Knicks Beat Celts Again: New York 98-Boston 82

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	 I'm sure your viewpoint on this game was largely determined
by the team that you were rooting for.  If you were a Knicks fan, you
probably saw your team easily defeat the Celts, except for a midgame
lull.  For we Celtics fan it was another case of a slow start followed
by a period of very strong play that allowed the team to get back into
the game, and then a slow fade down the stretch.  While I prefer the
2nd version it might be the case that the first one is closer to the
truth.

	The Celtics were just beyond abominable for the first 10
minutes or so of this game.  They were only able to score 13 points in
the first quarter despite (!) shooting 3-5 form three point range.
They could very easily have scored less than 10 points in the first
quarter.  The Knicks took leads of 14-3, 21-6, and 28-8 before ending
the quarter with a 30-13 lead.  The Celts hit their first shot within
15 feet of the basket when Dee Brown cut to the basket for a lay-up
with less than 1:00 to go in the quarter.

	As is usually the case the Celts defense led the team back
into the game.  They held the Knicks to just 6 points over the first
5:30 of the 2nd quarter.  with about 5:00 gone DeClercq stripped the
ball from John Starks in the middle of the court, and drove the rest
of the length of the court to jam the ball, making the score 36-21.
The Knicks came back with 2 straight basket to push their lead back up
to 19 at 40-21.   From that point through the rest of the quarter the
C's outscored the Knicks 20-5 (including the last 13 straight).  With
just tenths of a second left on the clock, Ron Mercer lined in a
jumper to pull the Celts to within 4 points at 45-41.  Even during
this period of the game, the Celts depended heavily on the jumper,
getting 2 3's from Billups and assorted shorter jumpers from Mercer
and Minor.

	The Celts continued to have the momentum as the 2nd half
started.  The Celts outscored the Knicks  10-5 over the opening 3:46
of the quarter to take their first and only lead of the game at 51-50.
the Celts had outscored the Knicks 30-9 over less then 10:00 of
playing time.  The Knicks immediately responded with 8 straight points
of their own to retake the lead.  The Celts did get back to within 1
point at 60-59, but it was all downhill from there.  The Knicks closed
the quarter with a 9-6 run to recover to the 4 point lead they had
held at the start of the period.

	In the 4th quarter the Celts reverted to the offensive style
that got them in so much trouble in the first quarter, relying almost
exclusively on the outside shot.  The Knicks held the Celts to 17
points in the quarter while scoring 29 themselves on the way to a
pretty easy 98-82 win.

	Actually the field goal differential in this game was
relatively low (by the C's standards) as they shot .405 to the Knicks
.453.  Amazingly, though, with all the shots that the Celts missed the
Knicks were able to hold the Celts to just 5 offensive rebounds, while
pulling in 13 themselves (this has to be on of the worst beatings the
C's have taken of the offensive boards all season).  They did cause 21
New York turnovers, but committed 16 of their own.  So, if you take
free throws into account the Celts actually shot fewer times than the
Knicks (the Celts had 9 more shots, but 21 fewer free throws).   If
the Celts hadn't shot 9-18 on threes, this game could have been a
catastrophe, instead of just a blowout.

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Knicks: Ward, Houston, Johnson, Oakley, Dudley

Players:
Billups: I guess if a fellow goes 5-7 on threes he must have had a
good game.  Chauncey was 6-10 overall, and had 3 assists, 3 steals and
2 turnovers in 32 minutes.    As a distributor of the ball, Chauncey
was invisible.  But those three's kept the C's in the game for quite a
while.

Walker: Seems to be having a hard time adjusting to the extra
attention he gets nowdays.  Shot 6-17, but didn't take an awful lot of
threes (0-2).  He also had 8 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2
turnovers.

Mercer: After the good shooting game yesterday, is back in the
doldrums at 4-13.    Houston didn't seem to be having to much trouble
getting off his shot against Ron, and even drove against him a couple
of times.

McCarty: got a few more minutes tonight with 26, but is still unable
to produce with 3-8 shooting.  Did help to hold Johnson in check
(though Mills had a pretty good night against the C's again).

Barros: Another nice night for Dana.  Had 4 points, 7 assists, 2
turnovers and a block (Houston, from behind).  His improved defense,
driving and distribution were all apparent.

DeClercq: The big story in this game, was the Celtics almost getting
shut out on the offensive board (especially after the big effort
against Indiana).  DeClercq got to the offensive board 1 time in 25
minutes, as the Knicks just do a good job of executing rebounding
fundamentals.  Also with none of the Celtics really going to the hoop,
no one was making the defense move.  Andrew scored 4 points and had 4
points and 2 steals.  He missed both of his free throws.  He's got the
last 2 fingers on his right hand taped together.

Minor: Continues to play well, and is getting more minutes.  Scored 6
points on 3-5 shooting, had 4 assists, an assists and a turnover in 19
minutes.  He is much pickier about his shots and is making better
passes.

Bowen: seems to be in a bit of a slump on both ends of the court, and
is losing playing time to Minor.  Earlier in the season, he seemed to
have a decent offensive game, mixing up the occasional outside shot
with drives to the basket and offensive rebounds.  He seems to be
relying totally on the jumper now, and it's showing in his field goal
percentage.  He was 1-4 today, with 3 points and 2 boards in 13
minutes.

Brown: seemed to be gimpy, but got 19 minutes in the game.  Did some
good work early, but tried to take on too much down the stretch.
Ended up scoring 10 points on 4-10 shooting.  he was trying to drive
to the basket, though he met with relatively little success.

Knight: continues to be inconsistent.  He played for 9 minutes in the
game, and basically had 2 missed shots and 3 fouls.

Thomas: I really thought that John would be playing better, after that
fine game he had against Vancouver.  he seems to have gone back to his
very passive style of play, though.  Was in the game for 12 minutes,
scored 4 points and had 1 assists.

Edney: DNA

Coaching: I think that Rick should put in a team rule, that no one can
take an outside shot till they've scored at least 1 basket in the
paint.  I suppose that once the opposition figures it out, it might
make their job a little easier on defense, but it's hard to see how it
could make the Celts offense any less effective than it's been at the
beginning of games.
	
	As long as Dana seems to be distributing the ball fairly well,
it might be a good idea to try Barros and Billups in the backcourt
together.  If you had Dana and Chauncey in the game, along with, say
Mercer, at the 3, it might open up things down low for Walker.  And
Billups strong outside shooting would go well with what Dana has been
doing recently.  Of course you would only want to do this against a
relatively small backcourt (like the Knicks with Childs and Starks).

The Celtics are now 17-21.  They play the Twolves on the road this
Wednesday evening  (I really checked this time).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S. Thanks to everyone who reminded me that Mondays game was in the
afternoon.