.  They 

had a 24-14 advantage in offensive rebounds, which translated to 5

more shots and 12 more free throws.  That adds up to the 11 point

margin of victory.  Of course the Celts usually make up for their

weakness on the boards with an advantage in turnovers, but after a 

sloppy start the Bulls held their T/O count to 19, and the Celts,

who have been doing an excellent job of taking care of the ball

recently, had 17 of their own.  Both teams shot the ball poorly, with

the Celts at 30-72, and the Bulls at 32-77.



Lineups: 

Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, Ellison

Bulls:  Harper, Jorcan, Kukoc, Rodman, Longley



Players:

Mercer: Nice night for Mercer, as he becomes one of the few players

who can say that they outscored MJ (20-19: Ron played 1 more minute

than Jordan, 42-41).  His jumper was going as he shot 10-19, but

did not get to the free throw line once.  Along with his buddies,

did a nice job of holding Jordan in check, who shot 5-13.



Walker: Another tough home town visit for Toine.  The Bulls and Rodman

did a nice job of keeping the ball away from him in the low post and

the outside shot wasn't there tonight. Antoine scored 18, but was 6-17

from the field (1-5 on threes).  He really  didn't try to drive in this

game.  He did have 11 boards, and kept Rodman barely under control with

6 offensive boards (it was Kukoc and Harper who did the real damage,

with 10 between them).  Toine also had 4 steals, but negated that

with 4 turnovers.  A couple of the shots he did make were real

circus types.  He could have just as easily been 4-17.  



Billups: Some nice driving in this game, but like the rest of the Celts

did not have the 3 going.  He scored 6 and had 5 assists, but an unusual

4 turnovers in 35 minutes.



McCarty:  Also a bad night from outside.  Early in the 3rd he took 

advantage of Kukoc, but Tony got his back later in the half.  Walter

had 11 pts, 5 boards and 3 assists, and a brillant block in the 1st

half.



Ellison: I guess he got the start, because of his strong effort in the 

last game.  But he only played for 15 minutes, and had 4 boards

and just 1 point.  Cousy made the point that this was a bad matchup

for Ellison against the bigger  Longley, and it seemed that Pervis

might have matched up better against the Bulls bench.



Bowen: Only got 8 minutes, and shot 1-5.  Did have 3 steals.



Thomas: John's best game so far.  He shot 3-5, scored 9, had 5 boards

and 3 blocks in 16 minutes.  And he did it without fouling too

much.  Whether he can  do that and play aggresive "D" ala DeClercq is

an open question.



Barros: same story as nearly everyone else.  The shot just wasn't there

tonight.  1-5 from the field, 2 pts, and 3 assists in 13 minutes.



DeClercq: 13 minutes, 6 pts, 5 boards, 5 fouls and 3 turnovers.  As

always Andrew gets a lot done, good and bad.  By the way, Andrew is

shooting free  throws at around 40% so far this year.  Have you noticed,

that he almost never makes the first shot, but nearly always makes the

second?



Knight: Had a couple of nice shots, but was no factor on the defensive

end or on the boards at all.  12 minutes, 3 boards and 4 fouls.



Brown/Rogers: DNP.  I wonder if Rogers might get the "flu" soon, if

it's neccessary to keep  Thomas on the roster.



Coaching:  I thought that the Bulls had the Celtics well scouted.  They

were not just going on the last couple times they played them.  They

did a pretty good job of staying on McCarty's outside shot, which was

not much of a factor the last time they played the Celts.  The real 

problem, was the offensive boards.  The Bulls have traditionally done

a good job attacking the offensive board, but this  is clearly (and I

don't think this is news to anyone) a major problem for the C's defense.

What the Celts need to fix is is a big guy who attacks the defensive

board with the same gusto (ala Rodman or Jason Williams), not so much

a big space eater to block out.  With the Celts defense, blocking out

is a lost cause.



The Celts are now 16-15.  They play at home tonight, against the 

Whiz.



Bill Cooper

wfcooper@tiac.com