C's Lose Out To Hornets: Charlotte 133 Boston 129 2OT

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts and the Hornets put on a season ending fireworks
show, taking the game to double overtime.  Both the regular and the
first overtime where tied on dramatic 3's.  Unfortunately, the Celts
just couldn't quite pull it out, despite quite a few chances to do so.
Walker and Bowen were available for the game.  Rookies Brad Miller and
Rickey Davis were devastating, combining for 64 points on 21-36
shooting.

	The game started out with all the defensive intensity of an
exhibition game, but with the offensive skills won through  a near
full season's play.  About 3:00 into the period, Tony Battie suffered
a groin injury, and was forced to leave the game in favor of Walker.
Walker came in and immediately hit some nice passes racking up 3
assists in about 3 minutes of playing time.  The Celts were hitting
their shots, and were flowing down the court on the break.  They hit
their peak on a dazzling fast break sequence, as the Celts pushed the
ball down the court with 3 passes and just one dribble, culminating in
a brilliant Pierce alley oop to Mercer for a ham.  The score stood at
28-19.  Pitino broke the momentum, with a 4 player mass substitution
(Bowen, McCarty, Jones, Riley).  The Hornets came back  with an 8-0
run to close the quarter trailing by 1 30-29.

	The Hornets offensive onslaught continued (Especially rookies
Brad Miller and Ricky Davis) as they scored on their first 14
possessions of the period (together with the last two of the first,
that made 16 in a row).  Brad Miller picked up two quick fouls on
Potapenko, and with Battie out that meant he got to play against Riley
and McCarty for the rest of the quarter.  That only mattered on the
rare occasions when Davis didn't throw the ball in the basket in the
first 6 seconds or so of the possession.   The Hornets pushed the lead
up to 11 (51-40) midway through the period (that makes a 30-12 run
from the 2:00 mark of the first).  Pitino got some of the regulars in
and they slowed down the Hornets a bit, but even then the Celts just
couldn't establish any defensive intensity or pressure.  The half
ended with Charlotte leading 68-53 (Obviously that's a 39 point
period).

	The Celts continued their slow play at the start of the third.
The Celts scored just 6 points over the first 4:30 of the period.
Thankfully for them, the Hornets weren't any better.  Barros got the
Celts going with some three points shooting, as the Celts cut the
Charlotte lead to 6 (76-70) with a 13-2 run.  The Celts outscored the
Hornets 8-2 over the last 1:25 of the period (5 points by Walker) to
tie the game at the end of third.

	The Hornets, behind Brad Miller, reestablished their dominance
at the start of the 4th.  They outscored the C's 10-4 to take a 94-88
lead.  The Celts looked to be out of it when MIller hit Hones for a
layup with 1:30 to go, putting the Hornets up 107-100.  Walker hit a
three, and then Pierce hit 3's on the last 2 C's possession of the 4th
period to tie the game at 109.

	McCarty continued the C's string of threes, opening the first
OT with a bomb.  A moment late Walker had a chance to put the Celts up
by 5, but missed 2 free throws.  The Hornets came back with 2 straight
baskets to take the lead 113-112.  With the score at 115-114, Walker
was fouled, hit one of two throws, then took a pass after McCarty
grabbed the board, and drilled a 3 to put the Celts up 118-115.  The
C's got clutch shooting from Barros (from the floor and the line) and
looked to have a reasonably secure 122-119 lead with 8 seconds to go.
Cory Beck hit a leaning off balance three to tie the game 112-112.
Walker had a chance to win with a turn around, but missed.

	The Celts scored the first 3 points of the 2nd overtime, but
then saw the Hornets score the next 7 in a row to take a 129-125 lead.
The Celts hit 4 straight free throws to tie the game 129-129.  Jones
hit an incredible fall away jumper from the baseline to put the
Hornets up by 2 (131-129) with 20 seconds to go.  McCarty missed a
three, and Walker was forced to foul Davis with 3.1 to go.  Davis hit
both, and that all she wrote, for the game and the season.  Final:
133-129.

	 The Celts only committed 10 turnovers!  Amazing!  Actually
the 2 clubs just had 23.  The Celts also managed a few more offensive
rebounds than the Hornets, resulting in a 108-100 shots taken
advantage.  Despite that the Celts actually scored 1 fewer basket, as
they attempted 28 threes to the Hornet's 10.  The Hornets probably
pulled the game out at the free throw line where they were 31-37 (once
again Miller and Davis were 22-26).

Lineups:
Celts: Barros, Mercer, Pierce, Battie, Potapenko
Hornets: Wesley, Jones, Brown, Phils, Campbell

Players:
Pierce: had a lot off good moments in the game, but was mesmerized by
the quickness of Davis.  Had 27 points, 9 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals
and 2 blocks in just 44 minutes.

Barros: 26 points on 8-17 shooting, 9 assists, 3 steals, but also had
4 turnovers.  (50 minutes).  The Hornets picked on him a lot on
defense.

Mercer: Shot 11-22 for 23 points (not that much when you play 51
minutes).  He did have 10 boards (might be a career high) and 4
assists.

Walker: Actually, except for a few moments at the start of the second
when his shot judgement was a bit liberal, he played quite well.  9-22
shooting, 23 points, 8 boards and 7 assists in 43 minutes.  made quite
a few good decisions.

McCarty: Got 31 minutes as there was just no one else to play,
especially after Potapenko fouled out.  Shot 3-11, had 13 points, 7
boards and 4 assists.

PotaPenko: Not a good game for Vitaly, as he got sucked into silly
fouls quite a few times.  He fouled out in 26 minutes, with 8 points
and 5 boards.

Jones: Only played 6 minutes tonight, as Pitino forgot about him in
the second half.

Bowen: Bested Vitaly by a factor of two, as he fouled out in 13
minutes. Very aggressive on D, but lost the fine art of eluding the
refs attention.  

Riley: Played decently as usual.  And as usual Pitino forgot about him
as quickly as he could.  Played for 12 minutes, had 7 points and 4
boards.

Battie: Groin injury.  Played just 2 minutes.

Coaching: Hubie would be all over Pitino for not fouling at the end of
the first OT, and sending Charlotte to the line.  I guess he would
probably make the same comment about Silas at the end of regulation.
I really thought that Silas was taking the game much less seriously
than Pitino (Phills and Campbell combined for 35 minutes in the game).
I think he was surprised when Beck sent the game into the 2nd OT.  He
was long since ready to head home.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net

P.S. Another season screeches to a halt short of the playoffs.  I'd
like to thank everyone for the kind words that they've sent my way.
As I've said before, I think that I get far more out of writing these
little summarries than my readers.  I'm confident that the Celts are
on their way back.  I'm not so sure that the path they're on will
crest with a championship or two, or will fall agonizingly shot
(witness the Sonics).