Sixers outlast Celts: Philadelphia 99-Boston 92

[bcooper@imageconversion.com (Bill Cooper)]

[My apologies that this is so late.  My ISP was having problems this
morning]

	The Celts got off to a good start in tonight's game, behind
excellent 1st half offensive performances by Antoine Walker and Walter
McCarty.  The second half was a far different story, as Walker
disappeared, and was thoroughly outplayed by Derrick Coleman.  The
Sixers outscored the C's 26-16 in the 4th quarter, and won the game
going away.  Travis Knight returned to the lineup tonight.

	Early on the Celts and the Sixers were trading baskets, with
Walker getting off to a fast start.  The Sixers took a lead at 22-18
with 2:00 left in the period.  Antoine went wild over the last 2:00 of
the period, scoring 5 points and assisting on a McCarty jam, to send
the C's on a 9-0 run, and take a 27-22 lead into the second quarter.

	The Celts and the Sixers exchanged baskets for the first
couple minutes of the quarter, and then the Sixers mounted a 7-0 run
to take the lead at 35-34.  Tyus Edney came off the bench to give the
Celts a big lift, as they closed the half with a 17-8 run to take a
58-49 lead.

	The Sixers slowly chipped away at the Celts lead in the third.
With the score at 66-60, the Sixers mounted an 8-0 run, using a small
lineup with Eric Snow at the off guard, and Bryan Shaw at the small
forward.  The Celts rallied to take a 76-73 lead into the 4th period. 

	 The Sixers quickly tied the score at the start of the 4th.
The score was tied at 80-80 with 9:00 to go in the game.  The Sixers
seized control of the game with an 9-0 run, as Derrick Coleman scored
7 of the 9 points.  The Celts battled back, behind some determined
play from Ron Mercer.  They cut the Sixers lead to 3, three times in
the last 3:30 of the game.  But they couldn't get a stop on the
defensive end, and when they fouled intentionally, the Sixers who had
shot poorly from the free throw line early in the game, came through
in the clutch.  The final score was 99-92 in favor of Philly.

	The only reason that the C's were even in the game, at the
end, was the woeful Sixer foul shooting.  The Sixers got to the line
44 times, but they were only able to hit 30 (the C's were 14-18).  The
Celts dodged that bullet, and they outshot the Sixers from the floor
as well (.481-.459). The hustle categories were pretty even with the
Celts causing more turnovers (18-15), but the Sixers hauling down more
offensive boards 13-9.

Lineups: 
Celts: Barros, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Sixers: Iverson, McKie, Coleman, Thomas, Smith

Players: 
Walker had a big first half, with 23 points, and was 8-9 in shooting
at one point.  He tailed off badly and only scored 2 points in the 4th
quarter.  He ended the game with 32 points (13-23), 14 boards, 5
assists, but 6 turnovers.  He played 46 minutes in a game played at a
pretty high tempo, and you have to wonder if he wasn't worn out by the
end of the game.

Mercer: shot 8-18, and had 18 points and 5 assists.  He was the guy,
who was trying to force the issue at the end of the game, not Antoine.

He had a little success, but no where near enough to turn the tide of
the game.

Dana: very tough game for Dana.  He scored 5 points (2-6), and had 3
assists in 27 minutes.  Cousy speculated that Iverson and the Sixer
guards were paying special attention to Dana after his big outing
against them in the teams last meeting.

McCarty: Walter got off to a fast start with 10 points in the first
half, but only scored 4 points in the remainder of the game.  He shot
5-10 for 14 points, had 6 boards and 3 blocks (2 of the blocks were in
the first quarter also).

Edney: Tyus had one of his best games of the year, scoring 11 points,
and picking up 7 assists and 3 steals in just 20 minutes.  he started
off the game by hitting 3 jump shots (15-18 feet).  After that he had
pretty good success driving to the basket.  Maybe this will get him
some steady playing time.

DeClercq: Only got 23 minutes, and had 2 points, 6 boards and 2
blocks. He was 0-1 from the line which puts him at 2-9 over the last 2
games.  Heinsohn reported that he has been playing with a bad back. 

Travis: actually played some good aggressive ball, but was unable to
translate that into offense where he was 1-7 from the field.  He
scored 3 points and had 5 boards in 19 minutes.

Minor: Greg had another nice game on the floor.  And he hit a couple
of shots.  He scored 9 points, and had a couple of blocks.

Tabak: got a few minutes at the end of the 1st half, and had a real
nice block.

Coaching: With the various injuries, Pitino has dramatically shortened
the bench, playing just 9 players tonight (and Tabak only got 4).
He's taken off the press for most off the game, and is depending on
his main players to provide increased field goal efficiency to make up
for the lack of the extra shots that the Celts were getting from their
harrassing defense.  The amazing thing, is that to some extent it's
working, as the Celts are attaining field goal percentages that would
have seemed unreachable before Kenny Anderson came to the team.

	Larry Brown played the game with (nearly) 3 points guards on
the floor for much of the game.  He had Snow and Shaw on the floor,
along with Iverson.  I don't think that the Celts exactly knew what to
do against a team that was actually smaller than them, and in
particular were unable to get any benefit on the offensive boards.

The Celts are now 31-40.  They play again Tuesday in Miami. 

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.com