C's Break Streak: Boston 108- Philadelphis 90

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts reversed their recent run of bad fortune with a
strong game off the bench from Dana Barros (in relief of Kenny
Anderson).  Dana helped the Celts to take advantage off an injury
weakened Sixers squad, as Derrick Coleman (who's been out for a bit)
and Joe Smith missed the game.

	Pitino started Kenny Anderson again (why, why, why), but he
was ineffective over the first 5 minutes of the game.  The C's were
trailing 9-8 when Tyus Edney came in for Kenny.  The Celts offense
picked up a bit with  Edney in a game, and they were able to take a
16-12 lead.   The Celts advantage was short lived, though, and with
3:00 to go in the game, the score was tied at 20.  Dana and Travis
Knight came in and made an immediate offensive contribution, as they
boosted the C's to a 33-26 lead at the end of the quarter.

	The Celts continued to play well at the start of the second.
They took a 43-32 lead on a spinning Ron Mercer drive.  The Sixers got
reorganized and got to within 2 points at 48-46.  The Celts managed a
rush just before the half and led 53-48.

	The Celts played well at the start of the 3rd and had extended
their lead to 69-57 halfway through the quarter.  The Sixers got back
to within 7 just before the end of the quarter, 79-72.  Barros scored
the last 4 points of the quarter to give the C's an 83-72 lead.

	The Celts extended their lead to 92-76 when Ron Mercer picked
up a Allan Iverson turnover and made two 360 spin moves to evade Sixer
defenders and score.   The Sixers made a last comeback and pulled to
within 8, at 94-86 after an 8-0 run.  Pitino called a timeout, and
Dana secured the win with accurate shooting and passing as the Celts
struck back with a 9-2 run to take control of the game.  The final
score was 108-90.

	The Celts had a big game shooting from the field at .519 while
holding the 6ers to .444.  They also hit 6-14 on 3's, and had 5 fewer
turnovers than Philly.  They had assists on 25 of their 41 baskets.

Lineups:
Celtics:Anderson, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Sixers:Iverson, McKie, Thomas, Williams, Ratliff

Players:
Dana: Big game.  Hit on 9-13 shots, including 4-6 on threes.  He had 9
assists, 9 boards, 3 steals and 2 turnovers to go with his 27 points.
About the only thing he did poorly was shoot free throws (5-9).  I'd
be pretty surprised to hear that Dana has had a better all around game
in his career.  He played Iverson for parts of the game, but in the
4th Bowen came in and guarded him.  With Kenny out early, and the
usual problem Pitino has playing Edney, Dana got 38 minutes.

Mercer: Had another very nice game for Ron, who shot 10-17, had 24
points, 3 assists and 3 steals in 43 minutes.  Very nice mix of
outside shooting and drives to the basket.    After his very
spectacular, length of the court drive in the 4th quarter, you could
tell he was pleased with himself: He actually smiled.

Walker: Also had a solid effort, with 25 points (10-17), 10 boards and
3 assists.  Scott Williams played way off him to start the game, and
Walker responded by trying to hit the outside jumper.  He didn't do
that well, thought, and by the second half was finding ways to get
shots from close in.

McCarty: Walter shot the ball reasonably well at 5-8 for 11 points and
had 7 boards in 24 minutes.  Still took too many outside shots though.
Also got credit for 3 blocks.

DeClercq: Probably ran around trying to help out on other players too
much.  Ratliff scored 27 points, most of them when he was unguarded
underneath the basket.  Ratliff also blocked one of Andrew's shots
early, and appeared to have DQ thinking every time he released a shot.
He had 6 points and 4 boards in 27 minutes.

Bowen: got 29 minutes tonight, many of them guarding Iverson.  Allan
broke him down a couple of times, but most of the time, Bruce kept him
under control.   He scored 5, had 4 assists and 3 steals.  Is Bowen a
FA at the end of this season, and if so (or even if it's at the end of
next season), will the Celts be in the position of only being able to
offer him a 20% raise?  

Knight: Played well in the first half.  He scored 10 points, had 6
boards and 2 assists in 21 minutes.

Edney: Only played for 6 minutes.  Had 2 assists but picked up 4
fouls.  I have to think that Edney would play better if he didn't
think that Pitino would jerk him out of the game at the first mistake
he makes.

Minor: got just 8 minutes and shot 0-4.  He did have a couple of
assists.

Anderson: Played just 4 minutes.   Don't know why he's even dressing.

Coaching: Another nice effort (the third in a row: just the first one
to result in a win).  It's not surprising that the Celts won, with
Smith out, but it was nice to see them run some coherent offense
without Anderson (in fact, one of their better non-Kenny games of the
year).  The Celts worked very hard to keep the ball our of Iverson's
hands, and it seemed to work very well.

Opposition Free Agents of Note: Ratliff: Gorman mentioned that Ratliff
is a FA at the end of the season, and if he wants to come to the Celts
he must have made a pretty good impression.  He scored 27 points on
10-15 shooting, had 11 boards and 3 blocks.  Out of all the big people
that have been mentioned, he seems like one of the best fits for the
C's style.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com