Rockets OverPower Celts: Houston 105-Boston 96

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The C's put forth their most spirited effort of the last
couple of weeks, clearly out hustling the Rockets.  At the end of the
game, the Celts were no match for the Rockets superb veterans.  Ron
Mercer established a new career high in points with 31, but it wasn't
enough to overcome Hakeem Olajuwon's 33.

	Kenny Anderson started again, and together with some stingy
defense on the C's part, he got the Celts and Ron Mercer off to a fast
start.  The Celts answered a 6-0 Rockets run with a 9-0 run at the end
of the quarter, to take a 24-19 lead.  Mercer had 11 in the first
quarter, but Olajuwon was able to score at will in the paint.

	The Celts toughened their interior defense in the 2nd quarter,
and slowly extended their lead, pushing it as high as 43-34.  They got
great hustle from DeClercq, Minor and Bowen in this period of the
game.   The Rockets were able to cut the lead to 6 (51-45) just before
the end of the half.

	The Rockets started off the 2nd half with a 9-2 run to take
the lead at 54-52.  With about 4:00 gone in the half, Pitino threw in
the towel on Kenny Anderson, whose leg was getting progressively
worse.  Dana came in for Kenny, who did not return.  The score was
tied at 61 each, when the Celts put together a 10-3 run to take a
71-64 lead.  Pitino took out most of his offensive players at the end
of the 4th, and the Celt's offense faltered.  The Rockets scored the
last 9 points of the quarter, to take a 73-71 lead into the 4th.

	The Celts regained the lead with a 6-0 run in the middle of
the 4th (81-79).  The Rockets began to pound the ball into Olajuwon,
who had been held in check for most of the game by DeClercq.  Maybe
Andrew was tired, or maybe Hakeem had some tricks he saved for the 4th
quarter, but all of a sudden the Rockets could get the ball into the
post with ease, and Olajuwon powered them to a 92-87 lead.  The Celts
got a jumper form Dana and a 3 from Antoine, to pull to within 2 at
94-92.  The Rockets closed out the game with a 6-0 run to put the game
out of reach.  The final was 105-96.

	Another night, the same story.  The Rockets shot at a .506
pace (even though they were 6-22 on threes, it could have been worse).
The C's shot just .406, but they made up for in by limiting their own
turnovers to just 8, while the Rockets had 18.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Rockets: Maloney, Drexler, Ellie, Willis, Olajuwon

Players:
Mercer: Ron's game has continued to improve, the entire season, and
tonight was just another bench mark.  He took the same number of field
goal attempts as Walker (and he had 2 more free throws).  He scored 8
more points, going 12-24, for 31 points, had 3 assists and 6 steals in
42 minutes (which also led the team).  His jumper was on, and he
converted a lot of turnovers into baskets.  He also had a spectacular
offensive reboung/jam off a Walker miss.

Walker: I thought it was a weak performance by Antoine.  He was
guarded for much of the game by Kevin Willis.  He couldn't drive on
Willis and had to settle for outside jumpers.  And Willis (and later
Barkley) went to town on the offensive boards.  Toine shot 8-24, and
had 8 boards in 41 minutes.

Anderson: Kenny lasted for 17 minutes and had 4 assists and 3 points.
by the end of the his time in the game Matt Maloney was abusing him!

DeClercq Played extremely hard, and especially in the first half did a
great job of fronting Olajuwon.  He had numerous steals in the low
ponts, and did a good job on the offensive boards.  Late in the game,
it appeared that he could no longer summon the energy to aggressively
front Hakeem, and the Celts paid for it (Pitino actually went to Tabak
to guard Hakeem for the last 3 minutes).  Andrew had 9 points, 9
boards, 5 assist and 5 turnovers in 34 minutes (4 fouls tonight).

McCarty: Another brutal offensive night for Walter.  He was 1-9, had 3
points, 5 boards and 4 assists.  Most of his shots came from far
outside, and stationary.  By the end of the game, he was passing up
shots.

Dana: Had 12 points and 4 assists in 28 minutes.  He shot 6-14 and
managed take good care off the ball.  He went 0-4 on 3's.

Knight: got only 12 minutes.  Had 2 points and 2 steals.

Bowen.  Bruce had a nice game offensively, as he seems to be improving
in that regard.  He shot 4-6 in 20 minutes.

Tabak: got 5 minutes, a few late in the game.  No points or rebounds.

Minor: Only got 10 minutes and had 2 points and 4 boards.  Really
hustled when he was in there.  Pitino would have been better off
playing him or Bowen more and McCarty less (but you can say that in
any game, when Walter isn't hitting).

Edney: Played for 3 minutes, which shows just how desperate Pitino's
situation is (since Rick would never play Tyus if he didn't have too).

Coaching: Leaving aside the Anderson question, I would think that
Pitino has to be pretty happy with the Celt's effort tonight.  The
team seems to have regained it's equilibrium a little, and gone back
to work.  I thought that Pitino might try Knight and DeClercq together
a bit, which has worked reasonably well in recent game.

The Celts are now 29-37.  They host the Sixers on Sunday next.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com