Celts End Streak: Boston 97-Vancouver 93

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts brought their 5 game losing streak to an end, but it
wasn't easy, even against the Grizzlies.  The Celtics needed a big
game from rookie John Thomas, who seemed to be the only Celtic center
who had any idea how to play against Big Country Reeves.  The Celtics
got off to their now typical, disastrous start, and had to fight from
behind the entire game, pulling ahead for good with just 3:40 to go in
the game.

	As seems to be the recent trend, the Celts couldn't run their
offense (I suppose it would help if they had one) at the start of the
game.  They fell behind at 6-0, then got a little closer at 12-9 and
16-12.  Reeves was especially effective towards the end of the period,
and the Griz took a 27-13 lead at the end of the quarter.

	Greg Minor and John Thomas got into the game at the start of
the second, and were the first Celtics to play with any kind of
effectiveness on offense.  Thomas went hard to the boards and played
with some real aggression, while Minor drove to the basket to good
effect.  Halfway through the period, Chauncey Billups fed Antoine
Walker (A.W.'s first score of the game) to pull the Celts to within 3
at 33-30.   The Griz responded with a 6-0 run to push the lead back up
to 39-30.  The two teams traded baskets for the remainder of the
quarter, as the Griz led at the end of the first half 52-44.

	The Celts press began to show some results at the start of the
3rd period, and they used it to outscore the Griz 11-2, as they
briefly took a lead at 55-54.   The Grizzlies came back with another
9-0 run to take an 8 point lead 63-55.   Walker began to heat up in
the third and was able to boost the Celts to within 4 of Vancouver at
the end of the period 71-67.

	The Celts seemed to have momentum on their side, though they
tried very hard to chase  it away.  The Celts finally tied the game at
79-79 with a little over 6:00 to go in the game.  They took the lead
when Billups drove to the basket and fed Walter McCarty for a nice
jam, making the score 83-81.  With the score tied at 85, Billups (who
had a nice last 6:00) drove to the basket and scored to give the Celts
the lead for good at 87-85.   With the score at 87-85, and about 2:30
to go, the Billups hit a huge 3, after getting the offensive rebound
to push the Celts lead up to 5 at 92-87.   The Celts hit their free
throws from then on out to preserve the win 97-93.

	The Celts took 34 more shots from the field (!), which was
partially balanced by an extra 18 Grizzly free throws.  Of course the
Celts threw that advantage in the trash by shooting .411 from the
field while allowing the Griz to shoot .508.  Vancouver also shot .861
from the free throw line.   The Celts earned that big advantage in
shot attempted by holding their own turnovers to just 13 while causing
23 on the part of Vancouver and taking a 25-9 advantage on the
defensive boards (DeClercq and Thomas combined for a total of 10 in 32
minutes of playing time).

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Mercer, DeClercq
Griz: Daniels, Mack, Abdur-Rahim, Thorpe, Reeves

Players:
Thomas: Best game so far this season and probably MVP of the game for
the C's.   It was far and away his most aggressive game, which had
it's bad side as he picked up 4 fouls in 19 minutes, but it paid off
in 8 boards, 13 points and 2 steals..  And as I said at the top, he
was the only one of the Celt's big men who could play against Reeves
(who scored 41).

Billups: There was a lot in this game, both for the Chauncey-philes
and the Chauncey-phobes.  Billups had his best game in the role of
point guard, with a number of very good drive and dish combo's,
racking up 9 assists in the game, against 2 turnovers.  He also scored
on several of those drive, scoring 13 points and pulled down 7 boards
(5 offensive) in 32 minutes.  He played especially well down the
stretch.  On the negative side he shot 1-7 on threes, taking a number
of shots that were just inexplicable.  Still, there were undoubtedly
some positive signs.

Walker: Another very slow start, as, at least at the start of games,
Toine seems to be convinced that he has to take all his shots from
either the low post or the three point line.  He broke the ice, with a
circus shot off a feed from Billups, and then went on to score 13 in
the third quarter.  He ended up the game with 22 points on 10-26
shooting and did not take a free throw in the game.  He did pull down
10 boards (6 offensive) and had 4 assists and 3 turnovers.   I think
that Toine tests the defense at the start of the game, to see if they
will double team him in the low post, and when they do, gets off to a
slow start.  By the second half, when he's adjusted to the defense, he
plays much better.

McCarty: broke out of a horrible shooting slump with a 5-10, though he
got several of those hoops gong to the basket.  He scored 14 pts. in
his 32 minutes, and did a nice job on Abdur-Rahim, who had 8 turnovers
in the game.

Mercer:  A little better shooting game too.  He shot 6-13 and had 14
points and 3 assists in 37 minutes.  Had 2 blocks.

Dana: Had a nice little game with 3 points (1-4) and 5 assists in 15
minutes.  Hey the C's point guards combined for 14 assists in this
game!

DeClercq: Just couldn't do anything with Reeves except foul, but as we
all know if there's one thing Andrew is good at....  DQ had 4 points,
6 boards (5 off) and 5 fouls in just 13 minutes.  Hit 2-2 on free
throws tonight, which gets his streak up to 6.

Knight: Same as DQ in regards to defense on Reeves.  He scored 4 and
had 1 board (Wow) in 15 minutes.  I suspect that Thomas has moved
ahead of Travis on the Depth Chart and I wouldn't be surprised if he's
ahead of DeClercq too.

Minor: really played well, with 8 points, 2 assists,  2 steals and 1
block in just 12 minutes.  Drove to the basket more than in any game
I've ever seen him play, and really got the Celts moving early in the
game.  

Bowen: on the other hand had a miserable time.  He was 0-8 from the
field, got 2 boards, 2 assists and a steal in 18 minutes.  Given the
C's offensive problems you have to wonder why Minor doesn't get more
playing time, in place of Bowen.

Dee/Rogers: These guys are glued to the end of the bench.  Rogers got
1 minutes at the end of the 1st half when all 3 centers had picked up
3 fouls.  Dee didn't get into the game at all.

Coaching: The Celts made a deliberate strategic decision to
concentrate on Abdur-Rahim instead of Reeves, and they nearly lost the
game because of it.   Reeves (who seems to have diplomatic immunity
from 3 second violations) got both DeClercq and Knight on his back and
they could not fight their way around to the front.  Thomas did a much
better job, of either fighting around Reeves, or just pushing him
another 3 or 4 feet further away from the basket.  Reeves had a huge
game with 14-21 from the field and 13-15 from the line.  Abdur-Rahim
had a poor game and perhaps balanced Reeves off, shooting 6 for 9 but
committing 8 turnovers.

The Celts are now 17-19.  They're off till Sunday (the big game
against LB and the Pacers).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S. Whew..... Made it.  The lights have flickered at least 3 times
since I started writing this post (bad ice storm here in CT).