Celts Whomp Hawks: Boston 89-Atlanta 85

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	A big big win for the Celts over a veteran team, that has been
playing well on their own home court.  I can't believe that anyone had
this game circled as a win at the beginning of the season (or even at
the beginning of the week).  The Celts had every chance to fold after
losing a 22 point lead, but they got gutsy play from their young stars
down the stretch to pull the game out of the fire.  Dee Brown was not
with the team tonight, as he attended his grandmother's funeral.

	The Celts got off to a good start, powered by nice defensive
play by C. Billups, who came up with 3 steals early in the game.
They took an 17-8 lead.  The Hawks were settling for outside shots and
not exerting themselves too much on the defensive end either.    The
Celts led at the end of the quarter 24-19.

	Things got even better at the start of the second.  They
outscored the Hawks 11-4, to start the quarter and take a 38-23 lead.
Dana Barros was very hot from the field and the Celts continued to
play very good defense.  The Hawks did manage to pull a little closer
at 41-31.  Pitino, with most of his "big" guys in foul trouble, went
to a small lineup (Walker at the center spot.  Walker tortured
Mutumbo, who was forced to leave the game, after Walker scored on him
twice.  The Celts led at the end of the half 49-33.

	More of the same to start the third, as the Celtics turned the
Hawks over several times and were able to score the first 6 points of
the period to assume a 55-33 lead.  They would have need of every
point of that margin.   The Hawks began to climb back into the game by
tightening their defense.   All of a sudden the points got much harder
for the Celts to get, and the Hawks began to fast break up the floor
off the Celtic's misses.  The Hawks scored 7 straight to cut the Celts
margin to 15 (55-40).  The Celts got 5 quick points from Billups to
momentarily check their slide.  In something of a desperation move,
Pitino went back to the small lineup that had worked to his advantage
in the second quarter.  This time it blew up in his face, as Walker
(pumped at having to play Mutumbo?) got called for a technical, and
then an offensive foul, forcing Pitino to remove him from the game
momentarily.  The Celts still held their 15 points margin with about
1:30 to go (72-57), but the Hawks finished the quarter with a 6-0 run
to cut the lead to 9 (63-72).

	The Hawks continued their strong defensive play over from the
third, and began to get some offensive contribution form their leading
scorer, Steve Smith (who had been very quiet up until this portion of
the game).   A Smith 3 pointer capped off a 14-6 run that cut the
Celts margin to just 1 at 78-77.  From this point on the game settled
into a defensive struggle, with the refs definitely letting the
players play.   The Hawks tied the game at 79-79, and then 81-81 (with
about 5:00 to go).  Walker score with about 3:00 to go to put the
Celts up by 2, but the Hawks responded with 4 straight points to take
their first (and only) lead of the game at 83-81.  Ron Mercer hit 2
free throws to knot the score at 83 (:54 left).  On the next play, in
action that resembled a rugby scrum more than basketball, Ty Corbin
tied up Mercer.  Mercer won the ensuing jumpball at the Hawks end of
the court, and Walker snatched the ball out of the air, dribbled the
length of the court, and negotiated the baseline for a lay-up that
gave the Celts the lead for good (85-83).  On the next play, the Hawks
isolated Smith on their left sideline against Walker.  Toine stood his
ground and forced Smith to attempt a three point fall away jumper,
that fell off the front of the rim.  Billups got the rebound (5
seconds left) and was immediately fouled.  Chauncey made the first
one, but with a chance to seal the game for good, he missed the second
free throw.  Billups was able to retrieve his own missed shot, and was
fouled again.  He made 1-2 again to make the score 89-85.  Symbolizing
the whole night for the Hawks, Mookie Blaylock turned the ball over
before the Hawks could even attempt a shot and the Celts won.

	Huzzah, Huzzah, the Celtics actually shot a higher percentage
than their opposition .449 to .423.    The Celts held a big advantage
in turnovers for much of the game,but the Hawks closed the gap to 7 at
the end of the game(25-18).  The C's were badly outrebounded (45-32,
14-9 offensive) so the shots taken were fairly even (FGA 78-71, FTA
30-21).  The Hawks did a good job from the line hitting 24-30, which
nearly allowed them to steal the game.

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Hawks: Blaylock, Smith, Corbin, Laettner, Mutumbo

Players:
Billups: All Hail Chauncey.  He had 18 points, 8 assists, 7 steals, 5
boards and 3 turnovers in 35 minutes.  He shot 7-13 and outplayed
Blaylock by a considerable margin (although I don't think, with his
physical problems, that Mookie's play is where it has been in the
past).  Although Chauncey still made some of his typical misjudgments,
in this game, at least, his positive plays far outweighed the
negative.  A number of nice penetrations for scores or dishes, were
especially impressive.

Walker: Very good first half, but Wilkens put Allan Henderson on him
in the second, who pretty much held Toine in check until those last
desperate moments.  Walker ended the game with 19 points, (8-23), 7
boards, 0 assists, 3 steals and 6 turnovers.  In the 4th quarter he
was frequently guilty of trying to do too much.  

Mercer: Scored 14 on 6-15 shooting, and hit a big shot and a couple of
free throws for the Celts down the stretch (and he won that jump ball
against Corbin).  He also did a solid job (along with Bowen) against 
Smith.  Ron's biggest problem at the moment, is that he's getting
frustrated by his lack of good shooting opportunities and is forcing
difficult shots.

McCarty:  Another pretty quiet game, with 9 points on 4-8 shooting and
4 assists.

Bowen: with Dee out he got pretty big minutes (31).  He did a nice
defensive job on Smith, and was content not to try much on offense.
He scored 2 points.

Dana: Was hot as a pistol tonight.  Apparently Pitino thought that
Dana was a poor matchup for Mookie though, and drastically limited his
playing time.  Dana did score 13 points in just 13 minutes, but didn't
have the chance to pass the ball much as he had just 1 assist.  But
since he shot 4-4, why would he?

Knight: Only got into the game for 9 minutes, but had a couple of nice
blocks and an important offensive rebound/putback.

Thomas: Played the most of the Celtics centers with 20 minutes, and
did a nice job muscling in the low post with Mutumbo (the C's did a
very good job on Dikembe generally).  He scored 4 points and had 3
boards.  John is so much more comfortable in a game where he can play
classic low post defense.  It'll be very interesting to see him play
against Barkley and Malone.

DeClercq: Stretched his 3 fouls out over 18 minutes tonight.  Scored 5
points and had 6 boards. 

Minor: poor shooting night at 1-5.  Tommy said that the C's coaching
staff has been encouraging Minor to take the 3 (he was 0-2 in the
game).  Typically, though, since they are being taken at someone else
urging and not because Greg thinks they are a natural part of his
game, they are awkward and out of the flow of the offense.

Edney: DNP. even with Brown out Tyus remains in Pitino's Gulag.

Coaching: The Celt's offensive attitude continues to improve.  When
the Celts went through that stretch of horrendous free throws
attempted differential, Rick could have complained and whined.
Instead he said "It's our fault, we're not going to the basket
enough".  Anyone who follows the game knows that this just isn't true
(and I'm sure Rick feels it isn't either).  But Pitino refused to give
his team an excuse.  He said, in effect, to them, you can improve if
you go to the basket more.  And it has worked.

	The other encouraging sign in tonights game was the big plays
by Walker and Billups in the closing moment of the game.  Especially
impressive was the play after Mercer won the jump ball.  Walker got
the ball and steamed down the court, determined to take the shot.  How
many players in the league would have gotten the ball and called
timeout in that situation.  Nearly all of them, I would say.  This
game could be a big step forward in the maturing process for this
team.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S. Why does the organist in Atlanta play the them form the old TV
shot "the Saint" whenever a Hawk makes a free throw?  I don't get it.

Edney: DNP.