Celts Triumphant: Boston 108- Washington 98

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The whole game it seemed as though the Celts should blow the
Wizards away, and they threatened to push the lead to big numbers
several times.  Each time, though, that the Celts got the lead up to
double digits the Wiz would respond and make the game close again.
The score was as close as 99-94 with 3:00 to go in the game.  The
Celts opened the double digit final lead with the help of some erratic
decision making down the stretch by the Wizards.

	The Celts started out the game pushing the tempo and getting
easy scores from the full court game.  Kenny Anderson assisted on 4 of
the C's first 6 baskets as the Celts held early leads of 15-10 and
17-13.  The Wiz got back on track and briefly took the lead at 21-20.
The Celts ended the quarter with a 14-7 run to take a 35-29 lead into
the second.  Antoine Walker scored 16 in the first quarter.

	Although the C's continued the fast tempo in the second they
were unable to convert it into effective offense.  The Wiz actually
cut into the Celts lead slightly reducing it to 4 at 43-39.   For
about 3 minutes the Celts did get the offense in gear and went on a
12-3 run to push the lead up to 13 at 55-42.  Pitino tried a new
lineup late in the quarter, with Pervis at center and Travis at PF.
It wasn't too successful though, as the Wiz were able to close the gap
to 9 (57-48) at the end of the half.  Each of the first 2 quarter of
the game had over 50 possessions.

	Although the Celtics continued to execute on offense in the
3rd quarter, the tempo began to swing in the direction of the Wizards.
After the Celts pushed the lead up to 12, the Wizards went on a 10-2
run (powered by unbelievable shooting by Tracy Murray) as the Wiz cut
the C's lead to 4, at 64-60.  The 2 tames traded basket in that range
for most of the quarter.  The Celts opened up the gap just a little
bit, at the end of the period, 85-78.

	The Wizards opened the 4th with a 6-3 run to cut the lead to 4
at 88-84.   The Celts struggled to put some daylight between them and
Washington, but couldn't break contact for most of the quarter.  After
a pair of Calbert Cheaney free throws the Wiz still only trailed by 5
at 99-94 with 3 minutes to go.   After Mercer hit a pair of free
throws to put the Celts up by 7, the Wizards started hefting up 3
pointers (and wild ones at that).    The Celts hit another 5 free
throws to take a 10 point lead at 104-94 with under a minute left.
The final score was 108-98. 

	After a hot shooting early start, the Celts cooled off (along
with the tempo) in the second half.  They ended up shooting .478 (of
course I would have said that was great a month ago), while the Wiz
shot .521.  They made up that difference by obliterating the Wiz in
the hustle categories, piling up a 20-12 advantage in offensive
rebounds, 16-2 in steals and 19-8 in turnovers caused.  All that
resulted in the Celts taking 21 more shots.  Dana and Kenny combined
to shoot 6-24 in this game , including 1-8 on 3's.  If the 2 point
guards are hitting at all the Celts could have won this game by 20+.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Minor, Walker, DeClercq
Wiz: Strickland, Cheaney, Murray, Webber, Davis

Players:
Walker: Another huge game for Toine, as he continues to have the
Wizards number ( uh .... hidden name of power?).  He ran the lane
well, turned the ball over to Kenny on the break, scored easy baskets,
made wonderful moves in the paint, and hit some mid-range jumpers.  He
hit 16-26, for 35 points, had 13 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2
turnovers.  He is on a definite roll.

Anderson: had tremendous success breaking down the Washington defense
early in the game.  As the Whiz started to get back on defense,
though, he started taking quick shots to keep the tempo up.  He
succeeded in keeping the tempo up, but didn't hit many of the shots.
In the second half, he stopped taking the quick shot, and the tempo
stalled.  I'm not really criticizing Kenny: I'm sure he's just having
trouble figuring out what he's supposed to do in Pitino's system (and
I'm not sure that Rick knows either).  Anderson shot 5-16, scored 11
points, had 10 assists (most in the first quarter), had 3 steals and 0
assists.  I really didn't think that Kenny did such a great job on
Strickland (who made some great shots in the game).  As usual,
thought, Strickland didn't press the advantage.

Mercer: Another strong effort from Mercer.  His outside jumper was
just average (for him), but he kept attacking the basket.  He scored
24 (10-18),  5 boards, 4 steals and 1 turnover.  He got up to the line
late in the game, and took two free throws that looked as if they were
being vacuumed into the hoop, they went down so solidly.

McCarty: Walter played his best since the Sacramento game.  he was
aggressive and active.  He scored 8 (3-6), had 5 boards and 2 steals
in 25 minutes.  

Minor: A little bit of a quiet game for Greg.  He had a bit of a
difficult time with Murray (who was an absolute assassin if he could
get even an inch to get his shot off).  Minor scored 6 points in 22
minutes.

DeClercq: 9 points and 3 boards in 15 minutes.  I was going to make a
comment, that Andrews free throw shooting seems to be slipping again,
but then he hit his last 6 in a row.

Knight: Travis's play has improved somewhat, as of late.  He's still
passing up some jumpers I think he should be taking, but he scored 10
tonight (3 offensive rebounds for scores) in 20 minutes.

Dana: Actually played pretty well, but he had one of his worst
shooting nights of the season.  He hit a jumper one the last C's
possession, or he would have been shutout.  And he took shots that
were certainly in his range.  He did have 6 assists and a steal (0
turnovers) in 13 minutes. 

Bowen: Another big night, defensively for Bruce.  Murray was just
hitting everything he threw up in the third quarter, and Bruce shut
him down in the 4th.  Mike Gorman was practically screaming for the
Wizards to get Murray a shot down the stretch, but Bruce had him
locked up.  He scored 3, and had 5 boards in 21 minutes.

Ellison: Pervis still doesn't look like he's got his full mobility
back.  It makes it hard for him to play Pitino's defense (of course,
as soon as he is healed completely, he'll just hurt himself again).
Pervis had 2 boards in 8 minutes.

Coaching: I'm not sure if Pitino called off the up tempo game, or if
the C's just couldn't force the pace they wanted.  After getting over
50 possessions in the first and second quarters, it slowed to just 44
in the 3rd and just 42 in the 4th (and that was with the traditional
orgy of possession in the last minute: there were only 35  in the
first 11 minutes).   The Celtics are doing a great job (thanks, Kenny)
of  pushing the ball up the court, and getting some easy hoops.  But
if the opposition can get there in reasonably good order, and then
pack the lane, the C's lose the advantage.  They just don't have
enough good outside shooters, to keep going.  Then they have to slow
it down and run their half court offense, which is still nothing to
depend on.

Opposition Names of Note: I think that the Wizards should change their
name (again) to the Quizards (the Quiz for short).  There are just so
many unanswered questions about this team.  Why can't they win more
than half their games?  Why do they take crazy shots at the end of
games?  Why is Webber always hurting? Why doesn't Tracy Murray get the
ball more often?  Could any coach get more than 50% of the ability out
of these guys?

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com