Celts Smoke(Smelt?) Nuggets: Boston 115- Denver 90

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	If Rick Pitino was to imagine the perfect game on the part of
his club, this effort would be pretty close.  The big matchup between
Mercer and Pierce turned out to be a non-starter, as Paul stuffed Ron
the frist 2 times he touched the ball.  The Celts controlled the tempo
better than they have all season long, and were able to exhaust a
Nugget team on the end of a long road trip.  While the Celts played
well, this game had the look of a traditional East Coast night off by
a West coast team.

	The Celts really came out passing tonight.  They started the
game with an 8-0 run,  with each of the C's scores triggered by an
excellent pass.  On defense Pierce started the game by blocking a
Mercer jumper, and recovering the block.  The C's continued to pour it
on and built a 15-4 lead.  After that the starters intensity began to
wane, and they made a few less than stellar plays, letting the Nuggets
recover some of that lost ground.  By the time Pitino went to the
bench the lead was down to 4 at 15-11.  The Celts bench was very
intent on pressing and managed to cause several Nugget turnovers.
More importantly they actually managed to score some points, putting
up 13 points over the last 5:00 of the quarter, pushing the lead back
up to 28-23.  The quarter featured one of the highest tempo quarters
of the season with 56 possessions.

	The bench continued to play with energy, getting some nice
scores off offensive rebounds, as they pushed the lead up to 36-25,
before the regulars started to filter back into the game.  The tempo
continued at a high rate.  When the starters came back into the game,
they saw the Nuggets, led by Van Exel and McDyess, chip away at the
lead, getting it down to 47-38 with 4:00 to go in the half.  The tempo
really told on the Nuggets over the last 4:00 of the quarter, though,
as the Celts went on a 15-4 tear, to take a 62-41 lead into the half.
There were 110 possessions in the first half, which probably exceeds
the highest total I can remember over the last 4+ years by nearly ten.
Almost all of the C's played well, but Pierce was nearly perfect with
4-5 shooting, 6 assists, a couple of blocks on Mercer, and several
steals.

	More of the same to start the 3rd.  The Denver starters seemed
demoralized.  They just walked down the floor, and threw up a shot,
didn't go to the boards, and just seemed apathetic.  The C's 1st
string continued to keep the pressure on.  They started out with a
17-6 run to push the lead up to 32 points (79-47).  The Nuggets went
for nearly 11 minutes without scoring a basket, and that was it for
the game.  Despite an 8-0 Denver run to close out the 3rd, the Celts
still led 90-62.

	The fourth quarter was pure garbage time.  The highlight (?)
was probably the 17 meaningless points that Chauncey Billups put up.
The far end of the 2 clubs benches traded baskets for the rest of the
game, and the Celts had their most resounding victory of the year
115-90.

	The Celts shot .516 to the Nuggets .408, out rebounding them
48-40, and for the first time all season, had a big edge in turnovers
24-16.  The Nuggets did go to the free throw line more, 44-20.  Even
at the line, the Celts excelled hitting 17.  The C's had a season high
33 assists.  

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Griffin, Walker, Potapenko
Nuggets: Van Exel, Mercer, Posey, McDyess, LaFrentz


Players:
Pierce: a very strong game form the opening moments.  Really set the
tone for the game with the defensive plays on Mercer, and by making
some strong passes (to Toine especially) to start the game.  Ended up
with 15 points (5-10), 3 boards, 8 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks in
27 minutes.


Walker: A marked change of strategy in regards to Antoine's offense.
He played most of the first half within about 5 feet of the baseline,
moving around, trying to free himself up for a good pass.  In the
first half he took around 12 shots, none of them above the free throw
line.  He still only shot 7-17, but missed several good opportunities.
Took just 1 three.  Scored a team leading 20 points, and had 8 boards
and 5 assists.

Battie: another very strong game from Tony.  He is so aggressive on
the offensive board (he had 4 tonight in 25 minutes).  Also had 15
points, a total of 12 boards and 3 assists.  Although scoring off the
offensive board is still his best offensive move, he continues to be
more aggressive going to his turnaround.  Looked like he remembered a
couple things about defending McDyess from practice in Denver.  I
thought that Tommy H. had an excellent point (maybe obvious, but I
hadn't thought about it that way) when he observed that Battie could
be the kind of impactful 6th man the Celts need.

Anderson: had some nice defensive moments in the game.  Scored just 9,
but Van Exel had 10 on 3-8.  Kenny obviously has a pretty good
understanding of how to deal with left handed players.  Kenny had 3
steals, and a couple of real floor burn hustle plays.  

Griffin: Broke out of his post rookie-of-the-month slump with 9 boards
and 4 points in 22 minutes.  Still is not touching the ball at all on
offense.

McCarty: Waltuh missed 4 shots, but in a complete reversal of form,
managed to hit 6 for 14 points, 4 boards and 2 assists in 21 minutes.
He is so much more comfortable on the floor when the team is pressing,
It's like he thrives on chaos.  Also had 3 steals.  

Cheany: Calbert hit 3 jumpers in the game.  This could be a very big
development for the consistency of the 2nd team offense.  Had 10
points (5-7), 4 boards, 2 assists and 3 steals in 24 minutes.  

Williams:  I don't think I ever remember Eric posting a line like
this.  He shot just 2-8, had 6 points, 2 boards and 5 assists (!).

Dana: continues in the 3 points slump (0-3).   Had 6 points and 2
steals (a lot of that in garbage time).

Potapenko: He started out the game guarding McDyess, and predictably
had a bit of trouble with that matchup.  On the other hand he scored
pretty easily against LaFrentz, and probably could have put up some
serious points.  But Pitino went with Battie at center instead.  Had 8
points and 3 boards in 13 minutes.  Vitaly was poorly prepared to
guard someone as quick as McDyess.  He was actually fronting and
3/4ing him, rather than playing off, or directly behind him.

Ellison: came in for a few minutes at the end of each half.  Continues
to contribute.

Overton: 4 minutes of garbage time at the end of the game.

Coaching: a few interesting wrinkles in the game tonight.  There was
the change of philosophy in  using Toine on offense, the use of the
press with the second team, and the decision to flip flop Potapenko
and Walker on defense (V.P. played McDyess and Toine guarded
Lafrentz).   I guess it worked.

	I thought the best thing about the effort was the tempo.  If
you count the 20 free throws the Celts took, they were over 100
offensive opportunities (91 shots).  There was no way that a West
Coast team in the middle of a long road trip was going to stand up to
that pace.

The Celts are now 9-8.  They host the Rockets on Friday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net