Celts Fall Short: Indiana 115- Boxton 108

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	Indiana christened their new field house with an exhibition of
3 point shooting in the first half.  The Celts came back in the second
half to make a game of it, but 15 points were too many to spot the
Pacers.  The C's second unit came up short against the (very good)
Pacers bench, and the starters, who put forth a valiant effort in the
second half, ran out of gas at the end of the game

	The Celts got off to their near customary quick start, going
up a quick 4-0.  That was, unfortunately, pretty much it for the first
half. The Pacers lit the Celts up from outside in the first quarter.
Miller got things started with a couple of threes and then Rose and
Mullin started piling on.  The Celts were still hanging close (15-14)
when Potapenko picked up his second foul of the game setting a screen.
He went out, and the roof fell in.  The Pacers outscored the C's 19-7
over the rest of the quarter.  Miller ended up with 15 points, as the
Pacers shot 6-8 on threes.

	The Celts got some nice work from Eric Williams (mostly from
the foul line, and the second unit was able to pull to within 8 points
several times.  The Celts left Chris Mullin wide open on the perimeter
for the second time in the game, and he put the Pacers back up by 10
at 44-34.  Pitino put the starters back in, but the Pacers (Jackson
and Perkins, this time) continued to bomb away from outside.  The
Pacers went into half time with a 60-45 lead.

	The C's came out storming at the start of the 3rd.  The Celts
had closed to within 10, when Griffin misplayed a switch on defense.
Pitino took him out of the game, and replaced him with Cheaney, who
was very single minded in his defense against Miller.  Meanwhile,
Anderson took charge of the offense and directed the Celts on a 13-3
run to pull the Celts to within 2 points at 73-71.  Rick stuck with
the starters about 1:30 too long though, and the Pacers came back with
2 baskets of their own.  Pitino had to rush the starters out of the
game, and mass substitute the bench.  Through the end of the quarter
the back ups held their own and the quarter ended with the scored at
81-76.  The Celts had a 31-21 advantage in the quarter.

	At the start of the fourth the bench had a very tough time.
They couldn't get organized on offense and the continually fouled on
the defensive end.  The Indy bench outscored them 7-0 to start the
quarter (5 of those points came from the foul line).  Pitino had to
rush the starters back into the game, without their normal rest (still
10:30 to go in the game).  Meanwhile Bird stuck with his bench, and
they produced, actually keeping the lead at the 10 point mark or so.
Finally with 4:00 to go, the Celts starters put a couple of baskets by
Walker around a defensive stop and cut the lead to 5 at 103-98.  The
Indy starters, who had been resting on the bench for close to 10
minutes, came back in and immediately pushed the lead back up to 9 at
109-100.  The Celts continued to struggle, but that was pretty much
the end of the game, as the final was 115-108.

	The Celts continued to execute their offense, posting a FG%
over 50% again.  They actually shot a better percentage than the
Pacers, but Indiana was able to eke out small advantages in 3
pointers, offensive rebounds, turnovers and at the foul line to negate
it.  The Celts failed (again) to really cause much damage with the
press.  They managed 11 steals, but Indy didn't commit many unforced
turnovers, ending the game with a total of just 14.  The Pacers were
able to consistently dictate the pace of the game, never letting the
C's get close to 50 possessions in a quarter.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Griffin, Walker, Potapenko
Pacers: Jackson, Miller, Rose, Davis, Smits

Players:
Anderson: Kenny picked up the C's and carried them offensively in the
second half.  He had 20 points and 5 assists, mostly in the second,
and, for the second time this season, went without committing a
turnover.  He also really gave himself up on defense.  Definitely
putting in the effort.  I don't know, though.  Is it just me, or is he
a little reluctant to pass the ball to Griffin?

Walker: Toine hit a 3 early, and as is often the case, lost
perspective.  He ended up going 3-7 on threes (not bad, if he took
care of the rest of his game).  Unfortunately he was 6-16 on two's,
and didn't get to the line once.  Had 3 boards, 4 steals and 1 assist
in 37 minutes.

Pierce:  Basically improved his shooting percent by substituting
turnovers for missed shots.  Went to the basket aggressively, but
coughed up the ball inside.  Still had 19 points 8-11 shooting and had
5 boards in 26 minutes (he ended the game with 5 fouls).

Griffin: Had a tough time toning down his aggressive defensive game,
and focusing just on Reggie.  Instead, he tried to do his usual thing,
run around and disrupt the Pacer's offense.  So he gave Reggie an
opportunity and Miller was knocking down everything.  Pitino had to
get him our of the game or else see Reggie score 50.  Still, A.G.
managed to score 8,  and get 4 boards, 5 assists and 2 steals in 27
minutes.  He just needs to prioritize.

Potapenko:  Another fine effort from Vitaly.  He got banged by Miller,
in the third, and came back into the game in the 4th with a big
bandage on his jaw.  He got 10 points and 11 boards before fouling out
in 25 minutes.  Certainly was the most active big man in this game.

Cheaney: scored 4 points in 20 minutes.  But he did a nice job on
Reggie in the 2nd half, and gave the Celts a chance to get back in the
game.  Basically did what Griffin and Pierce wouldn't or couldn't:
crawl inside Millers jersey and refuse to come out.

Williams: About the only guy from the C's bench who was effective on
offense. he had 13 points in 23 minutes, and easily could have had
more if the refs had been a bit more fair to him.

Barros: shot the ball well with 7 points in 11 minutes.  But he had
his usual problem running the team in half court.  Just does not have
the skills.  One of our fellow list members suggested that Griffin
might be a natural complement to Barros, supplying the floor
generalship that Dana lacks, and freeing Barros up to shoot the ball.

Battie: Played with some energy tonight, but with the Pacers
dominating the pace, really did not get into the offense.

Danny Fortson McCarty: something weird going on with the NBA stats
system.  Anyway, Walter played more like WALTER tonight, i.e. without
much direction or intelligence, just raw energy.

Pervis: looks like Rick is going to conserve him for emergency use.
he came into the game when Battie got knocked around in the first
half, and acquitted himself capably again.

Turner: DNP

Coaching: I thought you could make an argument that Bird outcoached
Rick tonight.  When the Celts were charging in the 3rd, Larry didn't
panic, but instead maintained his normal rotation, and got his
starters off the floor in good order.  Conversely, when Pitino left
the Celts starters in the game to long, he had to rush them off, and
then when the C's backups didn't produce (over about 1:30) Rick pulled
them back off the floor in favor of his starters.  As a result, Bird
had fresh troops in at the end of the game, while the C's were playing
tired, though valiant.  To be honest, though, I think Larry is one of
the best coaches in the league at managing his rotation, while Rick is
always overreacting.

Opposition Tired Old Guys of Note:  That covers nearly the entire
Pacers team.  Pretty much the Jazz East.  Other than moving Rose into
the starting lineup and bringing Mullin of the bench, and with Antonio
Davis in DinoLand, this looks like exactly the same team that didn't
have enough gas in the tank last year in a shortened season.  Hard to
understand why they'd get it done this year.  But they do play smart.

The Celts are now 3-1.  They're off until Wednesday night, when they
face the Pistons.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net