Spurs Anihilate Celts: San Antonio 121- Boston 98

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	Mannn!  Where is my thesaurus?  Hard to come up with a fair
description of how thoroughly the Spurs dominated the Celts tonight.
The only thing the C's led the Spurs in was time outs called.  The
Spurs overwhelmed the Celts in every aspect of the game.  The C's were
clearly unprepared to go against the San antonio inside defense.
Meanwhile they suffered a large number of defensive breakdowns
themselves, giving up a large number of easy baskets to the Spurs who
won't be going into the Hall of Fame.

	Both teams started off a bit slowly.  Griffin picked up his
2nd foul just 3:30 into the game, and though Pitino left him in a few
more plays was rendered ineffective.  The Celts looked very tentative
on offense, as they tried to feel their way to an effective offensive
attack against the twin towers.  About halfway through the quarter the
Celts were only trailing by 4 at 12-8.  The Spurs began to find the
range.  They scored on 6 of their last 7 possessions in the quarter,
putting together a 15-8 run to take a 33-20 lead into the 2nd.

	The C's bench was in at the start of the second, and they
continued the ineffective play over from the first.  Battie supplied
the only offense over the first 4 minutes, as he had 2 nice offensive
putbacks.  The Spurs took advantage of the Celts slow offensive pace
to put together another (more a continuation) run of 13-6.  Walker and
Ellison combined for one of the few nice plays by the C's in the first
half, when Toine drove the lane, and when Robinson came over to help
out, Pervis moved into a passing lane right behind him.  Walker laid
down for one of the very few easy baskets the Celts got in the first
half.  It wasn't nearly enough, though, as the Spurs ended the half
leading 66-42.  Hard to say, which was worse, the Celts offense or
defense.  The Celts were clearly intimidated by the Spurs
shotblocking.  On defense though, they gave up a number of easy
baskets.

	The third quarter was just solid misery for the Celts.  Rather
than give any big runs they just traded 2 baskets for 3, as the Spurs
continued to build up the lead.  Pitino went to the bench early and
often to no avail, as the Spurs and Duncan (who if anything was even
more dominant in the 3rd, than in the first half) pushed the lead up
to 32 at 97-65 at the end of the quarter.

	Both coaches cleared the bench at the start of the 4th.  The
Celts bench is quite a bit better than the Spur's, and they began to
cut into the lead.  The Celts got some easy baskets, and Eric Williams
about doubled his career total of jump shots hit, in the quarter.  The
Celts cut the lead to 101-85, when Popovich had to relent and put some
of his starters (including Duncan) back into the game.  The Spurs
pushed the lead back up to 23 by the end of the game.  The final was
121-98.

	C's    Spurs
FG%    .449    .580
FT%    .789    .905
3FG%   .300    .500

Any questions?  The Spurs also outrebounded the C's 43-36.  The Celts
only committed 9 turnovers.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Griffin, Walker, Ellison
Spurs: Johnson, Ellie, Brown, Duncan, Robinson

Players:
Anderson: I thought Kenny quit on this game a little quick.  He had an
idea of how to attack the Spurs.  About 4 times in the first 5
minutes, he drove to within about 15 feet and then pulled up and hit a
jumper.  Unfortunately, he missed 3 of the 4.  I thought they were
good shots, and that he should have kept taking them.  Kenny scored 8
and had 5 assists in 27 minutes.

Walker: shot just 5-21.  As usual, none of the shots were particularly
bad, but then again none of them were that good either.  Didn't
contribute much else as he had 5 boards and 2 assists in 25 minutes.

Griffin: probably what little chance the Celts had of making a contest
of this evaporated when Adrian picked up 2 fouls in the first 3
minutes.  He still managed 6 points, 6 boards and 4 assists in 22
minutes.

Pierce: Brutal game for Paul.  He shot 4-11, and had 11 points,
4boards and 2 assists.  He was thoroughly taken to school on defense
by Mario (older than dirt) Ellie.  Ellie burnt him for a number of
easy layups and open threes.  Very poor.

Potapenko:  It's hard to explain Pitino's fluctuations at center.  A
couple games ago, after the strong 4th quarter against Cleveland, V.P.
was a big potential weapon, the Celts need to use more.  A couple of
games later he's struggling for minutes.  Shot 5-8 tonight and had 10
points and 5 boards in 26 minutes (he played all of the 4th, which
skews those numbers a lot).

Pervis:  Usual solid effort.  He was a big body on defense.  Was
matched up against Duncan at the start of each quarter and didn't do a
bad job.

Williams: got most of his points in the 4th quarter when the game was
decided and the defensive pressure was off.  That doesn't change the
fact that Eric was downright deadly on the 18-20 foot jumper.  Think
he hit 5 in a row!  16 points (led team), 5 boards and 2 assists in 25
minutes.

Battie: One of the very few Celts who seemed to have a feel for what
he could do offensively against the Spurs D.  He slid in for a couple
of nice offensive boards and then hit a couple of 15 foot jumpers.
Had 13 points and 6 boards in 20 minutes.

McCarty: 6 points and 3 blocks (!) in 16 minutes.  I think that 2 of
the blocks came on the same sequence.

Barros: Found a few driving lanes late in the game. Had 8 points and 1
assist.

Cheaney: Shot 0-2 in 18 minutes.  Although his floor game seems okay,
he needs to do more than that to play on the second team.  They just
don't have the offensive firepower to carry a non-contributor.

Overton: Only got off 3 shots in 7 minutes.  What's wrong?

Coaching: I don't know how much blame the coach takes in a game like
this.  If Rick had an idea how the C's could compete in this game, he
certainly failed to communicate it to his players.  The thing that
galls me is that the Sixers lost to these guys by 4 points a couple of
nights ago.

Opposition NBA champs of Note:  I'm not 100% sold on the Spurs.  A lot
of teams have won a championship, and then come into the next season
playing with tremendous confidence and intensity.  Too much in
general, as they usually burn out before the end of the year.  Heck,
even the Russell Celts couldn't repeat in Bill's second year (I know
that Russell was injured in the playoffs, but that part of my point).
I wouldn't be surprised to see the Spurs slow down by the end of the
season and then flame out in the playoffs.  That said, Duncan is an
amazing player (sigh).

The Celts are now 7-5.  Of course, that's 6-2 at home, and 1-3 on the
road (or .500 if you average the two).  They host the Bucks on Friday
night.

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.net

P.S.  A query for all you b-ball historians out there.  Several duos
have been termed Twin Towers before Tim & Dave.  Chamberlain and
Thurmond, Webster and Cartwright, and also Sampson and Olajuwon come
to mind. How come Parish and McHale didn't make twin tower status?
Aren't they almost exactly the same size as Duncan and Robinson?  And
roughly as good?