Nets Nip C's: New Jersey 99 - Boston 97

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	I can't really call this a tough loss for the Celtics as they
never dug in and gave it the 100% effort on defense.  Keith Van Horn
dropped in a jumper with .3 seconds to go to put the final nail in the
Celts coffin, but most of the nails were put in by the C's themselves,
as they missed several free throws down the stretch, and were never
able to apply full defensive pressure.  Mercer and McCarty were back
for tonights game.

	The first half was a mirror image of the C's recent efforts.
The Celts got off to a very slow start and it was the Nets who were
pushing the pace at the outset of the game.  Van Horn cheated on
defense and broke free down court for some early easy baskets, as the
Nets took off to an 10-2 lead.  The Celts starters were able to
stabilize things (with the help of some nice shot blocking by Battie).
But then the C's bench which has played so well lately, came in and
was pretty soundly outplayed by the Jersey Bench.  Damon(?) Jones,
especially applied tenacious defensive pressure and took Barros out of
the game.  Meanwhile the 2nd team press was ineffective.  The Nets led
at the end of the first period 27-21.

	The Celts started off the second period very cold hitting just
1 of their first 9 shots (though the quality of the shots wasn't that
high).  The Celts second unit continued to play ineffectively, and
Pitino had to go back to the first team much earlier than normal.
Finally Pierce hit a couple of baskets and Battie woke up the fleet
Center with a huge jam off a missed Ron Mercer jumper.  The Celts were
able to close the gap to just 5 at 39-34 (and I was thinking that as
poorly as the Celts had played they might go into halftime with the
lead).  But the Nets came back with a 7-0 run to take a 12 point lead.
New Jersey took a 48-41 lead into the half.

	The Celts made a nice run to start the 3rd, and tied the game
with about 6:00 to go at 57-57.  Finally, with about 2:00 to go in the
period, Dana hit a mid-range jumper to give the C's their first lead
of the game.  But Kittles led the Nets back to take a 74-71 lead into
the 4th.  At some point during the 3rd, Pierce hurt his hand and had
to have a couple fingers taped together.

	The Celts got to a couple of 3's from Pierce and Dana to take
a 79-77 lead early in the 4th.  But the Nets continued to get good
play from Kittles and Gill to push out to a 89-83 lead with 4:50 to
go.  With the score at 95-90 Declercq drew a loose ball foul, but only
hit 1 of his 2 free throws (95-91).  On the next C's possession Walker
hit 2 big free throws to pull the Celts to within 2 at 95-93.   On the
next play the Celts dodged a bullet as Van Horn missed 2 free throws.
Next possession Kenny Anderson faked towards a Walker pick then broke
free into the lane, took a hit from Williams and then dropped the ball
into the basket.  He hit the free throw to give the C's a 96-95 lead
(49.6 to go).  The Celts looked to be in pretty good shape as Pierce
blocked out Williams (who fouled out of the game on the play).  But
Pierce missed both free throws (he wasn't even real close), and on the
next play Gattling put an offensive rebound back in to give the Nets a
97-96 lead.  DeClercq willed a free throw into the basket to tie the
game with 7.2 seconds left.  On the next play, Murdock missed a
jumper.  Gattling tipped the rebound up, Van Horn grabbed it, backed
up a step and released the ball with .3 seconds to go on the clock.
It bounced up off the front of the rim, and then fell through after
time expired.

	Probably the number that jumps out at you, is the Nets 16
turnovers.  The Celts really didn't generate much defensive pressure
in the game.  Together with the Nets edge in rebounding, the number of
shots taken was pretty much even.  The Celts balanced a small Jersey
edge in free throws attempted with better 3 point shooting (6-13).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Pierce, Walker, Battie
Nets: Murdock, Kittles, Gill, Walker, Battie

Players:
Battie: thought I'd give Tony top billing tonight, as this was the
best game that I've seen him play.  He got 35 minutes and had 12
points on 6-8 shooting, 4 blocks and 4 boards.  Battie has a nice face
up jump shot, but no game in between that and a dunk.  This guy has
pretty much the same physical tools as Elvin Hayes, but no sign of a
low post game whatsoever.  He is very quick up and down the floor.  he
probably falls in love with the shot block, and forgets to play good
position defense.

Walker: I'm pretty sure that the 2 big free throws he hit down the
stretch were his only points of the 4th quarter.  Nice game overall as
he had 21 points, 8 boards, 6 assists but 3 turnovers.  He shot 8-21,
despite missing 3 or 4 easy shots.  The Celts incessantly gave him
double team help ever time Van Horn got the ball.

Pierce: Played quite well for 3 quarters, but seemed really bothered
by the hand injury.  Had 20 points (8-16), 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4
steals in 40 minutes, but I don't think he scored in the 4th after an
early 3.  Kendall Gill was very conscious of not letting Pierce get
open for the 3.  Gill also beat Pierce off the dribble a couple of
times down the stretch.

Anderson: He was looking for the shot, and was pretty effective as he
had 16 points, 6 boards and 5 assists in 35 minutes.  He wasn't able
to ignite the break at all (the Celts had very few easy opportunities
in the game).

Mercer: Hit some nice shots down the stretch, and he drove the ball to
the basket several times (with mixed success, but a good sign
nonetheless).  had a bit of a hard time keeping up with Kittles who
was hot.

Dana: got taken out of the game in the 1st half by Jones.  He came
back and hit a couple of shots in the 2nd half, but overall not one of
his better efforts.

DeClercq:  good game statistically with 8 points and 7 boards (5
offensive) in just 14 minutes (most of them down the stretch).  I
thought that he got exposed on defense a number of times, as the Celts
double teaming resulted in some weird match ups (he got caught out on
the perimeter guarding Gill late in the game).  Was a terror on the
offensive boards.  Hit a solid 17 foot jumper in the 1st quarter!

Jones: Played 7 minutes, but was pretty much invisible.

Bowen: I was surprised that he didn't get more time especially as
Kittles wa hitting so well.  I guess that Pitino was reluctant to
press with the back to back games.

Riley: continues in his role as the forgotten man.  Maybe it's
something he does in practice. Got 3 minutes tonight.

Coaching:  I thought that the double teaming of Van Horn really threw
the Celts off tonight.  They usually don't double team that much, but
they were running guys at Keith when he was 20 feet from the basket.
The Celts tried gamely to rotate, but they just couldn't keep up with
the Nets ball movement, and got caught on the weak side a lot.  I
understand the theory behind doubling Van Horn (not a very good
passer), but the Celts were way to heavy handed and mechanical  about
it.

Opposition Malcontents of Note: Chris Gattling:  What happened to this
guy?  When I first saw him play in Golden State he was Joe
Lunchbucket.  He never took a shot from further away then 3 feet from
the basket and had a big impact on games through sheer hustle (not too
much different that the role DeClerq has on the C's).  Now, all he
wants to do is take 20 foot jumpers.  He's asked for a trade and if
Calipari is smart he'll move him for a pair of old sneakers.

The Celts are now 6-6.  They play in Cleveland tomorrow night.

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.net