Bucks Overtake Celts: Milwaukee 88-Boston 79

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts seemed to be in total control of this game for about
the first 10:00 of the game (C's up 28-12).  From that point on,
though, the Bucks were able to wrestle control of the game's tempo
away from the C's.  What started out as a track meet slowed down to a
snail's pace.  The Bucks also upped the defensive pressure and held
the Celts to just 49 points in the final 3 periods, after the Celts
scored 30 in the first.  The Bucks played tonight without the services
of Glenn Robinson and Del Curry, but Sam Cassell made his second
appearance of the season for Milwaukee.

	At first, though it seemed as though this might be another
Celts rout over a playoff bound team.  The Celts combined strong
defense and excellent ball movement to take a 10-4 lead midway through
the first.  Potapenko hit for a conventional three point play to put
the C's up 15-6.  With the score at 18-10, Barros hit for 2 threes in
about 5 seconds to push the margin up to 18.  The Bucks ended the
quarter with a 7-2 run of their own to cut the Celts lead to 11 at
30-19.  for one of the very few times this year, the C's were the
beneficiaries of the referee's largess, going to the line 11 times in
the quarter and hitting on 10.

	
	Both teams were quiet at the outset of the second.  About a
minute into the period, Jones was pressing Cassell, and Sam cought
Damon square on the chin, with a more or less inadvertent elbow, that
knocked Jones temporarily out of the game.  The Bucks did get a little
offense from Cassell, as they cut the lead to 7 at 30-23.  Mercer got
hot, though and scored 8 points over the next 4:00, helping the C's to
push the margin back up to 11 at 42-31.  The Celts still lead by 10
with 2:00 to go, but the Bucks closed with a 4-0 run to make the score
49-43 heading to the second half.

	Heinsohn commented at the break, that the Celtic's starters
(with the exception of V.P. who had some foul trouble) had all played
a lot of minutes in the first half, and that there was a good chance
that they might run out of gas.   Tommy seemed to have a firm grasp on
the trend in the game, as the Bucks opened the period, with a 5 point
possession (Thomas scored and was fouled, missed the free throw, and
Allen threw in a 3) to cut the Celts lead to one.  A few minutes later
Traylor scored an easy bucket for the games only lead change (Bucks up
52-49.  On the next possession Pierce tied it at 52-52 with a three,
but Allen immediately responded with a 3 of his own to give Milwaukee
the lead for good.  Damon Jones returned to the game, and temporarily
sparked the Celts with energy as the C's got to within 4 at 67-63 and
69-65.  The Bucks looked to be pulling away at the end of the period
71-65.  They outscored the Celts 28-16 in the third.

	More of the same in the 4th.  The Celts continued to battle,
but they couldn't turn the Bucks over, they couldn't run, and they
couldn't buy a clue on how to run a half court set against the Bucks
defense.  In a bizarre turn of events, Pierce drove the baseline 3
times in the 4th period, and was rejected each time by Aarmon Gilliam
(AARMON GILLIAM ?!?).  The Celts were still kind of hanging around
(79-73) when Potapenko fouled out of the game on a phantom call.  The
Bucks quickly pushed the lead out to double figures (84-73) and the
game was pretty much over.  The final was 88-79.

	After the C's having an 8-2 advantage in turnovers in the
first quarter, the game ended with the Bucks holding a 20-16 edge.
The Bucks who are one of the worst rebounding teams in the league also
had a 43-42 edge there (15-12 offensive).  So the Bucks had an edge in
shots attempted, and free throws attempted.  They shot a slightly
higher field goal  percentage than the Celts.

Lineups:
Celts: Barros, Mercer, Pierce, Battie, Potapenko
Bucks: Workman, Allen, Thomas, Gattling, Traylor


Players;
Barros/Jones: Much as they've carried the C's with excellent play in
recent games, the Barros/Jones combo let the C's down a bit tonight.
They combined for 4-15 shooting, 12 points, 7 assists and 5 turnovers.
And after the first, they really couldn't produce much tempo.  After
Jones got coldcocked in the second period, he did come back in the
third and played decently, but basically these guys couldn't get the
plane off the ground tonight.

Pierce: Rejected three times in one game by Aarmon Gilliam.  For some
reason Pierce tried to drive the right (!) baseline about 8 times in
the game.  He got rejected 3 times by Gilliam, broke free once for a
jam, and threw up harmless shots the rest of the time. Where did this
come from?  Haven't seen him do it once all season.  Had 14 points,
(5-18 shooting), 5 assists, 2 steals and 5 turnovers.  Funny thing was
he started out the game like a house afire.  Looked like the Paul
Pierce of the first 8 games of the season for about 10 minutes there.

Mercer: One of the (along with V.P.) most reliable Celts offensively
tonight.  Shot 9-20, despite some clear forces.  Has 21 points, but
also 4 turnovers and 0 assists in 43 minutes.

Battie: got 41 minutes, I'd guess his season high.  He was efficient
on offense with 11 points (4-8) and just one turnover.  Also kicked in
13 boards and 4 blocks.  In a game where Vitaly was in foul trouble,
he managed to stay out of it with just 2.

V.P.- Unfortunately he was the only Celtic who was really on tonight.
Shot 4-6 from the floor and 6-7 from the line.  He also had 7 boards,
2 assists (and 4 turnovers) in his 28 minutes.  In a game where the
Celts could have used the punch though, he fouled out in just 28
minutes.  A couple of them were real dubious, but that's why you have
to avoid the dumb ones.

McCarty: Just 2-7 shooting the ball tonight (7pts. 4 boards 35
minutes).  He looked a little silly against Gilliam a couple of times.
I mean, McCarty can block Gilliam's shots from his knees, why does he
have to jump and pick up the foul?

Riley\Garnett- 11 minutes.  0 production.

Coaching:  It seems that missing Minor really threw off the C's
rotation.  Short on players Pitino didn't feel he could press, and
that swung the tempo dramatically in favor of the Bucks.  I think that
the Celts would have been better serve to just give Garnett or Jones
Minor's minutes (why couldn't Damon have played the 2 spot against Del
Negro, at least when he wasn't out cold in the locker room), and just
suffered the consequences.  They might well have lost anyway, but at
least they would have lost on their terms.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net