Hornets Handle C's: Charlotte 112- Boston 105

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	Tonight was an example of a phenomenon that we Celt's fans
have grown accustomed to over past seasons, but haven't seen too much
of this year.  A solid veteran team comes out and plays rather
loosely.  The Celts look pretty good for 2 or 3 quarters.  Crunch
times, come, the vets tighten the defense and go to the juicy matchups
while the Celts look confused.  Pretty much the story tonight, as the
Celts held a 9 point lead with 2:00 to go in the third.  The Hornets
outscored the Celts 41-25 over the remainder of the game, and seemed
to easily be in control of the outcome.

	Early on the Celts were settling for the outside shot and
missing, while the Hornets were hitting.  Charlotte was helping the
Celts stay in the game with some incredibly sloppy ball handling (the
Hornets must have passed the ball out of bounds 6-8 times tonight).
The Hornets held a 13-8 lead midway through the first.  Eddie Jones
helped out by hitting a pair of threes.  Dana Barros came into the
game and hit a trey of his own to get the Celts to within 2 at 21-19.
But the Hornets came back, and led 27-23 at the end of the period.

	Barros continued to hit from the outside, and Danny Fortson
added some inside play at the start of the 2nd. Eddie Robinson, rookie
from Central Oklahoma State was giving the C's real headache's.
Pitino slipped Walker back into the game, before Silas went back to
his starters, and Walker was able to score a couple of quick baskets
over Chuckie Brown as the Celts grabbed the lead at 38-35.  The
Hornets starters did get back into the game, and got the lead back at
48-42.  Kenny Anderson ended the half with a bit of a burst, scoring 7
points over the last 2:00 of the half, pulling the Celts to within 1
(54-53).

	The Celts put together an 8-0 run  to take the lead at 63-59.
With about 4:00 to go, Walker powered the Celts on a 11-4 run to take
an 80-71 lead (the Celts high point).  Silas called timeout, and
reminded the Hornets that it was technically possible for them to lose
the game.  The Hornets responded, and began to work their way back
into the game.  The big thing they did was to cut out the stupid
turnovers that had been giving the Celts a big edge over the first 3
quarter.  The ended the half with a 8-4 run and tailed by 4, 86-82,
heading to the final period.

	The Hornets really clamped down on defense, and held the Celts
to just 7 points over the first 7:00 of the 4th quarter.  Walker was a
big culprit in the failure to score as he repeatedly tried to post(!)
Coleman, and mostly got rejected for his efforts.  The Celts suffered
a big blow when Williams fouled out of the game, and put Mason on the
free throw line.  Despite the offensive outage, a three pointer by
Anderson tied the game at 96-96 with 4:44 to go.  Pitino went to
Griffin to guard Mason, and the Hornets immediately went to the
mismatch.  Mason hit 5 free throws over the next three possession to
put the Hornets up 101-98.  Walker got to the line with the Celts down
101-98, but missed both free throws with 3:30 to go.  A couple of
possession later he fouled Eddie Jones, who did not miss either one of
his , and the Celts were down 5 (103-98) with 3:05 to go.  Actually
the Celts did a pretty good job on offense down the stretch, with
Pierce pitching in with a couple of nice midrange jumper.  But the
Celts continued to play Griffin or Cheaney on the front line, and the
Hornets just went to the mismatch on each opportunity.  The Celts
couldn't get a stop down the stretch, and the Hornets went on the the
relatively easy 112-105 win.

	The Celts were in the game on the strength of 22 Hornets
turnovers, many of them unforced.  Thanks to Kenny Anderson they were
6-12 on threes.  Not enough to make up for a .569-.512 shooting
disadvantage or a 45-19 margin at the free throw line.  One of the
very few games this year, where the Celts didn't make an impact on the
offensive boards at all.  Mason, Coleman and Jones shot 22-29 from the
field and 29-33 from the free throw line.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Williams, Walker, Potapenko
Hornets: Wesley, Jones, Mason, Coleman, Campbell

Players:
Walker: up until the last 6:00 of the game, Toine was having an
excellent game.  He went mid range, drove the ball, and dished his way
to 22 points and 10 assists.  He ended up shooting 10-22 despite being
smothered down the stretch be D.C.  Coleman was carrying 4 fouls for
the whole 4th quarter, and I suppose that the Celts were trying to get
a couple more by posting Toine.  Whether it was a good decision or
not, it certainly didn't pan out, as Coleman didn't go for Toine's
fakes, and just stuffed him.  Walker didn't help matters by missing
both free throws at a critical juncture.

Anderson: 4-5 on threes.  Scored 23 points on 8-13 shooting and had 6
assists.  On the negative side, the Hornets play Kenny's natural
tempo, and he did nothing to help the Celts get the game going at
their speed.

Pierce: was hitting some jumpers tonight, mostly of the midrange
variety.  He was in foul trouble for big chunks of the game, and only
got 32 minutes.  Still had 18 points and 4 assists, but also had 4
turnovers, as he continues his pattern of ill considered drives.

Williams: Did a nice job of driving on Mason and dishing off for 6
assists.  Unfortunately he took just 6 shots, and got outscored 27-6
(at least 5 of those points came after Eric had fouled out).

Potapenko: 10 points and 4 boards (non offensive) in 27 minutes.

Barros: shot the ball well as he scored 13 points and had 3 assists in
17 minutes. Is really feeling his oats, and will shoot at the merest
hint of an opening.

Fortson: Tommy has been saying that in practice, Danny shows a nice
touch from 12-15 feet.  Tonight he actually hit a couple in the game,
and that helped him to score 9 points.  Unfortunately he really didn't
board with his accustomed elan (4 boards in 17 minutes).

Cheany, Battie, Griffin: 4 points, 5 boards, 8 fouls in 41 minutes.
Silas only played 9 guys and his 8th and 9th only were on the court
for 11 minutes.

Coaching: to all the experts out there: Would you say that Pitino pays
less attention to matchups than any other coach in the league?  Is
this a natural outgrowth of his coaching philosophy?  It seems to me
that the Celts are vastly more likely to be victimized by a bad
matchup, than to take advantage of it.

The Celts are now 30-44.  They're in Detroit tommorrow night.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net

P.S. Gorman asked Tommy if it was mistake to let Wesley (and Fox) go
when Rick took over the team.  Heinsohn responded that he thought that
while in hindsight it was probably a mistake, at the time it was
probably the right thing to do.  My take is the opposite: I was
disappointed that the Celts couldn't afford to keep Fox and Wesley,
and thought they would go on to do nice things with their new teams.
It seems to me that neither one had been outstanding, and that, while
I've missed them both, it's hard to see how they would have helped the
team in the long run (other than by communicating their attitudes to
the younger Celtics).