Heat OutSavvy(?) Celts: Miami 110- Boston 92

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	This was probably the most severe test the Celts have faced in
years.  Miami gave the Celts the respect their early season start
deserved, and brought their A game.  For the 40 minutes or so, between
a hot 13-6 Celts start, and a meaningless 12 points the C's cored in
garbage time, the Heat D held the Celts to just 67 points.  The nice
passing I've been praising the C's for over the last 3 weeks resulted
in turnovers against the Heat.  And, while the Celts continued to play
improved half court defense, the battle hardened Heat were unfazed by
it, and continued to manufacture scoring opportunities.

	Griffin got the Celts off to a quick start, as he scored 7
points in the first 4 minutes as the C's took a 13-6 lead.  The Heat
regrouped, though and ran off 12 unanswered of their own (18-13).
Barros came in early to play with some of the first teamers.  As a
reward, Hardaway tried to push him into the basket standard with Dana
running at full speed.  Hardaway was called for a flagrant foul, Dana
hit both free throws, and then Williams scored a hoop on the
subsequent possession, to give the C's a 25-22 lead.  The Heat
responded with 2 treys.  Griffin drove to the basket again, to score
his 11th point of the quarter, making the score 28-27 Heat at the end
of the first.

	Mark Strickland came into the game, and scored 8 quick points
to give the Heat a 36-30 lead.  The Celts got the score to within 3 at
41-38.  They had several good opportunities to pull closer, but
couldn't get the ball to settle into the basket.  The Celts seemed to
get a bit frustrated towards the end of the quarter, and started to
jack up threes (maybe the ease with which the Heat were hitting them
tempted them).  The Celts went dry, and the Heat built a 10 point lead
(53-43).  The Celts got a trio of free throws and a Pierce 3 as the
buzzer sounded to make the score 54-49 at the half.

	The Celts played the Heat tough for most of the third period,
but the best they could to was to pull within 4 points, with 4:00 to
go in the period (67-63).  That was pretty much it.  Pitino went to
the bench, and while they really didn't play horribly, they really
weren't up to the level of the competition.  The Heat outscored the
C's 13-4 over the last 4:00 of the quarter, making the score 80-67.
There was still a quarter to go, but against the defense that the Heat
were putting up, it would be tough to get back into the game.

	Pretty much, the Heat were able to trade baskets wit the Celts
for most of the 4th.  Whenever the Celts put a couple of scores to
together Miami came back with a basket of their own.  With 3:44 to go
in the game the score was 95-80.  Finally, Pitino threw in the towel,
and after a rather pressurized 45 minutes of play, the 2 benches put
up 27 points (15-12 Heat) over the last 3 minutes of the game.

	The story of the game was turnovers (by the Celts) and the
Heat ability to generate easy scores of off them.  The C's committed
20 T.O.s and the Heat scored 30 off of them.  The Heat had 14
turnovers and the C's cashed those in for 16 points.  As a result the
Heat shot .513 to the Celts .450. The Celts had a slight edge in
offensive boards (13-10).  One sign of the excellence of the Heat D,
was that the Celts only had 15 assists tonight.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Griffin, Walker, Potapenko
Heat: Hardaway, Majerle, Mashburn, Brown, Mourning

Players:
Walker: Toine actually had the best game of all the Celts tonight.  He
consistently drove the ball on whomever was guarding him all night
long.  He ended up with 18 points on 8-17 shooting, 8 boards, 4
assists and 0 turnovers.  I just loved his offensive game tonight.
Tommy made the comment that Brown is one of, if no the, quickest power
forwards in the league, and that if Toine could drive on him, he
should be able to drive on anyone.  Amen!

Pierce: Really got a lot of attention from the Heat and Majerle.  Shot
4-16, scored 15 points, had 5 boards and 2 assists.  Really didn't get
many good looks.

Griffin:  After the quick start, didn't get too much accomplished.
ended with 14 points, 4 boards, 1 assist, 4 steals and 3 turnovers.
Mashburn tried to post him a couple of times with mixed success.  I
guess it wasn't easy that he kept going back to it.  As Griffin plays
in the league longer, he'll learn to save those offensive outbursts
for the 4th quarter.

Anderson: The Heat just didn't give him any lanes to the basket in
half court or transition.  He scored 11 (5-13) and had 3 assists in 29
minutes.

Potapenko:  The Celts decided to front Mourning, and it had it's
intended effect as Zo shot the ball just 12 times (of course he hit on
8 of them).  Vitaly seemed to suffer from the clogging defense on the
C's end.  He had 6 points and 2 boards in 22 minutes.

Battie: had a little more trouble with the defensive assignment.  He
picked up 5 fouls in just 16 minutes.  He was pretty effective with 5
points and 5 assists.

Williams: played a good game off the bench, with 9 points and 5 boards
in 22 minutes.  He seemed to be able to create his own offense against
the Heat D, which with them shutting down passing lanes, is about the
only way to do it.

Dana: another tough night.  He host 0-4 and had 2 assists in 15
minutes.

McCarty: had another lousy game.  Seems to be the one Celtic with real
problems in the halfcourt defense.  Strickland came in and lit him up
tonight.  did hit another couple of shots.

Overton: came in and scored a couple basket late.  0 assists in 6
minutes (which I think gives him 2 assists in 27 minutes now).

Pervis: I thought he made a lot of mistakes tonight.  He's played
pretty well in his spot minutes so far, but he looked lost and
confused on both ends of the court tonight.

Cheaney: supposedly is ready to play, but got his 2nd DNP tonight.

Coaching:  I think Rick probably isn't too disappointed about this
one.  The Celts first unit hung in pretty well against the Heat.  You
can imagine this group of players (plus Fortson) handling a group like
the Heat with some more seasoning.  It's just that getting that
experience is going to be pretty painful.

The Celts are now 6-4.  They host the Pacers Monday evening.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net