Washington game

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Pitino deserves credit for having a nice gameplan to handle the Wizards.
The team trapped Rod Strickland effectively in the halfcourt game and
took the ball out of his hands, which threw the Wizards offense off.
The Wizards frontcourt really need him to set them up in proper position
and denying him the ball really hindered them.

In the postgame press conference, Pitino mentioned that Eric Williams
was the biggest cheerleader for the Celtics after the Toronto game,
even though he didn't play at all because Griffin, McCarty and Pierce
were playing so well. So Pitino made a special effort to get Eric in
the game early this game to reward him for his great attitude. Eric
showed him what a good idea that was by scoring a ton of points in
short minutes.

He also said that the reason they didn't press was because Toronto had
so much time to prepare for it that he didn't feel that it would be as
effective. He plans to use the press out of strength this year, taking
advantage of opportunities and surprise value. Today was a great example
of exploiting Washington's second unit.

It looks like this team has plenty of scoring threats without Ron Mercer.
I haven't noticed the Celtics running that double screen play at all and
I don't miss it. Just replacing him with Adrian Griffin, who does the 
little things, doesn't make mistakes, and actually passes and rebounds,
has greatly improved the offensive flow of the first unit. The Celtics
really have great confidence in him, calling for him to take the ball
one-on-one against talented players like Vince Carter and Juwon Howard.

I don't think anyone could possibly criticize Kenny's game tonight. I was
impressed by his defense in help the Celtics' aggresssive trapping of
Rod Strickland and going for steals in the passing lanes of the Wizards
halfcourt defense. He laid himself out going for a steal in the first
half. 

Anyways, it's great to be 2-0, for the first time since '90-91 I think.
We do have two tough games coming up against some of the best teams
in the Eastern Conference, Charlotte and Indiana. Hopefully they can
take at least one out of two. The Celtics really have a tough November
schedule and it's wonderful to get to a strong start.

Alex