Heat Overpowere Celts: Miami 105-Boston 91

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts played reasonably well, and possessed a big edge on
the Heat in the hustle categories (especially offensive rebounds).
That allowed the Celts to stay within 5-8 points of the Heat for most
of the night.  At no time, though, did you have the feeling that the
Celts might be able to close the gap, and really put some pressure on
the Heat.  And, in fact, when crunch time came, it was the Heat who
turned it on, outscoring the C's 17-7 over the last 6:00 of the game.
In additional to the usual missing figures, the Celts were without
Bruce Bowen and Travis Knight for this game.

	The Celts got off to a good start behind Antoine Walker.  They
took a 23-20 lead.  They stretched their advantage further with 5
points from Dana Barros over the last 1:30 of the first period, and
assumed a 28-22 lead going to the 2nd.

	The Celts continued to play well, at the start of the 2nd.
They went on a 9-0 run, capped off by a Walter McCarty jumper, to take
a 10 point lead at 39-29.  Pat Riley took a timeout, and got his
troops back on track.  Tim Hardaway started pushing the ball down
court, and finding easy opportunities for his teammates (especially
Mark Stricklnad).  They responded with a 10-0 run to tie the game.  By
the end of the half, the Heat had a 54-49 lead, having outscored the
Celts 23-8 over the final 7:00 of the second quarter.  Interestingly,
the lineup that the Heat used to retake the lead was very small, with
3 guards and Dan Majerle in, all at the same time.  They played
Phoenix ball, running and shooting from the perimeter.

	The Heat didn't seem inclined to take the Celtics too
seriously after that second quarter run, and the two teams traded
baskets for most of the third quarter.   Ron Mercer began to get hot
with his jumper and helped the Celts to stay in the game.  But the
Celts could never get the Heat lead below 5 and the quarter ended with
the score at 81-74.

	The Celts continued to hang around at the outset of the 4th,
and actually cut the Heat lead to 4, at 88-84 (about 7:00left in the
game).  The Heat turned it on, though, and outscored the Celts 17-7
down the stretch, getting most of their going into Alonzo, and then
playing off that, when the Celts collapsed on him.  The final was
105-91.  

	As I said at the top, the Celts had a big edge in the hustle
categories, winning offensive rebounds 19-7, steals 10-5, and
turnovers caused 14-10.  That added up to the Celts taking 16 more FGA
than the Heat.   Unfortunately the Celts allowed the Heat to shoot at
a .562 pace, against the C's .427. Obviously there's no way to
overcome a disadvantage like that.

Lineups:
Celts: Barros, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Heat: Hardaway, Lenard,  Marjerle, Strickland, Mourning 

Players:
Walker: Toine played a pretty solid game, shooting 11-25 (once again
his shooting tailed off down the stretch), for 29 points, 11 boards
and 3 steals in 42 minutes.  Unfortunately, his opposite number, Mark
Strickland, accounted for 23 points (on just 13 shots) and had 13
boards, so that most of the advantage that you might expect the Celts
to have at the PF position was negated.

Mercer: Had the jumper going most of the night (11-21) and mixed it up
with his driving game pretty well.  He scored 24 points and had 4
assists, including several excellent passes.  Ron's passing, which was
rather uninspired when the season started, has improved dramatically
over the course of the season.

Barros: Didn't shoot the ball especially well (he was 1-5 on threes),
but he did do a pretty solid job of running the team, getting 8
assists and 0 turnovers in 34 minutes.  He just doesn't have the
ability to dictate the tempo of the game, which was left up to T.
Hardaway.

McCarty: A rare mediocre outing for Walter.  He's usually either way
up or way down.  He scored 8, and had 3 assists in 27 minutes,
shooting 4-9.

DeClercq: 6 points (1-5), 8 boards and 3 steals in 26 minutes.  he did
a nice job of denying Zo the post, but, per usual, once the ball got
in, the C's were dead, with Mourning converting on 10-15 shots.

Tabak: he got his most minutes, with the C's yet (21).  Actually
didn't do a bad job, going to the offensive boards with gusto (4) and
doing a little scoring (6 points).  A pretty confident offensive
player, but is a fish our of water in the Celts defense.

Minor:  I though that Greg had a very nice game, scoring 6,  and
grabbing 4 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals in 23 minutes.  He played a
very alert floor game, and put the ball on the floor and drove
successfully a couple of times.  His jumper wasn't working especially
well, though, which accounts for the 3-7 shooting.

Edney: Got 14 minutes and had 3 points and 5 assists.  Played pretty
well, but I think that it was in the back of Pitino's mind that
Hardaway could abuse him at any time.

Coaching: Certainly, this kind of shorthanded situation, reveals some
of the shortcomings of Pitino's defense.  The Celts clearly didn't
play with the kind of energy, that we were used to seeing earlier in
the season (in part because of the short-handed situation, and partly
because of a general trend).  Without all that energy, the Celts
couldn't make up for all the switching they do, which resulted in a
bunch of easy shots for the Heat.

The Celts are now 30-39.  They play again Friday night.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

P.S.  Who Say They Don't Notice: Tommy Heinsohn observed that Violet
Palmer has "the nicest smile of any NBA ref".