Intense Season Opener

[Warwick <giants@eisa.net.au>]

Hey all,

The Celtics season opener sure was an intense affair wasn't it?? I've
never seen a season opener that had that much excitement and classiness
about it. It was almost 'old fashioned' basketball with our beloved
Celts finally defeating the Knicks 101-97 on the back of 32 points by
rookie Paul Pierce.

Pierce showed flashes off being a real 'superstar' talent for the league
as he continuously beat the Knicks pressure defense especially playing
on the stronger, but considerably slower Larry Johnson in the second
half.

I've never seen a rookie come out in their rookie game quite like he did
tonight. Antoine didn't seem the same as last season and has put on a
couple of lbs as hes trying to bulk up to play a more natural power
forward. His quickness has taken a little bit of a penalty but with 16
rebounds he seems assured to make his place among the league leading
rebounders..

Michael Stewart also surprised me in his first game as a Celt. His 4
blocks on Patrick Ewing in the final period were spectacular and lead
the Celtic's defense.. His style of play was the missing ingredient last
season.

Ron also looks more mature and his 20 points with 3 3s were testimony to
the rumor that he was working on his perimeter game throughout the
lockout.

I guess the entire team had a superb game and even the older experienced
players lead a helping hand, Kenny was great reminded me a lot of Tiny,
Pervis managed to play 10 minutes for 4 points and 6 rebounds (very
impressive!!) and Dana's out side shooting was good.

For the Knicks, you couldn't go past Marcus Camby's 17 points, 12 boards
and 6 blocks as their game MVP, though Ewing's 22 and 10 were roughly
his average. Michael Jordan has clearly slowed a bit and his 14 points
(off a terrible 4 of 17 shooting with ONLY 2 free throws clearly showed
a lack of help from the refferrees which is good to see).

Rick Pitino out coached Van Gundy tonight, but both teams have a nice
structure to work with.

To sum it all up, the Celtics were impressive against the Knicks tonight
and look like a team ready made to make the next step on its road to
rebuilding and that is to make it to the playoffs.


--
 Cheers,

 Warwick.

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