Celts Collapse: Minnesota 87 - Boston 68

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	This is a team in deep disarray.  They only know one way to
win and they're too physically exhausted to play it.  The more they
stray from Pitino's running\pressing style, the more confidence they
lose.  It's a viscous circle that may not get broken this season.

	As seems universally the case these days, the Celts and the
TWolves got off to a very slow start.  The score stood at 6-6 after
5:00 of play.  Dennis Scott (still in the league?) began to find the
range from the outside, as the Celt's constant rotation left him wide
open on the weak side.  The TWolves pushed out to a 23-18 lead at the
end of the first period.  Every time Walker took a host he was booed
(at least partially because he missed all of them).

	The Celts continued to show evidence of very tired legs in the
2nd quarter.  Aggressive pressing defense and pushing the tempo on
offense were far from the minds of this team, as they're just trying
to survive another game.  The TWolves maintained a 6-8 point lead for
much of the period.  Anderson gave the Celts a bit of a lift as they
closed to within 5 at 39-34, but the Celts were unable to score over
the last 2:30 of the half.  On the last play of the half, the C's
fumbled away a 3 on 1 break, and Bobby Jackson took the ball and ran
it back the other way to give the TWolves a 42-34 lead.

	Things went from terrible to truly disastrous at the start of
the 2nd half.  The TWolves broke open the game with an 8-0 run to push
out to a 50-34 lead.  The Celts appeared to be playing in a daze,
rarely able to get a good shot, and unable to make the few they did
get.  The quarter ended with the Celts barely holding off total
collapse as the TWolves lead at the end of the 3rd quarter 67-50.

	The Celts went dry at the start of the 4th again as they were
3:30 into the period before they were able to score.  By that time the
TWolves has pushed the margin up to 77-50.  At this point, Gorman was
discussing the chances of the Celts setting a new franchise record for
lowest field goal percentage in a game.  Even the TWolves scrubs
couldn't take the game too seriously, and let the Celts score a couple
of irrelevant basket in the closing of minutes to make the score a
misleadingly close 87-68.

	Unbelievable as it seems the score of this game, was a lot
closer than it should have been.  The Celts actually hit 16-17 free
throws they attempted while the TWolves went 15-27.  The total
collapse of the Celtic's pressure defense continues, as they force (?)
just 6 Minnesota turnovers (Bowen had the team's only steal).  The
Celts did hold their own on the boards 51-50.  Pierce, Walker and
Mercer combined for a brutal 10-49 from the floor.


Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
T-Wolves: Brandon, Mitchell, Scott, Garnett, Smith

Players: 
Anderson: Kenny continues to shoot the ball fairly well 6-11 tonight,
but he can't give the team the thing it needs the most: energy.  He
had just 3 assist, and spent most of the night walking the ball up the
floor so that the club could take a shot with 3 or 4 seconds left on
the shot clock.

Walker: He has absolutely no legs.  He can't even get off the floor a
couple of inches so that he can put a lay-up in.  Garnett blew past
him on the drive, when he wasn't popping out to take 20 foot jump
shots before Anointe could get anywhere near him.  By his normal
standards Walker isn't really taking bad shots.  I'd guess that most
nights he would make 35-40 percent of the shots that he took tonight,
but he was in fact only 1-14.  I think that in a perverse way, the
Fleet Center crowd is really enjoying booing him.

Mercer: His shot is off, because he just doesn't have the same hop
that he normally has.  He's shooting a much flatter ball, and appears
to be falling off a little bit to the side when he takes it.  He shot
6-20, and had 13 points in 40 minutes. 

Pierce: Got off to a brutal start in the game, as he had 4 turnovers
in the 1st quarter.  Shot just 3-15, as he can't hit the few open
jumpers that he gets.  Keeps trying to penetrate down the baseline,
and just gets trapped about 4 feet from the basket with no where to
go.  Did have 11 boards, including 5 offensive, but he can't convert
them.

Potapenko:  had some good moments tonight, with 8 points and 9 boards
in 32 minutes.  Fumbled away some good opportunities when he failed to
hold onto the ball.  Made a nice block on Garnett.

Battie: seems a little in the dumps too.  Had 4 points and 6 boards in
22 minutes but definitely not his normal jumping jack self.

Barros: Hit a few shots tonight, especially at the end of the game
(went they meant nothing).  He was 3-6, and had 9 points in 15
minutes.

Garnett: Funny that Pitino is trying Garrett out at point guard when
his 2 most effective players tonight were his normal points.  Garnett
is just no kind of point guard at all, though he might be a pretty
good 2, in the mold of a John Starks.

Minor: Also Ineffective.

Schintzius: Played.  Hit Dana with a nice backdoor pass.

Coaching: So what does Rick do now?  He virtually threatened the first
string with benching them all, if they didn't shape up.  One thing for
sure (like we didn't know this anyway): Pitino's system works a lot
better when his team plays 35 games in 4 months than when they have 50
games in 2 and a half.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net