Celts Celebrate Parquet: Boston 98- Hawks 81

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	And the game wasn't even that close.  The Celts got the lead
up to 28 a couple of time and by right should have had a thirty point
blowout.  As usual, though, they lost focus, and while the Hawks
certainly never threatened, they did outscore the C's 22-11 over the
last 9:00 of the game.  The Hawks were very sluggish coming off a
three day, layoff, but the Celts put in a very solid nights work.
They got excellent ball movement, especially out of the post, and
Griffin did a very solid job defending Rider.

	The Celts got off to a solid start in this game.  They did a
good job of finding Potapenko when Mutumbo wandered away to try to
block shots, and conversely went in to Walker (and even Williams)
nicely when Vitaly pulled Mutumbo out above the free throw line.  The
game was tied at 6-6 with 8:34 to go.  The Celts scored the nest 7
straight.  They held the Hawks to just 6 baskets in the first quarter,
as the Celts jumped out to a 28-14 lead.  The Celts held that lead
despite missing a number of pretty good opportunities.  They could
easily have been up 20.

	Barros was hot at the start of the second, scoring the first 5
points for the C's as they extended the lead to 21.  As usual, the
Celts couldn't stand prosperity, and began to lose momentum on
offense.  The Hawks were getting to the foul line with regularity, but
were having a tough time converting.  Still they cut the C's lead to
37-23.  Walker came back in and hit a timely three (as the clock was
running out), and then scored on the break, when Kenny did a fine job
of finding him as they trailer.  The Celts got the lead back up to 21
at 44-23.  Eric Williams scored the last 6 points of the half,
including a three, when Dana found him in the corner with less than a
second on the clock.  The Celts went into the half leading 50-32.

	More of the same to start the second half.  The Celts started
out with a 9-4 run to extend the lead to 24 (60-36).  On the next
Celtic possession, Walker used his patented spin move to get himself
free along the baseline.  But he got too far under the basket, and was
actually turned around facing away from the hoop, with the ball
resting on his palm.  He just flipped the ball into the basket (it was
that kind of night for the Celts).  The C's defensive intensity began
to slip at this point, and they began to trade baskets with the Hawks.
The quarter ended with the Celts up 79-55.

	The bench put on a nice burst at the start of the 4th period
to push the lead up to 28 at 87-59.  Despite the fact that Wilkens had
pulled all of his starters at this point, the Celts lost all of their
intensity (offense and defense).  The Hawks bench (especially Laphonso
Ellis, back from the grave), got off on a 9-0 run.  Pitino was forced
to put Walker and Anderson back into the game to staunch the bleeding.
With them in, things stabilized, and the Celts went home with the
98-81 final.

	The C's shooting percent, which was well above 50% for most of
the game dropped to .482, by the end.  Still a vast advantage over the
Hawks .405.  They also shot a credible 9-21 on threes and committed
just 12 turnovers.  And it was a good thing, as the rest of the stats
were not so positive.  The Celts were outrebounded 45-41, and were
beaten on the offensive boards 12-6.  they got off to a good start
causing turnovers, but by the end of the game, the difference was down
to just 1 (13-12).  The Hawks had a big advantage getting to the line
25-11.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Griffin, Williams, Walker, Potapenko
Hawks: Coles, Rider, Jackson, Henderson, Mutumbo

Players:
Griffin: a lot of guys played well tonight, obviously.  I just wanted
to stress, that Adrian did an excellent job keeping Rider out of the
game (which is pretty much the whole ball of wax against the Hawks),
I don't think that Rider had more than 2 legitimate shots at the
basket in the entire game (which didn't stop him from taking 14 of
course).  Adrian has had a bit of trouble staying with some of the
guards (Miller) who specialize in running of screens and picks.  But
he had no problem with Rider tonight.  Also wanted to mention that
Adrian's jump shot has disappeared.  when he started out the season,
he was going up very straight and high on his jumper, with his elbow
tucked in and everything aligned.  In the last ten games, his shot has
become much more loose.

Walker: What, this makes 4 out of the last 5, as solid games for
Toine.  Shot 9-19, had 24 points, 5 boards and 4 assists in 34
minutes.  Did a very nice job of passing the ball out of the post, and
generally was a big help in promoting ball movement.  

Anderson: Second 10 assist game in a row.  Also shot the ball
accurately at 6-11.  Seems to be getting into playing defense more and
more as the season goes on.  Coles hit a couple of jumpers, and Kenny
actually ran out on the next shot and knocked him to the floor.  I
don't recommend that, but I doubt that Kenny would have bothered (or
cared the Coles hit the shots) in seasons past.

Williams: Eric (finally) got the ball in the low post, probably about
half a dozen times tonight.  I think that every time he posted, either
he got a good shot, or he passed the ball out and the C's got a good
shot for someone else.  4-8, 5 boards in 37 minutes.  Also deserves
credit for doing a pretty good job against Jackson (4-13).

Potapneko: Played a heady game against Mutumbo, shooting 6-11, most of
them from outside.  For the first time I can remember in the Pitino
era, the Celts seemed to be positioning their centers to pull Mutumbo
outside the paint (not that Mutumbo seemed to energetic in any case).
It certainly worked, as it created room for Williams and Walker down
low.

Battie: seems to have lost his offense again.  What happened to his
offensive rebounding (well, he had 2 tonight).  Most of his best
offensive games seem to start with a big stuff of an offensive board.
Had 3 points on 1-6 shooting and 8 boards in 16 minutes.  Also
committed a couple of bonehead fouls.

Barros: pretty sharp game shooting the ball.  shot 5-8, and had 15
points and 3 assists in 17 minutes.  I think he's broken out of his
shell, and begun to take his shots (and maybe is going a bit
overboard).

Cheaney: 1-3 on 19 minutes.  I thought he passed up a couple of shots
he should have taken.

McCarty: Actually had more assists that shots tonight.  I don't think
that's happened before in his career( Okay it was 3 assists and 2
shots, but still).

Pervis:  had a nice stretch in the 2nd period.  Did a nice job on
Mutumbo and scrapped for the ball.

Overton: played

Thomas: Got 8 minutes tonight.  Still hasn't shown anything.  He looks
like a ball player though.

Coaching: Saw some things I liked tonight.  Williams in the post, and
pulling Potapenko out to the arc.  In general, the substitution
pattern seems to be much more sophisticated than it has in the first
quarter of the season.
	
	The Hawks got to the line 25 times tonight to the Celts 11.
One of the reason for this (and I think this is a consistent pattern)
is that the Celts will foul an opposing player much more often, than
most NBA teams when they're beaten.  Battie did it twice tonight, and
other Celt's also did it.  This is a good idea some of the time, but
it does tend to inflate the free throws attempted differential.
Especially since the Celts play no attention to the penalty when they
do it.  You might think that a pressure defense (not that the Celtics
are doing that consistently this year) would try to press early in the
quarter (when their not in the penalty) and avoid fouling shooters.  

The Celts are now 11-14.  They're off unit Sunday when they go out to
Clipperland.  If we have any list members who've had a chance to see
the Clips much this year, I'd love to see a scouting report. 

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net

P.S. Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I don't always enjoy
manufactured moments like tonight's retirement of the Parquet floor.
They frequently strike me as artificial.  The presentation tonight,
was pretty good, though.  They got Heinsohn, Russell, Cousy, Havlicek
and K.C. Jones to talk about their personal perspective on some of the
famous plays in Celtic history.  I'm always glad to see Havlicek as I
think, out of the great Celtics, he is the most often overlooked.