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

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

Just to add a couple of points Bill overlooked:

two of Antoine's misses were on dunks!  He really must be out of
shape.  One of those blown dunks was undefended.  More importantly, he
played like shit on offense.  He couldn't score on Van Horn!  I don't
know how he scored 20 points.  He dribble the ball away, threw up half
hooks fading away into the lane, got blocked, and worse.  I expect him
to have a big game on Tuesday against the heavy-footed kemp, if he can
get Shawn to guard him on the perimeter.

as for Battie, you haven't seen it much, but he does have a post up
move, a soft turnaround jumper which is very hard to defend.  I guess
he doesn't post up because it's easy to push him off the box.  I can
live with his offense, as long as he stays active.

Several players seemed tenative about shooting.  Ron in particular
passed up a few open jumpers to drive the baseline, where only a
circus shot would have gone in.  (Looking for foul?)

I hope Kenny isn't too encouraged by his success shooting.  But he had
some beautiful passes to Battie right under the hoop.  Dunk it, Tony!





---Bill Cooper  wrote:
>
> 	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 
> 

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