C's Pistons

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	Far and away the Celts weakest performance of the year.  This
game could easily fit in with last years efforts (and one of the
poorer ones at that).  The C's were out smarted and out efforted in
this one.  Kenny Anderson was hurt in early in the second quarter.  He
briefly tried to play at the start of the second half, but was unable
to make a go of it.  Calbert Cheaney missed the game with a turned
ankle.

	For the first time this year the Celts appeared to open the
game a bit sluggish.  The Pistons opened up a 13-6 lead. Pitino
responded by taking out Pierce and Anderson, and going with Barros and
Griffin in the backcourt.  The Celts immediately responded with a 10-0
run of their own to take the lead 18-15.  Pierce got back into the
game in time to drive the baseline, and put down a powerful jam.  but
the Pistons tied the game just before the end of the quarter 24-24.
On the last possession of the period, Griffin striped Stackhouse.  But
Stackhouse retaliated, blocking Griffin's buzzer beater.

	The second period had just started when Grant Hill leveled
Pierce going for a loose ball.  Pierce went to the bench, while Hill
drove to the basket and picked up a foul.  Just a minute or so later,
Anderson was called for an offensive foul, when Hill clearly undercut
him in the lane.  Anderson had to leave the game also (Pierce returned
quickly, Kenny didn't).  The Celts managed to stay within a couple of
baskets through the middle portion of the period, and were trailing
44-39, when Pitino lifted Barros in favor of Doug Overton, getting his
first PT with the C's.  Despite Overton's presence the Piston's were
able to pull out to an 8 point lead by the end of the half 51-43.

	The Pistons continued to play well at the start of the second
half.  They pushed the lead up to 61-50, and Kenny had to throw in the
towel and return to the bench for the rest of the game.  Doug Overton
came into the game with clear instructions to uptempo the game no
matter what.  On his first play he drove the length of the court, drew
a foul and made the basket.  On his second possessions he was called
for an offensive foul doing the same thing.  On his 4th possession he
hit a quick jumper.  The Celts outscored the Piston 8-0 and had cut
the lead to 3 at 61-58.  Overton continued his hyper if inconsistent
play for another couple of minutes, but he did seem to get the Celts
heads back into the game.  With Barros back into the game, along with
Williams and McCarty, the Celts were able to go on another run (9-4)
and actually tied the game at 72-72.  The quarter ended with the score
tied at 74-74.  I have to think that this was not a REAL score.
Whatever power that actually guarantees the accuracy of the score of
NBA games was temporarily diverted.  Unfortunately for the Celts,
reality set in with a vengeance at the start of the 4th.

	The Pistons took control of the game with a 14-6 run to start
the 4th.  The Celts went individual on offense, and the Pistons reaped
the rewards with another 12-2 run to locked up the game at 100-84.
The final was 110-92.

	Surprisingly the Pistons, despite a large number of easy
baskets on the break and off Boston turnovers, still only managed to
shoot .464.  The problem was that the Celts only shot .413 (almost 10%
worse than their average going into the game!).  The C's had 21 the to
the Pistons 14 (and more damaging the Pistons had 10 steals, and I
would guess converted almost all of them into easy lay ups).  The
Celts got out rebounded 46-40, thanks to Jerome Williams, the best
combination of speed and rebounding ability since the 80's Karl
Malone.



Lineups: 
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Griffin, Walker, Potapenko
Pistons: Hunter, Stackhouse, Hill, Laettner, Mills


Players:
Griffin: a weird start for Adrian.  When Pitino took Anderson and
Pierce out of the game early in the first (7:00), and put Barros in at
the point, the Celts actually made an effort to run the offense
through Griffin.  The results were not pretty.  Instead of the usual
Griffin modus operandi, where he either makes a move or passes the
ball immediately, he tried to dribble the ball at the top of the 3
point line, and then force a drive down the lane.  He turned the ball
over several times, and generally played his worst stretch of ball as
a Celtic.  In the second half, he reverted to his customary style of
play, and achieved his customary results.  He ended the game with 11
points, 9 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and 5 turnovers (increasing his
career total by 167%).  I've commented several times that I didn't
think he had three point range, and seemed reluctant to try the shot.
At the end of the game, though, he got a chance to try a three in the
flow.  The ball went in and the shot looked good.  Although the Celts
defensive rotation made it difficult to figure out who was playing
who, he did seem to do a decent job on defense.  did get scorched by
Hill on a crossover once.

Walker: Only shot 5-14 (including 1-6 on threes).  He did go to the
boards for the first time this year and pulled down 10 to lead the
team.  He only played 31 minutes, and just didn't seem in the spirit
of things tonight.

Pierce: I was surprised to see after the game that he shot 10-17, had
26 points and 4 assists in 37 minutes.  He really didn't seem to be
that effective as the game was going on.

Potapenko:  maybe the real reason for the C's malaise on offense.  He
shot 1-6, and had 5 turnovers. Still played hard and had 7 boards in
32 minutes, but it's hard to call that line anything but awful.  I
thought that the Celts tried to post really close to the basket
against Terry Mills, but that the Pistons did a nice job of clogging
the middle whenever Vitaly (or anyone else) tried to post.  Vitaly
couldn't or wouldn't pitch the ball back out, thought someone had to
be open.

Anderson: Didn't seem to be heading for a good game when he got hurt.
Was shooting just 1-4.

Barros: the Pistons did a good job of sticking with him, as he got
just 4 shots in 28 minutes.  he did his best to push the tempo, but as
we know, his best generally won't get the job done.  Did have 6
assists, of a very generic nature.

Williams: a tribute to the Pistons cloying inside defense, as he
attempted just 3 shots in 15 minutes.  There was just no space in the
paint against the Pistons.

Battie: had on nice play on an offensive rebound.  Other than that was
pretty hopeless.  

McCarty: showed the 3 points range tonight (2-3).  That was it though.

Overton: I don't know what I expected when I heard the C's signed
Doug, but it wasn't that he would try 8 shots in 10 minutes in first
game.  Obviously Pitino told him to push the tempo, and Doug attacked
the assignment with a kamikaze mentality.

Coaching: You didn't have to watch the Piston run the break for very
long tonight, to realize that after 2.1 years of coaching by Rick
Pitino, the Celts still do not run the wing on the fast break very
well.  Heinsohn keeps talking about how the Celts have all this
wonderful speed at center and power forward.  The Piston showed that
if your 2 and 3 know how to run the lanes you don't need a lot of
speed at other positions.  The Celtics point guards probably take too
much heat for the failings of their teammates on the break.

Opposition Players of Note:  I'm not sure if I've made this point
before, but I'm glad to see Stackhouse get off to a good start this
year (he had 30 points and 8 assists tonight) because in vindicates a
pet theory of mine.  When I first started following the NBA (1969), it
was pretty usual for a player to have his best season as a pro (at
least statistically) his first or second year out of college (see
Sidney Wicks).  A Lenny Wilkens or Paul Silas, who started off slow,
and steadily got better was the exception.  Today, with the players
coming out younger, and taking physical conditioning so much more
seriously, means that players take longer to reach their peak (it's
probably close to 28 than 23 or 24) and they stay there longer (well
into their 30's in many cases).  In general, I think that fans and the
media, build up expectations for players too quickly and then turn on
them when those expectations aren't quickly rewarded  (this comment
applies to the whole league, not just certain Celtics).

Anyway, the Celts are now 3-2.  They're off till Friday (the Knicks:
Cousy will be doing the game).  

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net