3-0, Looking Good But Some Bad Habits Re-Emerge

[D Parker <danp@town.ipswich.ma.us>]

Whew.  A couple of well-timed plays saved this one from being a
heart-breaker, but it never should have been close in the first place.

For a little over two quarters, the Celtics picked up where they left
off with Washington.  Great ball movement, unselfish play, guys
running the floor and some good shooting rocketed the Celtics out to a
20 point lead.

And then the Celtics just forgot how to play team basketball.  Guys
started taking in one-on-one, players started jacking up
three-pointers, and nobody -- and I mean nobody -- moved in the
half-court offense.  Kenny would dribble at the top of the key and
four guys would just stand there.  Pitino took some well-timed
timeouts to try and straighten things out but it didn't help.  It
looked like the players seemed to think being up by 20 was an
automatic win rather than the score at the end of 48 minutes.  Guys
were playing to get on SportCenter.

Towards the end of the third Pitino found a combination that clicked
and C's managed to escape the quarter leading by 10.

It was such a letdown from the first half.  For two and a half games
the C's have been playing basketball that I started to wonder if I
would ever see in the NBA anymore.  For those not watching the games,
I cannot stress what a joy it is to watch Adrian Griffin play.  I
mean, every year there is a surprise on a team, someone doing better
than expected (i.e. Darrell Armstrong in Orlando last year) but Griffin
is more than that.  He is the glue that binds the players together as
a team.  He comes up with the big plays at the right time and is
always hustling.  I can't say enough good things about him.  Example:
not only did he steal the ball from Eddie Jones when the were C's
leading by 1 in the final seconds, but after Anderson hit two free
throws and Charlotte missed a three, he had the rebound and was
falling out of bounds with a few seconds on the clock.  He had the
presence of mind to flip it *high in the air* -- allowing more time to
run off the clock.  He also kept it near the basket, so even if
Charlotte got the ball they would have had to pass it out to a shooter
behind the three point line.  He does little things like that all game
long.

Good job by Anderson to knock down all those free throws at the end.

Charlotte's effort was impressive -- they didn't fold over despite
being down 20.  Here's hoping the Celtics can learn from this.  Pitino
should have a field day tearing into them with footage from the third
quarter.  The Indiana game will be interesting -- will they be back in
the form that wiped out Toronto and Washington, or will bad habits
creep up again?

Dan