Celts Go Too Church Instead of Showing Up at Fleet Center: New Jersey 97- Boston 79

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	I hope that most of the list members were enjoying Easter
Sunday observances and were unable to view this afternoons debacle
(The Celts should be brought before the Hague Tribunal for
Non-Aggression).  The Celts wasted a Revelatory effort by Antoine
Walker (32 points), as they turned over the ball 23 times.  Toine
managed to put the team on his back and haul them back into the game
in the third (the Celts got to within 2), but they collapsed in the
4th, scoring just 11 points.  The worst thing about the game was that
the Nets really didn't play that well.  If the Celts had played as
well as they did Friday, they would have won by double figures.

	The Celts started off the game in dreadful fashion with Mercer
and Pierce both playing like they imbibed a little too much Yoo-hoo at
the Easter Eve's party. The Celts turned over the ball 4 times in the
opening 3 minutes of the period.  Fortunately for them the Nets
weren't doing to much better and with 6:00 to go the Nets were up just
11-8.  The Nets began to convert the constant flow of turnovers into
score, though, and the took a 22-10 lead on the strength of an 11-2
run.   Antoine Walker got his offensive game in gear and got the C's
back to within 4 at 22-18.  The Nets led at the end of the quarter on
the strength of 7 steals/10 C's turnovers.  There were a total of just
4 free throws attempted by both teams in the quarter.

	Both teams had a hard time scoring the ball in the first
portion of the second period.  At a timeout with just 6:52 to go in
the period, though it was remarkable that the Celts were still in the
game, trailing 38-31 (they deserved to be down by 20).  The old saw
"It's better to be lucky than good" only holds true as long as your
luck does.  The Celts ran out, as the Nets went on a 14-2 run to take
command of the game with a 52-33 lead.  The Celts got a bit closer
before the end of the half,and trailed just! 54-41 going into the
half.  V.P. and Toine played relatively soundly, while Mercer and
Pierce combined for 1-8 shooting and 8 turnovers in the half.

	About 2 minutes into the 3rd, Walker drove to the basket
against Van Horne, got the shot to drop and got to the line.  He hit
the free throw (which I think made him 6-7 in the game).  It's like a
light went on in his head: "Hey, Van Horne can't stop me from getting
to the basket, I either get an easy shot or he fouls me, and I can
make the free throws!!!".  Antoine started facing off and driving to
the basket every time he got the ball, and he got a positive result
nearly every time he did.  The Celts went on a 15-7 run (A.W. scored
8) to cut the Jersey lead to 4(65-61).  Pitino took Walker out of the
game to rest him around the quarter break, and the Nets pretty quickly
moved the lead back up to 7 (75-68) at the end of the period.

	With Walker still on the bench, bad things continued to happen
as the Nets ran off 4 more points to push the lead to double digits
(79-68).  Pitino put Walker back in and on his first possession back
in the game he wheeled around Van Horne and drove in for the basket:
Unfortunately he stepped on the end line while performing the
maneuver.  At that point the Celts stopped trying to get the ball to
Toine.  The Net's deluge continued as the piled up 6 more points to
put the game out of reach at 85-78 with 7:50 to go.  The game was
effectively over, and Pitino signaled his surrender a couple of
moments later by emptying his bench.  The Nets took home a
misleadingly close 97-79 win.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Nets: Marbury, Kittles, Gill, Van Horne, Cunningham

Players:
Walker: If you overlook the 6 turnovers (pretty big thing to miss, I
admit) this was about as high a quality game as you can imagine Walker
playing.  He really only attempted 1 jumper the whole game (a three
that fell short).  All of his other shots were within 10 feet of the
basket.  He faced up and drove more times in this game, than he
normally does in ten.  As a result he shot 10-18, and got to the free
throw line 13 times (making 12).  He ended up with 32 points, 11
boards, 2 assists and 5 steals in 40 minutes.  Now if Toine will
realize that he can drive on any power forward in the league and get
exactly the same results!!  He now has hit 29 of his last 33 free
throws.

Mercer\Pierce: There's just no polite word to describe the effort of
these two.  They combined for 5-22 shooting and 9 turnovers in 73
minutes.  Pierce did pull down 11 boards.  Anyway you look at it the
rest of the team played well enough to win this one.

Anderson: He and Marbury were going back and forth at each other a
bit, and it was kind of fun to watch.  I felt, though, that if there
had been any good reason to do so, Marbury could have put up 30+
points on Kenny.  Kenny had 13 points on 5-10 shooting, but made
almost no contribution to the other players offense with just 3
assists.  I wonder if there is a correlation between Kenny lack of
assists and the rest of the teams turnover numbers?

Potapenko: The other reasonably bright spot for the C's.  He was
aggressive on offense and defense, and ended up giving the Celts 12
points (6-14), 9 boards and 2 blocks in 33 minutes.  I'm a little
perplexed at his problem holding onto the ball, I don't remember it
from his first several games with the team.  I wonder if he has some
injury that's bothering him on the catch.

The Bench: maybe not fair to lump these guys together, but they're
playing like a shapeless gray mass, so why not?  They combined for 10
points on 4-16 shooting and 12 boards in 63 minutes of playing time.
The truth is that ever since DeClercq left the bench has been useless
(Battie just can't play the press the like Drew did: it's crippled the
bomb squad's efforts).

Coaching: I was shocked to hear Pitino defend the teams effort after
the game.  He said that the club gave it a go, and that it wasn't
their fault that they played like automatons who had just been
e-mailed the Melissa virus!  I guess that's why he likes Walter so
much.

Opposition Teams of Note:  Tommy and Mike commented that Jason
Williams might not be able to return from his most recent injury.
It really casts a pall over the future of what looks to be very good
young team.  Marbury looks to have gotten quite comfortable here very
fast.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net

P.S. Happy Easter to all!