Twoulves Tame Celtics: Minnesota 104-Boston 95

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

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*       Sorry, C's fans.  This isn't finished (overslept this morning.
*      I'll finish it and send it out complete when I get back from
*      work tonight.  Bill
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	This was probably the best game that the Celts have played in
three or four weeks.  They attacked the basket from the start of the
game, and avoided falling behind by a large margin early (in fact they
led after the first quarter).  They continued that momentum throughout
most of the game.  But in the end the home court advantage, the refs
and the Twolves stars were just too much for them.

	If you watch the Celtics on a consistent basis you were able
too see that something was different from the start.  They went down
low to Antoine Walker, or drove to the basket on nearly every early
possession (except the ones where Chauncey got his hands on the ball).
The Celts took an 11-7 lead.  The Twolves cam back and gained the lead
at 14-13.  Minnesota built their lead up to 18-15, before Dana And Dee
scored the last 8 Celtics points of the period, leading the C's to a
23-20 lead.

	The second quarter mostly consisted of the clubs trading
baskets.  The Twolves got strong play from Kevin Garnet and were able
to take at 35-30 lead with about 4:00 to go.   Walker who had been
having a tough time scoring to this point, shook of his lethargy and
led the C's on a 6-0 run to regain the lead at 39-33.   Dana Barros
hit a jumper as the buzzer sounded to give the C's a lead going into
halftime 42-40.

	The third quarter was just ugly.  The Twolves went to the line
25 times, converting on 21 of them (the Celts shot 7).   Early on the
Celts built a 55-48 lead (the Twolves failed to hit a lot of the early
foul shots).  The Twolves went on a 7-0 run to tie the game (5 of the
7 came form the free throw line.   After Dee Brown (who shot the ball
superbly for the first 3 quarters of this game) hit a three with 2:00
to go the Celts and Twolves were tied at 66.  The Twolves ended the
quarter with an 9-4 flurry on free throws to take a 75-70 lead.

	Early on the Celtics had trouble getting much done on offense.
The only exception to this was Walker, who had a brilliant behind the
back feed of Knight for an easy layup, and then drove on Garnett and
jammed.  Despite Walkers efforts the Celts were still down 86-80 with
5:00 to go in the period.   With some more Walker offense and a Barros
3 the Celts pulled to within a point at 90-89 (2:50 to go).  Tom
Guggliotta responded with 4 points, as the Twolves went on a 8-2 run
to push their lead back up to 98-91 with 30 seconds to go.  The score
stood at 104-95 when the game was finished.