Cavs Dump Celts: Cleveland 109- Boston 103

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

      The Celts have gone from winning impressively, to losing close
games to good teams, to getting kicked around by the weak sisters of
the league (Cleveland, Washington), in the space of three weeks.  They
had some good moment again tonight,  and might have won the game if
Antoine Walker had been willing to play within 12 feet of the basket
on offense.  They were up by ten with 4:32 to go in the 3rd period,
but the Cavs steadily reeled them in, and were able to outscore the
Celts by 16 points over the remainder of the game.

	As has been the trend in earlier meetings between these teams,
the Celts seemed unprepared for the Cavs running game at the start of
the contest.  Most of the Cav offense early was either fast break
layups or Andre Miller.  The Celts were very content to shoot the
jumper on nearly every possession, but they were hitting at a pretty
fair clip, and were staying in the game.  The C's lost a bit of ground
when they went to the bench, and the Cavs led 24-22 going to the
second.

	The rapidly balding Danny Ferry came into the game hot at the
start of the second period.  The Cavs continued to get some fast break
offense (Cedric Henderson was the recipient of much largesse).  The
Celts production from the bench was sparse, and the Cavs opened up a
37-31 lead with about 7:00 to in the quarter.  The starters got back
into the game, and the Celts quickly pulled even with a 7-0 run
(39-39).  Then C's put together another run to push out to a 50-40
lead with 1:00 to go in the half.  But the Cavs scored 5 straight to
end the half with the Celts up just 3 (50-47).

	The Celts continued to play solidly at the start of the third.
In the middle of the period, the C's put together a 10-2 run to extend
the lead back out to 10 at 68-58.  Brevin Knight came into the game at
this juncture, and began to pepper the C's with midrange jumpers.
Also Shawn Kemp, in vacation in the Barbados for most of the game,
began to show signs (of earning his monumental paycheck).  The Cavs
outscored the Celts 8-2 over the last 2:00 of the period, and trailed
by 3 again (76-73).

	The Cavs rapidly closed the remaining gap over the first 3:00
of the 4th, and tied the game at 82-82.  The Celts were up by 3, at
89-86 with 6:00 to go.  Sura tied the game on a conventional 3 point
play, and then Henderson repeated the feat (Griffin fouled both
times).  The Celts continued to hang close, and had to chances to tie
the game at 100.  the first time Pierce missed a jumper, and then
after a Williams steal that seemed to provide a chance for a fast
break, Anderson mishandled the ball (eliminating the chance for an
easy basket) and then turned it over.  The Cavs came down the court,
and after they had missed 2 shots, Henderson got the rebound, and was
fouled.  He hit both to put the Cavs up by 4.  Anderson brought the
Celts to within 2 again, on a drive, but the Cavs scored 5 straight to
pu themselves up by 7 (107-100) with .30 to go.  Williams hit his 4th
3 pointer of the game with 17 seconds to go, but the Celts didn't
foul, and the Cavs took the win 109-103.

	The Celts shot just .409 to the Cavs .500.  That resulted from
a huge difference in the propensity of the 2 clubs to take the 3.  The
Celts attempted 26 threes in the game (hitting 9) while the Cavs were
4-9.  So the Celts actually shot 29-62 (.468) on 2 pointers.  Another
big difference was at the free throw line, were the Celts attempted
more (33-30) but made fewer (25-22).  That negated a rebounding
advantage for the Celts, and a nice advantage (21-14) in turnovers.
The C's bench was outscored 51-16 (124-71 min.).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Williams, Walker, Potapenko
Cavs: Miller, Person, Murray, Kemp, Bryant

Players: 
Williams: Eric has almost completely converted over to being a
standstill jump shooter on offense.  He was 4-6 on threes, 6-11
overall, and did not go to the free throw line 1 time.  He scored 16
points, and played a nice floor game with 4 assists and 3 steals in 35
minutes.  I hope that Eric realizes that if he can blend his old game
and the new one, he has a chance to be a powerful offensive player.
Whereas he'll be just another face in the crowd, if he switches
entirely to being a perimeter player.

Potapenko: one of those rare games, where Potapenko was the largest
player on the court.  He scored 19 on 8-11 shooting.  also had 9
boards and 2 blocks in 33 minutes.  Vitaly continues to extend the
range on his jumper, and tried a couple of 20 footers tonight (1-2).
Watch for him to try some threes next year.  Most of the time, he was
guarding Kemp.  Shawn drove around him several times.

Pierce: Still doesn't have his jumper on a consistent basis.  Was 1-4
on threes.  He and Walker worked a play where Pierce just goes down to
the baseline, under the basket, get his man on his back, and Toine
hits him over the top.  They must have ran it half a dozen times, and
it worked every time but one. Most of the time, it ended in Pierce
getting to the free throw line and he shot 9-12 from there.

Walker: seemed to be auditioning for the starting point guard spot on
next years team.  He shot almost exclusively from outside (1-4 on
threes) and had 6 assists (if they gave out assists for passes that
lead to trips to the free throw line, he would have been over 10).
Meanwhile, he has just 6 boards and shot 3-15 in 38 minutes.  

Anderson: 2-7 on threes.  the rest of his game was pretty good though,
as he shot 7-13, had 18 points, 7 assists and 2 steals in 32 minutes.

Barros: shooting dropped off tonight at just 2-8.  As usual, not an
especially useful player when the shot isn't there.

Battie: back in the Bat Funk. 2 points and 2 boards in 11 minutes.

Fortson: 4 points and 8 boards in 14 minutes (2 fouls). 

Cheaney, Griffin, Overton: little impact from any of them, though
Griffin hurt the team with the 2 three point fouls down the stretch.

Coaching: not sure I'd be pleased with the 26 three point shots if I
were Rick.  In a lot of way, the problem with this team had been an
unwillingness, or inability to do the things they know they have to do
to win games.  I'm not sure a ten game post-pre-seoson, where they get
to try out anything they like, would be a positive trend.

Oh, well.  The Celts are now 30-43.  they're going to try and play in
Charlotte on Tuesday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net