Celts Crash Land: Chicago 95 - Boston 92

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	Well, now we know the truth.  The only team in the league that
the Celts can dependably beat, even at home, is the Clippers.  Except
for about 9 minutes at the start of the 4th period, the C's never
played like they wanted to win.  And the got beat by NBA never were's
like Randy Brown and Mark Bryant (just a bad day all around for
Wildcat fans).

	The first quarter was a little slow (well actually the whole
game was).  Ron Mercer got off to a good start, but it didn't do the
Celts much good.  Ron Harper fell and hyper-extended his knee which
cost the Bulls his services for the game.  Nonetheless the score was
tied at the end of the period 21-21.

	The teams traded small streaks for most of the second quarter,
which was highlighted by some brilliant, shotblocking defense by Tony
Battie.  Antoine Walker continued a dreadful offensive first half, as
he shot 0-11 and had 4 turnovers.  The Celts were able to put together
an 8-2 run, though, to take a 45-40 lead into the half.

	The Celts came out at the start of the 3rd determined to get
Walker off the dime, but nothing that they tried seemed to work (and
Antoine was getting very hesitant to shoot the ball).  Meanwhile, the
Bulls played a very good quarter (especially Randy Brown) and were
able to outscore the C's 29-15.  They led 69-60 going into the 4th.

	The Celts, especially Anderson, came out to play in the 4th in
a more determined fashion.  Although they didn't really play well,
they were able to tighten up the defense and hold the Bulls to just 6
points over the first 8:15 of the quarter.  The Celts used this
opportunity to seemingly seize control of the game, taking a 80-75
lead with 3:45 to go.  On a Kukoc drive the Bulls pulled to within 2
at 82-80.  Potapenko put the Celts ahead by 3 with a free throw, but
on the next play he fouled Simpkins, who was also awarded the basket
and hit the free throw to tie the game with just 24 second left to
play (It may have been a bad call, but Vitaly committed the cardinal
sin of fouling Simpkins halfway: enough to risk getting the call but
not enough to stop him from hitting the shot).  In the next play,
Anderson fouled out of the game on a very close offensive foul call.
Chicago got the last possession, but they were unable to convert, and
the game went to overtime with the score at 83-83.

	The Bulls dominated the overtime, taking a 91-87 lead with
2:00 to go.  In what Heinsohn claimed was a makeup call, Randy Brown
fouled out of the game on a charging call himself.  The Celts got the
margin down to just 1 point (93-92) with 6.3 seconds to go after an
extremely lucky 3 by Barros.  But after Barry had put the Bulls up
95-92, the Bulls put Walker on the free throw line to try to hit a
free throw and get the C's the ball back.  Predictably he was unable
to do either, and the Celts went down 95-92.

	I really think that the big stat in this game was that the
Celts committed more turnovers that the Bulls 17-16 (as has been their
pattern lately).  Not the a disadvantage of 1 is a big deal, but you
have to make it up somewhere.  The Bulls hit 6 more free throws than
the Celts, and outrebounded them 52-49.  The very small advantage in
field goal percent .391-.374 wasn't enough to overcome the other
factors.

Players:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Bulls: Harper, Brown, Barry, Kukoc, Simpkins

Players:
Battie: Another very nice outing for Tony.  He had 10 points, 11
boards and 7 blocks in 33 minutes and just 2 fouls.  Most of his
blocks were coming across the lane to help out on a teammates player,
and he was generally able to keep the ball in play (and in one case he
actually kept the ball after he blocked it).

Walker:  An awful game on the offensive end of the court.  After
missing 11 shots in the first half he only attempted 4 in the second.
Although his shot selection wasn't really any worse then usual, it
would have been nice to see him go to the offensive board with a
vengeance (he had 10 boards: 4 off. but didn't convert any of them
into points).  Ended the game with 3 steals, 6 points and 5 turnovers.
Maybe he just tries too hard against Chicago.  

Anderson:  I think we were all spoiled by Kenny's honeymoon, last year
just after he came over from the Blazers.  This is probably about as
good a game as we're going to see from him.  He scored 19 points, shot
6-9, had 7 assists and 3 boards in 28 minutes.  And he actually tried
to play defense in the second half.  It's not going to make you forget
Bob Cousy, but that's not bad basketball.

Mercer: hit for 26, but shot just 11-23 (of course, in a game where
both teams shoot under 40% that's a pretty positive contribution).  He
tried 2 threes tonight, but didn't come close on either one.

Potapenko:  I thought that the C's made major mistake with him
tonight.  There was no big center on the court for him to muscle and
block out (as the Bulls don't really have a center).  So if you're
going to use V.P. at all, you have to go to him in the low post.  But
Potapenko had just 6 shots in 28 minutes.  He scored 7,  and had 4
boards.  But did the Bulls have anyone who could have defended him in
the post?

Pierce: Teams are on to his outside shooting and the drive down the
left baseline, and with no running game, the Celts are having a very
hard time getting him good shots.  He was just 3-11 tonight, though 2
of the baskets were 3's.  In 43 minutes he had 8 points, 8 boards, 3
assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks.  Oddly enough, Kukoc beat him several
times, as Pierce didn't play him to go to the left, which is funny as
that is Pierce's own favorite move.

Barros: Still not hitting his outside shot, but he continues to plug
away.  He scored 12 points on 5-13 shooting, and had 6 assists in 24
minutes.  He actually fouled out with about 1:30 to go in OT, leaving
the C's with no point guard at all.

Minor: Another solid game in very limited minutes as he had 4 points
and 4 boards in just 10 minutes.  

Bowen: Pitino went back to the old standard in the 4th to take
McCarty's spot on the pressing team.  As usual, Bruce did the job on
Defense and was MIA on offense.

Garnett & Riley: Hey they got to play!

Coaching: I'm beginning to think that Pitino made a major mistake when
he announced that he wasn't going to press with the first team.  It
almost seems as though, by saying that they weren't going to press,
that he's given them permission to slack off on defense in general
(I'm sure he's never said anything remotely like that: I'm talking
psychologically here).  He got mad at Kenny's defense, early in the
3rd and yanked him out of the game.  Anderson got back in the game
with the pressing unit late in the third, and then in the 4th period,
and he tried to press.  He didn't do a great job, but the team's
overall defense was better and Kenny was energized on offense.  I
think the team would be better off if they spread out the minutes a
little more, and had the starters press part of the time.  And for
god's sakes, stop doubling players on the perimeter.

Opposition Unheralded Heroes of Note: I Love Randy Brown! Randy had 16
points, 11 boards,  8 assists  and 4 steals in 44 minutes.  I know
that he's an official NBA bench player, but I've never been able to
understand why.  He does so many things so much better than players
who've started every where they've ever played.  I always thought that
the Bulls under used him, and I glad he's getting a bit of an
opportunity this year.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net

P.S. Gorman got off a pretty funny remark at Antoine's expense very
late in the overtime period.  With 2.3 seconds left Walker had 2 foul
shot to take and the C's were down by 3: Gorman outlined the obvious
strategy by saying "He needs to make one and miss one: the second
should be no problem.": which despite the situation I had to laugh at.
Of course Walker missed the first.  Then, while trying to
intentionally miss the 2nd free throw, he missed the rim, backboard
and nearly the crowd in back of it.  I laughed even harder after that,
despite the intense pain.