Kings Crown Celts: Sacramento 114- Boston 101

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	I thought this was a better effort by the C's than the game on
Sunday, but the caliber of the competition was completely different.
The C's stayed in the game for a short time, but the second unit did
them in (especially compared to the Kings bench).  The Kings had
assumed a 20+ points lead in the third quarter.  Sacramento assumed
the game was over, but as usual the Celts doggedly refused to call it
a night.  The Celts got the lead down to 8 points with 3:30 to go.
Webber and Divac came back into the game and put an exclamation point
on the Kings win with a 11-2 run to put the game away.

	The C's got off to a nice start going up 6-2.  The advantage
was short lived, as Chris Webber got the Kings offense started with a
pair of brilliant bounce passes (through his legs and behind his
back).  The Kings built a 10-7 lead, but Anderson retaliated with a 3
to tie at 12-12.  The Celts built a 20-16 lead with 2:56 to go, but
the King's bench came storming out, and put up a 9-0 run to close out
the quarter with the Kings up 25-20.

	No matter who Pitino put on the floor, the Kings bench kept
pouring it on.  Stojakavic, Barry and Funderburke were all hitting, as
the Kings pushed the lead up to 41-30.  With Williams and Webber back
in the game, Sacramento pushed the lead up to 15 at 54-39.  About the
only bright spots for the Celts were Adrian Griffin's strong all
around play, and Kenny Anderson's outside shooting.  Despite a couple
of 3's from Kenny in the last minute of the half, the Celts were still
trailing 60-49.

	Paul Pierce picked up his 4th foul of the game on the first
C's possession of the second half.  The Kings ripped the game open
with a 16-7 run at the start of the third.  About half way through the
period, Danny Fortson scored his first points as a Celtic on a nice
fast break feed from Kenny Anderson.  The Kings took their biggest
lead of the game with about 2:00 to go in the period at 86-64.  The
score was 88-68 at the end of three.

	The second time around the Kings bench wasn't nearly as
effective as they were in the first half.  Antoine really began to get
into the game at the start of the fourth, with an impressive level of
effort, if not result.  The Kings seemed to lose focus, and were
trying too hard to get on the highlight reel.  The Celts cut the lead
to 95-83.  A few moments later the put together a 6-0 run to cut the
Kings lead to just 6 with a 6-0 run (97-91).  The Kings got a couple
of free throws from Webber, and then the Celts missed several good
opportunities on the next possession.  Williams hit another pair of
throws (Pierce fouled out on the play), and then Divac and Webber both
collected blocks on the same possession.  Divac came back on the next
possession and hit another pair from the charity stripe to push the
Kings lead back up to double digits at 103-91.  The Kings got the lead
back up to 108-93, and the final was 114-101.

	Due to the Kings stunning passing and stout interior defense
the Celts just got clobbered in all the shooting categories.  The
Kings outshot them (.520-.449), and hit their free throws better.  The
Celts had a good night on three (5-11), but the Kings outdid them with
volume (8-19).  The Celts stayed in the game with offensive boards
(13-8) and turnovers (13-17).  The Kings had 29 assists on 39 baskets.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Griffin, Walker, Potapenko
Kings: Williams, Anderson, Williamson, Webber, Divac

Players:
Griffin: Adrian was the only Celt who came to play at the start of the
game and stuck around for the whole contest.  He  played effectively
in the first half, as he penetrated for easy scores or dishes a number
of times.  He ended up with 14 points (7-13), 10 boards and 6 assists
in 36 minutes.  An outstanding effort.

Walker: not the most efficient game Toine has had recently, but I
still liked it.  Twice in the second half, he missed shots, went and
got the rebound and then scored (don't think we've seen that in a
couple of years).  He did pad the stats a bit at the end of the game,
but still shot 8-18, got to the line 12 times (but hit just 7), had 8
boards, 2 assists and 2 steals.

Pierce: Picked up 6 fouls in just 24 minutes (playing against nick
anderson and Jon Barry).  He shot just 3-13, as he seemed determined
to penetrate against the King shotblockers.  Also turned the ball over
4 times.  Just a bad night.

Anderson: Shot the ball well at 7-15 (2-2 on 3's).  He also had 9
assists.  Odd though, that his most memorable play of the game was
when he was leading a 3 on 1 fast break against Divac, and rather than
pass the ball, tried to climb over Vlade for the score.  Divac blocked
him, and the Celts were turned away without a score.

Potapenko: Fouled out also in 26 minutes.  He seemed to be jawing a
lot with the Kings (esp. Funderburke).  Had 7 points and 4 boards.

Battie: This guy, who was playing so well 3 weeks ago has just fallen
off the map.  4 points and 1 board in 13 minutes.  I don't know what
the problem is, but Tony has the biggest upside of any of the Celtic
big men.  This trend has got to be reversed.

Fortson: got enough PT to break a sweat tonight. He had 9 points and 4
boards in 17 minutes.  Still not crashing the boards the way you
expect, but the rust is beginning to chip off.

Williams: got one nice 3 on a feed from Griffin.  And he had a nice
low post sequence, but that was pretty much it.  

Barros: really aggressive shooting the ball.  Put up 11 points in 14
minutes on 5-7 shooting.  Some of those were in the last 2 minutes
when they didn't mean to much.

Cheaney: Played

Ellison: probably a measure of how poorly Battie is playing, Pervis
actually got 4 minutes.

Coaching: I'm not sure what Pitino could have done about this one.  I
guess it was a good opportunity to get Fortson some minutes, and
Barros some shots.  There is just no way to prepare for as good a
passing team as the Kings on the road.



Outstanding Team Passing of Note:  I honestly think that the Kings are
the first NBA team I've ever seen that tries too hard to pass the
ball.  Tommy pointed out the Pete Carrill is on the staff in
Sacramento, and you can actually see his influence on the way the
Kings play: They're not the Tigers by any stretch of the imagination,
but they move without the ball really well, and the guys with the ball
are definitely looking for cutters (no passes from the high post,
though).  The downside off all that emphasis on passing is that they
commit some silly turnovers, and when (like the 4th quarter) they lose
their concentration, the offense goes south fast.  Gorman was saying
that they've tended to start out games really fast but then come
unglued in the second half, and you could see some of that tonight.

The Celts are now 11-16.  They're in Denver on Thursday.

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.net