Celts Knock Knicks: Boston 94 - New York 80

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts garnered their 2nd impressive win in a row and
returned to the .500 mark with a combination of intense pressure
defense and opportune outside shooting.  The Celtic defense led by
Bruce Bowen caused 26 New York turnovers.  Ron Mercer, who suffered a
turned ankle in the last game, was out tonight.  Greg Minor took his
place in the starting lineup, but Paul Pierce filled in at the 2 guard
down the stretch.

	C's got off to a bit of a slow start, with the Knicks going
down low to Ewing early in the game.  5:00 into the game, Charlie Ward
broke down the c's defense and Pitino called a timeout with the C's
trailing 11-8.  Every time the Knicks would open up a bit of a lead,
though the C's would come back and tie the game.  With about 4:00 to
go in the quarter Pitino brought in DQ, Minor (who had briefly been
replaced by Bowen), Battie and Dana, who along with Pierce, outscored
the Knicks 16-4 over the rest of the quarter.  Dana broke free for 2
really pretty back door cuts for easy baskets as the Celts led 32-23
at the end of the quarter.

	Pierce really took over the game on the offensive end, and the
C's applied the pressure on defense at the start of the 2nd.  The
Celts caused the Knicks to turn over the ball on inbounds play and on
24 second violations as the Celts built their lead up to 17 at 42-25.
Pitino probably went with the reserves a little to long, though, and
the Knicks intensity began to improve.  With Pierce out of the game
for the last 6:00 of the half, the Knicks were able to close the
margin with a 17-6 run.  The Celts lead was down to 6 (56-50) at the
half.

	Early in the 3rd quarter, it appeared that the Knicks had
worked their will on the Celtics, as the game assumed the 3 yards and
a Cloud of Dust pace that New York prefers.  4:00 into the quarter,
the Knicks tied the game at 56-56 on a Marcus Camby jam.  Antoine
Walker erupted at this point, leading the C's on a 10-0 run (he scored
8 of the points and assisted on the other basket).  After that Pierce
got hot from 3 point range, as the Celts pushed out to a 78-63 lead.
The Knicks came back a little towards the end of the quarter as the
Celts led 82-71 at the end of the period.

	Both teams seemed stuck in reverse at the start of the 4th as
neither scored in the first 3:00.  The Celts broke the game open for
good on consecutive 3's by Pierce and Anderson (88-72).  The Celts
should have probably broken the 100 mark in the game, but settled for
a lot of jumpers in garbage time.  Still it was a satisfying 94-80
score to end the game.

	The Celts made up for a deficit in field goal percentage by
beating the Knicks decisively in the hustle categories.  They had a
22-17 edge in turnovers and a 17-6 edge on the offensive boards.  So
they took 20 more shots that the Knicks over the course of the game.
They also shot 10-25 from 3 points range.  The refs certainly let the
guys play as they called a total of just 38 fouls in the game
(probably 8 of those were offensive). 

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Minor, Pierce, Walker, Riley
Knicks: Ward, Houston, Johnson, Thomas, Ewing

Players:
Bowen: Just thought I'd throw his name in up top.  Played the usual
tremendous defense, especially on Houston (who only took 12 shots).
Thought I still don't see much sign of that improved jump shot (0-7
tonight).

Pierce: Both the Knicks broadcasters and the national guys were raving
about Pierce.  Personally I thought it was the worse game I've see him
play, as he was pressing far more than in any game I've seen him in.
He was 5-11 on three's, but probably took at least 3 that he never
should have let go.  Also had a rather unusual 3 turnovers and missed
an easy layup.  Did score 24 points, had 7 boards, 3 assist and 3
steals in 42 minutes.  Certainly looked OK as a two in the late third
and 4th quarters.

Walker: Showed some good energy and hit the offensive board hard with
6.  But he shot just 9-26 (I didn't realize he had taken many till I
saw the stats).  Had 11 boards, 5 assists and 3 assists in 36 minutes.

Anderson:  Showed some signs of reviving his jump shot this evening.
He was 2-2 on 3's and 76=14 overall.  The Knicks did a pretty good job
of minimizing the Celt's running game, so Kenny only had 5 assists in
his 32 minutes.  Continued to be active on defense.

Riley: For some reason, although Eric seemed to play well enough,
Pitino would take him out of the game just a few minutes into each
half (he got just 12 minutes).  Ewing got a couple of scores on him
early in the first quarter, but I didn't think he did anything wrong.
Had 3 points and 2 boards.

Minor:  Hit a few jumpers in the first half, including a nice job off
the dribble.  At least didn't get embarrassed by Houston.  Had 6
points and 5 boards in 22 minutes.

Dana: He broke behind the defense 3 times on backdoor cuts.  Twice
Battie hit him and once it was DeClercq and Dana converted on all 3.
He scored 8 points and 5 assists in just 15 minutes.

Battie:  Did a nice job defending Ewing in the post, though I thought
he was helped a bit by the refs extreme reluctance to call any fouls
Threw a couple of nice passes and blew Ewing away with a drop step
move of his own in the post.  Had 6 points and 8 boards in 22 minutes.

DQ: He got 25 minutes (quite a bit of it alongside Battie as he played
power forward, so Walker could slide to the 3, and Pierce to 2).  He
drew offensive fouls 3 different times in the game.  Had 5 points, and
6 boards.

Coaching: The Celts defense in this game was just overwhelming.  They
must have forced the Knicks to give up the ball at least 6 times
before they got it over half court (the Knicks committed 3 offensive
fouls just pushing the C's out of the way while trying to inbound the
ball).  They must have forced 3 24 second calls and numerous rushed
shots.  The only way that the Knicks could get a decent shot was to
give in to the Celts tempo.  

Opposition El Busto's of note: I thought that Camby looked pretty
good.  He blocked 6 shots and was extremely active running the court.
he's just a terrible fit for the Knicks though.  Seems to be playing
hard.

The Celts are now 5-5 on the season.  They play again tomorrow night
in the Swamplands.

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.net