The free practice at the Fleetcenter. Watch out for Dana!

["Christopher J. Littlefield" <cjlitt@erols.com>]

Hi, folks, 

	Went to the Fleetcenter and had a fun time today sitting fourth row
just off center court, watching the action.  There was an hour
of drills and a 30-minute game with 2 30-minute halves.  It was sloppy,
and far too many people (Battie, Declerq, Bowen, Schintzius, to name a
few) hit the floor hard and stayed there too long.  Bowen went out and
came back with a big ice bag wrapped around his left hand.  That's not
cool.  The guys looked very tired.  The ball was sloppy, though there
were a few highlights.  They nearly ran out of people.  

Barros pretty much stole the show.  He basically didn't miss.  He hit
from 3, nothing but net, in the drills, in the game, just goofing around
between drills.  He looked physically bigger and in great shape.  The
best sequence of the afternoon was during the scrimmage, when Barros,
after hitting consecutive 3's, gets an outlet pass from Popeye, dribbles
the entire length of the court, going around folk, dribbling behind his
back and finishing with a pretty drive over the outstretched arms of
'Big D', ie Dwayne Schintzius!  It brought the crowd to its feet.  He's
ready to go.  

Other notes:

Antoine Walker:  Not in shape, but showed flashes of dominance on both
ends of the floor.  He's just plain big now.  Maybe a little extra
around the middle, but in addition to that, he is just a physical bull. 
People hit him and bounce off.  In one play Popeye (who really did look
good and, based on this afternoon, should play a lot, maybe at center
since, well...we don't have one?) went up for a board.  I didn't see
what happened, but all of a sudden Popeye, all 250 pounds of him, just
flew out of the lane as if shot from a cannon, and there was Walker with
the ball.  He just looks stronger.  Walker went through one of his
outside flurries, canning 3 threes and a long 2 in a row.  He also did
some damage down low, and was a beast defensively, coming up with 4 or 5
quick steals in close succession at one point.  But that flurry was
about it.  He's not in shape yet.  

On a sour note, he looks like a jerk out there.  He knocks people down,
looks at them, and walks away.  Doesn't help them up.  He knocked Bowen
down hard under the basket and into the upright, then walked away.  When
Bowen stayed down, he came back and leaned over semi-attentively, but it
wasn't convincing.  

Kenny Anderson:  Great passing, great ball-handling, but toward the end
looked like he was favoring that knee.  That's not good.  

Pierce:  Looks big, strong and very psyched to be here.  Before the
game, they did intros, and when he came out, he was slapping five
exuberantly with everyone in sight, obviously very juiced.  He banged
home some 3's, crashed the boards hard, shut down Greg Minor, and played
very effectively, with minimal flash.  I'm pleased with what I saw.