Celts Stay Solid: Boston 112- Washington 101

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	A very solid team effort by the Celts, featuring one of the
best efforts by Kenny Anderson since his first 2 weeks with the team a
couple of seasons ago.  Kenny got help from unlikely sources in Vitaly
Potapenko and Eric Williams (38 points combined), as Pierce and
McCarty followed up their big efforts last night with very quiet
games.

	The game started out as a closely fought affair.  After the
Wiz jumped out to a 4-0 lead (going down low to Howard v. Griffin
twice), the C's, led by Kenny came back to take a 10-7 lead.  The
first units continued to trade baskets until Pitino put in the
reserves, and went to the press with 2 minutes to go in the period.
The Celts reserves weighed in with an 8-0 run to end the period,
capped by a nice put back by Eric Williams (he's alive!). The C's led
at the end of the first 28-21.  

	The Celts press continued to be effective at the start of the
2nd.  McCarty and Williams supplied the offense, as the Celts pushed
the lead up to 40-27. Gar Heard had to put his starters back in
(Pitino quickly followed),and the Wiz starters scored 6 straight to
close the gap.  Potapenko had a nice stretch on offense, scoring 6
points over the last half of the second.  Towards the end of the
quarter, though, the C's feel apart a bit.  Pitino tried to reinsert
the pressing team, but against the Wiz starters they were noticeably
less effective.  The Wiz closed on a 9-2 run to make the score 53-47.
Pierce was invisible in the first half, might have had 2 points.

	The Celts busted open the game with a scintillating 3rd
quarter.  They had pushed the lead back up to 10 at 59-49, when Juwan
Howard left the game after being poked in the eye.  Coincidentally or
not (I really didn't notice Howard doing that much when he was in the
game), the Celts exploded with a 22-7 run to rip the game open
(81-56).  Pretty much the entire starting 5 (except Pierce) really
contributed during this stretch.  Pitino went to the bench, but they
were unable to contribute in the same fashion as in the first half.
The Wiz were able to cut into the Celts lead, but still trailed 89-67
going to the 4th.

	The Wiz put on a nice push at the start of the 4th (against
the C's reserves) and cut the lead to 16 at 91-75.  Pitino, who looked
as though he was trying to ride out the game without putting the
starters back in, was forced to relent.  The starting 5 stiffened on
defense, but mostly picked up fouls for their efforts.  The Wiz scored
8-10 from the free throw line, over 7 possessions, as they cut the C's
lead to 12 at 100-88.  Griffin and Potapenko scored on consecutive
possessions to stabilize the situation.  With the score at 104-92,
Anderson was called for a pretty cheap foul, and was out of the game.
Although Turner came into the game, Walker actually did most of the
ball handing over the last few minutes.  Mostly, though, the Celts
held the line on defense and were able to pull out the 12-101 win.

	Celts continued the strong shooting, and actually took better
shots tonight than last (just didn't have the super hot nights from
Pierce and McCarty).  They outshot Washington (.511-.456), but were
only 5-16 on threes (this could easily have been a huge blowout).  the
Celts were even with the Wizards in rebounds, but had one more
turnover (despite the success of the press in the first half).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Griffin, Walker, Potapenko
Wiz: Strickland, Richmond, Howard, Smith, Austin

Players:

Anderson: As I said at the top, Kenny had his best game in quite a
while.  He scored 19 on 9-15 shooting, including some invaluable
scores down the stretch when things were just a bit tight.  He also
had 10 assists. 2 steals and just one turnover.  I also tend to think
that his 6 fouls were a sign of increased intensity on defense (which
you can see from the entire team).

Griffin: led the Celts in minutes played tonight (something we may see
a lot of).  In 34 minutes, he had 9 points, 8 boards, 5 assists and 4
steals.  His one turnover tonight, drops his assist to turnover ratio
for the season to 13:1.  tried a three tonight, but missed (the shot
was forced by the clock).  Howard tried to post him a couple of times
early, but I think that it was just too much work to stick with it.

Walker: The Celts most consistent player (with Griffin) off 2 games.
19 points on 7-12 shooting, to go along with 7 boards in just 32
minutes.  Continues to let the shots come in the flow of the game.  He
may not average 20 this way, but maybe will shot 50%.

Pierce: the shot was just not falling tonight.  But he didn't push it,
shooting 5-13.  I didn't think that he took any worse shots than the
previous game.  Given that he wasn't scoring though, I would have
liked to see him do some other things more, especially go to the
offensive board.  Didn't seem to have any problem staying with
Richmond though.

V.P.: maybe the best thing about his performance was that he had just
2 fouls in 31 minutes.  He also had 20 points and 8 boards, and
displayed some nice hustle on the floor.  He beat the entire wizards
squad down the floor for an easy basket once, and also had a nice
drive/dish combo to Toine in the third.

Williams: After the DNP last night, he got 18 points in 14 minutes
tonight, mostly of the right place/right time variety.  He did hit 2
jumpers, so that part of his game seems to have improved.

McCarty: much the same as Pierce: He took the same shots as last
night, but they just didn't go in.  7 points and 2 assists in 18
minutes.  

Cheaney: another tough night for Calbert.  Shot 1-5, even though I
thought his teammates were trying to get him some good shots.  He's
clearly passing up shots he would have taken without hesitation a
couple of years ago.  I suspect that as long as he continues to work
hard on defense, Pitino will let him work through the slump.

Battie:  maybe still hurt a bit.  Just doesn't seem to be playing with
same abandon as in the latter portions of last year.  Just 2 points
and 2 boards in 15 minutes.

Turner: Doesn't seem to me to have the command of his dribble that you
would expect from a guy trying to be a professional ball handler.  I
really don't think that he can run the team in halfcourt at this
point.  Just doesn't have the skills.

Perv: picked up 3 fouls in 4 minutes of playing time, most of them
undeserved.

Coaching:  The team is playing vastly improved half court defense over
last year.  The switching is much better (they still do a lot), and
they avoid giving up easy baskets.  I don't think that the first team
has pressed yet this year (and they may not), but the entire team is
much more intense on defense.

The Celts are now 2-0 on the season.  They face the Hornets this
Friday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net