Celts Come Back!!!!: Boston 101-Detroit 100

[gh18@juno.com (Gregory Hurst)]

I am tired of the fighting.  I'm ready to read about the Celtics 98-99
season.  Until then enjoy this great article by Mr. Bill Cooper.


	The Celts came back from a 17 point deficit with 7:00 to go in
the game, to win on a dramatic last tensths of a second shot by
Antoine Walker.  The Piston playing without Grant Hill in the last
period, and with a lack of focus from their coach, basically assumed
that they had the game won, and were unable to regain control of the
game once the Celts came back.  The game also marked the return of
Kenny Anderson to the lineup (with somewhat mixed results).

	The Game started out slowly for the Celts.  they trailed
halfway throught the first12-8, as the Piston got off to a good start
behing Brian Williams.  The Pistons closed the quarter with a 9-0 run
to make the score 24-14, going to the second.=20

	 The Pistons were leading 26-16, when Greg Minor injured his
shoulder going for a loose ball under the Pistons basket.  He left the
game, and was unable to return.  With about 3:00 gone in the period,
Kenny Anderson, who seemed a little uncomfortable in his stint at the
start of the game, returned to the court to much better effect.   He
picked up 4 quick assists while pulling the Celts to within 5 of the
Pistons at 43-38.  But Joe Dumars hit a 3 at the end of the half, to
give the Pistons a 51-42 lead.

	The Piston continued to play well in the second half, as Brian
Willimas continued his offensive onslaught.  About 2 minutes into the
quarter, Grant Hill scored his first (and only) basket of the game,
and then left due to back spasms.  Late in the quarter Walker got hot
and led the Celts on a 12-5 run to cut the Pistons lead to 7 at 75-68.
With a couple of minutes to go in the quarter, Pitino found that the
only way that he could get a rest for Mercer, was to put Edney and
Barros in the game together (since he wasn't ready to play Dante at
the 2guard, YET).  The Pistons scored the last 5 points of the period
on free throws to take an 80-68 lead into the final quarter.

	The  4th quarter was a little strange.  Alvin Gentry had me
convinced that he thought the game was in the bag, as he started 4
reserves along with Joe Dumars.  And for a time, it looked as though
he was correct.  With 9:00 to go Dumars hit a 3 to put the Pistons up
by 18 (90-72).   A couple of minutes later Pitino put Dante in the
game (great, even Rick's given up, I thought).  Immediatley, the Celts
went on an offensive run.  Walker put up a 3 (90-75), then, after a
Celtic miss the Pistons hit a jumper to make the score 92-75, with
7:00 to go in the game.  Dante hit another 3 on the Celts next trip
92-78).  From that point, the Celts scored on every single possession
(11) through the end of the game.  The Pistons, without Hill, still
scored sporadically, but they just couldn't keep up.   The Celts had
cut the lead to 98-91, when Pitino called a timeout with 2:23 left.
After a Hunter missed jumper, Walker made a brillinat drive to the
basket pulling the Celts within 5 (98-93).  Things looked gloomy for
the Celts though, as Travis Knight fumbled a Brian Williams miss our
of bounds, and Joe Dumars cashed in an 18 foot jumper to give the
Pistons a 7 point lead with just 1:12 to go.  (It's Dante Time!).  On
the next play, Dana drove into the lane and pitched the ball to jones
for a 3 (100-96).  Hunter tried to respond with a 3 of hits own, but
missed (.42 to go).  On the nest play, Dan found Dante again (not as
elegantly though), and Jones cashed in again on a three, pulling the
C's to within 1 (100-99).  On the next play, Brian Williams turned the
ball over, and Walker recovered and called timeout with 20.6 seconds
to go.  On the final play of the game, Dana held the ball out beyond
the arc till the 6.4 second mark, when he just handed the ball to
Antoine.  Walker made a couple of fakes, then dribbled the ball to his
right, and put up an awkward looking jumper, without being squared up
to the basket, with a second left on the clock.  The resulting high
arcing shot, banged off the backboard (I do not, for a minute, believe
that Toine meant to go glass) and careened through the basket with
0:00 showing on the clock.  The Celts win 101-100.

	As you can imagine, this was a very close game statistically.
Both teams shot nearly identical percentages (.494 Pistons-.488
Celts).  The Ce;ts had an edge in offesnive rebounds and turnovers
caused, while the Pistons lead in three pints shooting and free throws
attempted.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Minor, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq
Pistons: Hunter, Dumars, Hill, Reid, Williams

Players:
Dante!: He played the last 8 minutes of the game, and hit on 3-4
shots, all threes.  Didn't really do anything else to distinguish
himself, but Dante is a fearless shooter, and this was an occasion
that called for fearlessness.

Anderson: Kenny apparently worked out with the team yesterday, but
Pitino had said that he wanted him to get another practice in before
the let him play.  Cousy was of the opinion that Anderson was very
eager to play, and had talked the coach into letting him start.  Kenny
still has the brace on his knee, and did not shoot the ball well
(0-5).  And he does not seem to have the speed he displayed in those
first few game he played with the Celts.  But he obviously retained
the mental skills a great point has to have, and he displayed them
with 11 assists and 3 steals in just 22 minutes of playing time.  The
rust showed in an uncharacteristic 4 turnovers.

Walker: Just a huge game for Antoine, as he scored 31 (13-23), had 12
boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 turnovers.  He had just about every
part of his offensive game going tonight, but didn't really force
anything(except that last shot).  Made a particulalry nice dish on the
break to Declercq.

Mercer: with the Minor injury, he got 37 minutes and scored 16 on 8-16
shooting and had 3 steals.

DeClercq: had a nightmare night trying to stop Brian Williams
(Willimas shot 13-20 and had 29 points).  For some reason Andrew was
unwilling to front him, and received no help from his teammates.  DQ,
hinself, had 10 points, 4 boards and 2 blocks in 23 minutes.

Barros: Played for 24 minutes, and had a nice game for himslef with 9
points (4-8) and 7 assists.  He (not Kenny) was on the floor for the
final run and he certainly did his part.

Minor: tough for Minor to go down again, when he seemed to be playing
well (just something about those Louisville guys).  had just 2 points
in 11 minutes.  Of course, if Greg doesn't get hurt, then maybe Dante
doesn't supply that extra offense in the 4th.

Tabak: Pitino tried to use him agasint Williams, but Brian is far to
mobile for Jan, who is at his best defensding guys with no lateral
movement.  he did score 9 and have 3 boards in 14 minutes.

Knight: Quiet game for Travis, who had 4 points and 3 boards in 14
minutes.

Edney/Hanson: Each got 2 minutes.  I was glod to see that Pitino
hadn't completly for gotten Tyus's good play of the last couple of
weeks.

Coaching:  I'm not sure about the decision to let Kenny play (I mean
what's the upside, except getting Pitino Coach of the Year).  But I
really don't know enough to say.  I thought that Alvin Gentry made a
major mistake, by letting his starters sit on the bench for the first
half of the 4th quarter and letting the Celts think that they could
get back into the game.  A 17 point lead with 9 minutes left is just
not safe in the NBA, and the coach, of all people is supposed to know
that.

The Celts are now 33-41.  The Cels host the Knicks at 8:00 pm Sunday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

--------- End forwarded message ----------

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