Pistons Outslug Celts: Detroit 96-Boston 92

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts meager play-off hopes suffered a devastating blow
last night.  Not so much the loss to the Pistons (though that
certainly doesn't help), but the admission that Kenny Anderson can't
play effectively on his injured knee.  Kenny tried to play for the
first 8 minutes of the game, to little positive effect, and then sat
out the rest of the game.  Needless to say, without Anderson, the
Celts just don't belong in the playoffs, and stand little chance of
getting there.  The C's threw in the towel on another of their injured
players, moving Pervis Ellison to the IR and activating Jan Tabak.

	The game started off like a staged advertisement for the NCAA
tournament (Why are you watching this, when you could be...?).   Half
way through the quarter, the score stood a 6-6, with only 3 baskets
being scored.   Andrew DeClercq picked up 2 fouls in the first 1:17 of
the game and was forced to the bench.  About halfway through the
quarter, Pitino gave tabak his first stint in a Celt's uni.  Tabak hit
a jumper, but was otherwise unimpressive (he clearly has no idea how
to play in Rick's defense).  With the score tied at 14-14, Anderson
left the game,and was replaced by Barros.  Neither team could generate
any offense, and the quarter ended with the score at 19-18, Pistons,
with neither team ever having held more than a 3 point lead.

	At the start of the second quarter, the Pistons continued to
plod along, but the Celts offense grew even more decrepit.  They
scored just 4 points in the first half of the period, and fell behind
32-22.  Apparently very desperate, Pitino actually put Tyus Edney into
the game, in place of Dana.  Tyus managed to inject some life into the
C's offense and the Celts ended the half with a 10-0 run to take a
38-37 lead into the half.

	Tyus started the second half at the point and continued to
deliver.  The Celts outscored the Pistons 14-5 to assume a 52-42 lead
with about 8:00 to go in the quarter.  However, Tyus had missed all of
the jumpers that he had attempted, and Alvin Gentry and the Pistons
coaching staff, adjusted by having the player guarding Edney sag way
off him.  At the same time, they cleared the floor, and let Dumars
back Tyus down a few times.  The combination of these tactics, seemed
to reduce Tyus's effectiveness a lot, and the Pistons were able to
climb back into the game, cutting the lead to 60-54, by the time that
Dana replaced Edney in the lineup.  The Celts got a quick boost form
McCarty, who pushed them to a game high 65-54 lead.  The Pistons
closed the quarter with a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 69-65.

	Without any effective point guard play, and unable to generate
many turnovers on the part of the Pistons, the Celts were generally
ineffective in the 4th.  The Pistons grabbed the lead at 77-75.
Walker hit a nice driving shot to give the C's their last lead of the
game at 82-80.   With the score at 84 apiece, Brian Williams hit a
free throw, and after he missed the second DeClercq let the ball slip
through his hands.  Stackhouse got possession and went back up to make
the score 87-84.  That was the last time the score was tied.  The
Celts got within 1 point numerous time afterwards, but were never able
to get the stop they needed to get a chance to take the lead.   With
the score at 93-92 (42 seconds left) , the Celts let the Pistons
rebound their own missed shots several times, and were forced to foul.
The game ended with the score at 96-92.

	Two big stats in this game.  The Celts had More! turnovers
than the Pistons (19-16) which negated a slight Celtic edge on the
offensive boards, and the Pistons took 24 more free throws than the
Celts (47-23) and hit 18 more.  The Celts did have a slight edge in
shooting (.432-.420) and in 3 point shooting.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Minor, Walker, DeClercq
Pistons: Dumars, Hunter, Hill, Reid, B. Williams

Players:
Walker: What a difference a point guard makes.  Toine had a
night-marish evening on the offensive end.  He shot 8-25, and had 8
turnovers.  He did go to the offensive boards with a vengeance and
grabbed 18 rebounds (8 offensive).  Unfortunately he didn't always do
a good job of getting the ball back in once he got those bounds.  he
ended up guarding Hill for much of the 4th quarter, as Stackhouse
played small forward for much of the quarter.  I would say that it was
pretty much a wash.

Anderson: scored 4, and had 2 assists in 9 minutes.  Really wasn't a
factor.

Mercer: Shot 7-17 despite a complete lack of any easy shots at the
basket.  Scored 16 in 40 minutes.  

DeClercq:  he picked up 3 fouls over about 7 possessions in the first
half.  He stretched his remaining 3 fouls out over about 16 minutes in
the second half, and managed some good play.  He fouled out,
intentionally fouling Stackhouse in the last minute of the game.  had
some dramatic offensive rebounds for scores down the stretch, but
continues to have trouble catching the ball (had this been going on
all season, or is it just recent: I've noticed tape on his fingers a
couple of times).

Minor: 6 points and 4 boards in 15 minutes.  Didn't play badly, but
Pitino just didn't feel comfortable with him guarding Hill.

Knight: With DQ in foul trouble, he got 20 minutes and didn't do too
bad a job.  He scored 6 and had 6 boards.  It looked at first as
though Brian Williams would have him for lunch, but the Celts managed
to compensate, and kept Brian under control

Edney: Tyus got 23 minutes, scored 9 and had 7 assists.  Most of his
effective play came in the last half of the 2nd quarter, and early in
the third (as the Celts outscored the Pistons 30-10).  After Tyus
missed those first few jumper, he stopped taking them, and the Pistons
stopped playing him to take it.  he was ineffective after that.

Dana: Continues to have a hard time finding his shot.  He played 16
minutes tonight, and took 5 shots, making 1.  He also had 4 assists.

McCarty: another nice night shooting for Walter.  He was 5-7,
including 3-4 on threes (14 points in 28 minutes0..  Personally, I
don't rust the Dale Ellis side of Walter's b-ball personality.  I
would vastly prefer to see him taking the ball hard to the basket ,and
taking short jumpers and turnarounds like he did in that road game in
Sacramento.  You know that the jumper is going to desert him in the
next game or two.

Bowen: Did a good job against Hill, though Grant got the foul calls.
he was back to his normal offensive performance tonight, though,
hitting 1 of 5.   

Tabak: hit a nice 17 foot jumper. but otherwise showed nothing.

Coaching: It'll be interesting to see how Rick handles Anderson's
injury.  With no points except Dana and Tyus, the Celts could end the
season on a real sour note.  On the other hand, if the C's want to
make a determined push for playoff position next season (I assume that
most of us think that the Celts would be in position for get more than
the 8th spot in the play-offs if Anderson had been with the team and
healthy since the beginning of the season), then they need a heathy
Anderson.

The Celts are now 29-34.  They play in Atlanta on Sunday (game time
3:00).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S. Gorman and Heinsohn said that Terry Durham (lead ref on the crew
that worked the game) threatened to throw Tommy out of the game after
a particularly loud and negative journalistic critique of the
officiating.  Neither Tommy or Mike seemed inclined to regard it as a
joke (but what else could it have been?), and Tommy couldn't talk
about anything else except the bad calls the rest of the night.