Pistons Overhaul Celts: Detroit 92- Boston 85

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	Well, that's the difference between playing the Wizards and a
club that really has something at stake.  The Celts looked to have
this one firmly in control with 1:00 to go in the third quarter.  But
the Pistons, who desperately needed this game for playoff position
mounted a 15-0 run as they took control of the game down the stretch,
helped by ball handling woes on the part of the Celts.

	C's got off to a slow start tonight.  Really, so did the
Pistons, with the exception of Jerome Williams.  Detroit led at the
7:00 mark, 8-2.  Barros got the C's going with a 3 (Had a chance at a
4 point play, but blew the free throw).  The Pistons went back up
15-11 with 3:00 left.  McCarty and Pierce hit for consecutive threes,
to put the C's up 17-15).  Jones ended the quarter with another bomb,
off a feed from Potapenko to give the Celts a 20-19 edge.

	The Celts were really rockin at the start of the second, as
they scored 10 straight including 2 more triples from Pierce to take a
30-19 lead.  With about 5:00 to go, Potapenko, drove to the basket and
picked up the 3rd foul on Dele.  On yet another Pierce long shot, the
Celts took a 45-30 lead with just 3:00 to go.  Hill got into the act
(finally, said the Piston's fans), as he scored 8 points over the last
3:30 of the half, to cut the margin below 10 (47-38) at the end of the
period.  Jerome Williams, who had a double double in the first half,
was solely responsible for the Pistons being in the game.

	The Celts slowly rebuilt their lead at the start of the third.
Battie jammed home a McCarty miss, and then Pierce made a dazzling
conventional three, as he threw the ball in the hoop (off glass) over
his shoulder.  The Celts pushed the lead back up to 14 at 59-45.  The
Pistons came back (with Hill leading the way) as they scored 6
unanswered.  The Piston cut the C's lead to just 5 at 60-55.  The
Celts really went to the press hard, and began to turn the Pistons
over.  They caused Detroit to cough up the ball on three straight
possession, as they mounted a 13-2 run off their own.  That made the
lead 73-57, and I thought that the Celts might have this one put away.
In a grim harbinger of the 4th quarter to come, though, the Pistons
scored on their last 3 possessions of the quarter (sandwiched around 2
C's turnovers) to cut the lead to 10 (73-63) going to the 4th.

	The Pistons continued the increased defensive pressure at the
start of the 4th.  The Celts looked lame on offense, as the Pistons
outscored them 9-0 over the first 5:00 to cut the C's lead to 1
(76-75).  Pierce hit a three for the C's first score of the 4th (also
Paul's last points of the game).  The Celts still led 80-76 with 4:00
to and I thought they might have weathered the storm.  Pierce missed
an open 3 that would have put the C's up by 7.  HIll undressed  him on
the next play to cut the lead to 2.  Pierce turned the ball over, and
then Hill hit 2 free throws to tie the game (80-80).  Then Pierce
coughed up the rock, again, and Hill came right back to give the
Pistons the lead for good.  To their credit the Celts fought as hard
as they could, but the Pistons just overwhelmed them as they took the
game 92-85.  The Celts were outscored 29-12 in the 4th, as they
managed just 3 hoops.

	The story in this game was turnovers.  The Celts put forth a
massive effort in the press, and caused quite a few Detroit miscues.
And they still were on the losing end of the turnover tally 25-18.
The 2 clubs shot even from the field (the Piston shot a higher
percentage, but the Celts were far better on 3's).  The Pistons
attempted 9 more free throws, made 5 of them, and that was the
difference.  The Celts were 10-28 on threes.

	
Lineups:
Celts: Barros, Mercer, Pierce, Battie, Potapenko
Pistons: Hunter, Dumars, Hill, Williams, Dele

Players:
Pierce: 21 points on 7-15 shooting, 5 boards, 2 assists and 3 steals
in 37 minutes.  Not bad, but he collapsed down the stretch, as he was
getting undressed by Hill on one end, and then was trying to force
action, and getting turnovers for his trouble on the other.

Mercer: Just a horrible game offensively.  Shot 4-16, and had 5
turnovers.  Made bad decisions over and over again.  Did play hard on
defense, picking up 3 steals, especially a nice one on Hill in the
post down the stretch.

Battie: Not a bad game with 8 points and 14 boards in just 24 minutes.
He was a major culprit though, in letting Jerome Williams loose on the
offensive boards (11 offensive rebounds).

Barros: 12 points, 4 assists and 2 steals in 31 minutes.  Pitino felt
compelled to go with Dana all the way through the 4th, in the face of
the intense Pistons defensive pressure.

McCarty: picked up some nice garbage points tonight, as he shot 6-13,
and had 5 offensive boards.  He also had 6 turnovers!

Potapenko: getting increased respect, but I'm not sure that he wants
it.  The Pistons doubled down on him, nearly every time he got the
ball in the post.  Vitaly tried to pass it back out, and had some
success with 4 assists.  But he also turned the ball over 4 times, and
was a dreadful looking 2-6 on free throws.  Didn't play much down the
stretch.

Jones: had 10 points and 1 assists tonight in 17 minutes.  I thought
he did a pretty good job of quarterbacking the team in stretches
(despite the assist figure), but he wilted under the Pistons fierce
defensive pressure at the start of the 4th.

Minor: made some nice plays, especially on the defensive end.  In a
sign (though not a good one) of his increased confidence in his
jumper, all 4 of his attempts were from three point range.  So were
all 4 of his misses.

Riley/Garnett: combined for 4 minutes of playing time.

Coaching: Pitino really struggled with the defense on Hill.  Grant was
extremely quiet for the first 20 minutes. of the game.  But from then
on, as he was apparently convinced that the C's were going to play
hard enough that he couldn't take the night off, he dominated the
game.  The Celts tried playing straight up, then went to doubleteaming
him, especially along the left baseline.  Hill adjusted by posting
Pierce (who has no idea how to play post defense), and that was pretty
much the end.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net