Celtics 97, Wizards 92

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

The Celtics opened with the lineup many have been waiting for:
Potapenko at center, Battie at power forward, Walker at small forward,
Pierce at shooting guard and Anderson at the point.  Walker said a few
words to the crowd before the opening tip and received a nice hand.  It
was also revealed he was co-captain this year, joined by Dana Barros, who
was voted by the players as the other co-captain.

The Celtics started strong, and when Vitale went out with two fouls,
Pervis came in and didn't miss a beat.  He had two blocks in the first
quarter, including a block of a dunk.  You could hear Pitino on the
sidelines constantly yelling at Kenny to push the ball up the court.
I think he should just tape himself and replay it each game to help
save his voice.  Kenny's natural inclination seems to be to walk the
ball up the floor, but he's not going to be able to do that this year.
I think the idea of basing Kenny's and Wayne Turner's minutes on how
hard they push the ball up the floor has some merit.  Otherwise Pitino
is just going to lose his voice screaming the same thing over and
over.

The offense stalled when the second unit came in.  Cheaney missed
several open jumpers that normally are automatic, and no one else was
generating any offense.  The Celtics finished the quarter tied at 22.

The second quarter didn't start out so well, as Washington went on an
8-2 run.  They hit their first five field goals and built a small
lead.  The C's battled back to tie it at 32-32.  'Toine started
hitting everything in sight, and Griffin hit a three pointer.  After
see-sawing the lead back and forth, the Wizards started knocking down
jumpers like layups with their rookie Hamilton leading the way.
Washington jumped out to a 51-44 lead.  The half finished at 51-46.

The beginning of the third quarter didn't look so good, with Hamilton
picking up right where he left off, knocking down a jumper.  Kenny got
untracked with his first hoop of the game, the then Washington took
over.  They pushed the ball up the floor the way I hope the Celtics
eventually will, getting easy baskets for anyone willing to fill a
lane.  They were also helped out on a possession when one of the
Washington players, falling out of bounds, was granted a timeout.  I
thought they did away with that...

As the C's offense degenerated into one-on-one basketball, Washington
took the lead 59-50.  Pierce forced a jump ball off a missed C's free
throw, won the tap, then knocked down a three to make it 59-54.
Antoine took over the offensive load at this point, scoring eight
straight Celtic points with two buckets, two free throws, and another
jumper.  Hamilton actually cooled off a bit and missed two in a row,
and at the end of the third the Celtics were down a point, 68-67.

The fourth quarter was spent with the teams trading baskets.  Anderson
was notably absent, although I don't think he was injured.  Turner got
a lot of playing time and held his own.  With 2:15 left in the game
'Toine hit a three giving the Celtics the lead, 90-88.  Juwan Howard
got a layup, tying the game.  Turner hit a jumper to put the C's ahead
92-90, then Howard followed up with another jumper to make it 92-92.

Turner fed Potapenko with a nice entry pass that led to two more
points, then Washington came up empty on their turn to tie the game,
and Antoine was fouled.  He hit one of two (making him 4-5 in the game
at that point).  Whitney tried to tie with a three, missing once,
getting a pass off the offensive rebound, then missing again.  'Toine
corralled the second rebound, got fouled, knocked 'em both down to finish
off the 97-92 win.

Anderson: Isn't scooting up the floor as fast as he was in the earlier
pre-season games.  Pitino might blow out his voice telling Kenny to
push the ball.  His jumper was nowhere to be found in the first half.
Doesn't run the break as well as I would expect for a point guard.  He
tends to hold on the ball too long, forcing it up the middle.  In
contrast, Turner and Cheaney had a beautiful fast break where Turner
got to the middle but quickly gave it to Cheaney on the wing.  The
defender had to commit to Cheaney who popped it back to Turner for the
layup.  Kenny (and sometimes Antoine) tend to force it down the middle
until all three guys on the fast break wind up jammed too close to the
basket and there's nowhere to go.

Pierce: Not such a great night for Paul.  Had a few good plays but was
AWOL for much of the game.  I was surprised he didn't post up Hamilton
more (I don't remember him doing it at all) since he should have been
able to overpower him easily.  Is really wasting his skills by jacking
up so many three-pointers (he was 2-6).

Potapenko: Looked good.  Had a good touch on offense and knocked down
a lot of shots.  Really has good footwork.  He's a really nice
complement to the team -- a solid center who can bang and defend the
big boys, has a nice touch on offense, but doesn't need the whole game
to revolve around him.  Finished with eleven points and seven rebounds.

Battie: Pretty active but probably won't show much in the stat sheet.
Didn't do anything particularly spectacular or stupid.  Oh wait, I
just checked the box score: he did get nine rebounds to lead the team,
as well as three blocks.

Walker: Had his 'A' game tonight.  Shot 10-13 from the field, 6-7 from
the line.  Also had four assists in the first half, and finished with
six.  I've got to tip my cap to 'Toine on the free throw shooting --
he's looking great, and it doesn't look like it's a fluke.  I hope he
learns to take his body more seriously in the future, but it's clear
at least *some* of the criticism gets through.  So far he has (a) cut
down on his whining with the refs, (b) seriously improved his free
throw shooting and (c) trimmed out a lot of the bad three-pointers.
Looking good.

Ellison: Very productive in his sixteen minutes.  Really looks to
score a lot more than he did two years ago.  It's a shame the C's
don't dare rely on him more -- he and Battie make quite the
shot-blocking combo.

Cheaney: Gave the team a spark off the bench.  Missed some open
jumpers but made lots of great plays.  He's really good on the break,
making smart decisions that lead to easy baskets.

Turner: Played well considering the bandage he was wearing on his
elbow.  Made better decisions on the break than Anderson.  Hit a big
jumper towards the end of the game to help keep the C's out in front.

Williams: Six points in fifteen minutes.  Isn't getting the calls the
way he did for the first few pre-season games.

Conlon:  Mah-ty scored his first bucket in his second stint as a Celtic.

Overall: Don't let a close game against Washington deceive you -- the
Wizards played well, pushing the ball up the floor quickly and hitting
tons of open jumpers.  Yeah, if the Celtics played better defense
there wouldn't be so many open jumpers, but some of their shots were
just crazy (Tracey Murray looked like he might win it by himself at
the end).

I think they'll be able to play around .500 ball until Fortson comes
back, adjust to his presence, then play well for the rest of the
season.  Still, Kenny is a question mark -- will he keep pushing the
ball?  Will Pitino have to yell at him every play?  Will he tune
Pitino out?  Will Turner get more minutes than he bargained for?

Dan