Re: Larry Hughes

[Georgek27@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/4/99 9:11:29 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
cecil@hfx.eastlink.ca writes:

<< Not according to Bill's report, which I am much more inclined to believe
 than a large % of the reactionary comments I read on this list.  From Bill,
 I get the sense that Toine played a very good game, a very smart game by
 driving, waiting for the defense to collapse on him and kicking the ball out
 to the open man.  That is team basketball, which, at a previous time, was
 the essence of Celtic basketball.
  >>
Good post Cecil.  While the fashionable thing is to bash AW if you look 
beyond the shots you can appreciate him more.  Last night nothing would drop 
for him and he didn't take a lot of bad shots.  He was working under the 
boards and looked to have more rebounds than he got credit for, he was 
attracting double teams and opening things up for others, and he did a lot of 
other stuff like the steal/layup in he 4th quarter that seemed to seal 
Miami's fate.  Some of the 3's he put up were the very same shot that Bird 
would take (leading by 10-12 and looking for that extra dagger in the 
opponents heart) and even tho they didn't drop we got some of the offensive 
rebounds on them.  The difference is that Bird would go out and shoot a few 
hundred in practice before every game and Antoine does not.  The team 
collectively had trouble with the 3's but did seem to get a lot of the long 
rebounds.

How anyone can compare Larry Hughes performance last night to any game 
Antoine EVER had is beyond me.  In only 12 minutes Hughes managed to miss all 
6 shots he took and turn the ball over 6 times.  IN 12 MINUTES!  The only 
"positive" he had was ONE rebound.

Last night's game was similar to VP's first Celtic/Heat game.  Our trio of 
centers made life miserable for Mourning even tho he came away with stats.  I 
think our trio of centers put up something like 25 pts and 23 rebounds 
against him tho (and I realize we sometimes had 2 of them in the game at 
once).  To credit the win to Pitino getting tossed is as accurate as writing 
off the season after losing our first exhibition game.  But then after AW, 
Pitino is the #2 whipping boy for the fans with Barros, McCarty & Battie not 
too far behind.  Some criticism is deserved on all fronts but in most cases 
some credit is deserved as well.

George