Pistons OutPlay Celts: Detroit 87- Boston 72

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	I guess there's room for some disagreement on this point
(Heinsohn seemed to), but I thought that the C's played a pretty
decent game tonight.  The Pistons (who are pretty much the
Anti-Celtics, in terms of style) beat them with a very precise,
measured (perhaps passionless) brand of basketball.  Detroit, which
seems to have a fine ballhandler at nearly every position, was largely
invulnerable to the C's press.  They dictated the pace of the game,
and took advantage of the C's newfound passion for passing the ball to
pile up a sizeable advantage in turnovers.

	After their offensive explosion in Charlotte last night, the
Celts seemed to have left their shooting touch south of the
Mason-Dixon (Paul Pierce was the exception).  The Pistons were
breaking the Celts press for some easy baskets as they jumper out to
an 8-4 lead.  The Pistons ended the quarter with a 11-4 run, to take a
25-15 lead.  The Celts were guilty of overpassing (a refreshing
change) as they committed 7 turnovers.  Battie made a poor play at the
end of the half, as he fouled Laettner 22 feet from the basket, with
.2 seconds left on the clock.

	After the bad experience in the first half with the press, the
Celts shied away from it (mostly from a sense of self preservation).
This drastically changed the pace of the game which had been rather
lively in the first half.  The Celtics continued to shoot the ball
lamentably, but the Pistons weren't able to break contact.  Pierce
contributed a couple of timely three's to keep the Celts in the game,
and Toine actually hit some free throws (4-4).  The Celts were still
hanging around (38-31) with 2:00 to go in the game.  Pierce made a
poor pass, and Hill picked it off.  Pierce hustled back on D and made
a brilliant block on Hunter to deny what looked to be a sure lay-up.
The Piston opened a little day-light at the end of the half at 43-31,
but Pierce got the Celts to within 10 with a put back of a Barros
missed drive (43-33).  The first half was also notable for the
behavior of the refs who basically refused to call a foul on anyone
except the team's respective centers.  Dele and Battie both picked up
3 fouls in the first half and Potapenko had 2.  The first half really
dragged, as their were just 37 possessions in the 2nd quarter.

	The Pistons got off to a quick start in the third and pushed
out to a 50-34 lead.  Pierce, the only Celtic to get much traction
offensively, was banished to the bench for much of the quarter.  The
Celtics managed, behind Kenny Anderson, to pull to within 9 at 54-45.
The Celts fell behind by 13 again, as seemed to happen every time they
got close in the game.  The Piston led at the end of the quarter
63-51.

	The Celts made a bid, midway through the final period, to make
the game competitive.  Pierce and Walker injected some life into the
C's offense (Walker scored 4 on one possession as Buechler was called
for a flagrant foul), as the Celts got to within 8 (70-62), with 6:53
to go.  Buechler put all thoughts of a comeback out of the Celtic's
heads, as he hammered home a couple of threes to put the Pistons up by
12 (76-64).  The Celts really put out a nice effort upping the
defensive pressure, but the Pistons handled it with aplomb as they
brought home the victory 87-72.

	The big stat in this game was turnovers.  The Celts had 16
while the Pistons had just 9 (the Pistons also had a 15 -12 advantage
in offensive rebounds).  That led to the Pistons getting 3 more field
goal attempts, as well as 13 more free throws.  Field goal percentage
was pretty even (Detroit .443-.415).  Oddly enough the Celts shot
better from the free throw line (14-17).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Pierce, Walker, Pitapenko
Pistons: Hunter, Dumars, Hill, Reed, Dele

Players: 
Pierce: Played a very strong offensive game tonight as he shot 8-13
(4-7 on threes) and had 7 boards in 33 minutes.  I thought maybe
Pitino took him out of the game in the 3rd because he was dissatisfied
with his defense on Hill, though I didn't think Pierce did any worse
than you might expect: Hill shot 4-11 and had 3 turnovers.  Just
before the end of the game, Pierce was driving to the basket and came
down on Williams sneaker, turning his ankle yet again.

Walker: Toine was 8-10 at the free throw line tonight (he actually
looked pretty solid).  He also displayed a good bit of energy on
defense, as he scored 18 points and had 10 boards.  He played all 48
minutes, as Battie was in enough foul trouble that Pitino didn't want
to use him at the PF position.

Anderson: Pushed the ball a bit early, but the Pistons are just too
good at dictating tempo for that to be a major factor in the game.
Kenny's jumper wasn't there tonight as he shot 3-7, but did have 7
assists (but also 3 turnovers: all of the Celts were guilty of
overpassing).

Mercer: The Pistons just wouldn't let him have the jumper of the
screen, so Ron was pretty much reduced to taking the jumper off the
dribble.  He shot 7-13, not bad, but just couldn't get enough shots.

Potapenko: The Celtics centers had a rough time tonight.  Vitaly and
Tony combined for just 5 points while Dele and Laettner put up 23
(almost exactly the same amount of time).  Dele didn't really
overpower V.P., he's mobile enough to negate Potapenko's strength.  

Barros: A bit of Deja-Vu tonight, as Dumars posted Dana three times (I
think he scored just one basket).  Joe didn't have the guts to try it
against a big man like Kenny, though.  The Pistons were smart enough
not to let Dana get any open shots from the perimeter, and he shot
0-3.

Battie: A weak game for Tony as well.  He picked up a couple of early
fouls, and couldn't get back into the game.  Had just 2 points and 3
boards in 18 minutes.  In a halfcourt game, a lot of Battie's strong
points are negated.

Minor: Greg seems to have gone out of phase again.  He was playing
quite well a couple of weeks ago, but his jump shot seems to have
abandoned him.  Had 2 points on 1-4 shooting in 16 minutes.

Bowen: Got 10 minutes, as Pitino put him in, in the 3rd to keep hill
under control.

Schintzius: got a couple minutes at the end of the half, when Battie
had 3 fouls and V.P. had 2.  I miss Riley.

Coaching: I was pleased in general with the effort, but I'm just sick
and tired of the double teaming, especially on the perimeter.  Can it
possibly make sense to double a passer like Hill 20 feet from the
basket, when he's looking out over the whole floor.  Let him score 40
if he can, I don't care.  The shots can't be any easier than the ones
the Pistons were getting off of the double team.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net