C's Take Down Magic: Boston 95- Orlando 91

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	Nice effort by the Celts tonight, especially after some of the
stinkers we've hand to endure over the last couple of weeks.  Special
mention has to go to Danny Fortson, who put forth a monster effort to
pull the Celts to victory.  The Magic played their usual hustling
style of defense, and generally did a nice job of pressuring the Celts
perimeter game.

	It looked as though the Magic might dominate again early on as
they jumped out to a 9-4 lead.  The Celts seemed to be missing some of
the jump shots that've been falling recently, especially Kenny
Anderson.  Pierce started out playing Outlaw, and quickly picked up a
pair of fouls.  For once, Pitino let Pierce stay in the game for a bit
(not that it helped much).  The Celts managed to get back into the
game.  They got a nice boost  when Fortson entered the game, as he
scored a quick 4 points.  Williams came in right behind him and scored
6.  The Celts momentarily took a 26-24 lead.  The Magic scored the
last 4 points of the quarter, and led 29-26. 

	Dana Barros was unusually errant at the start of the second
(and for the game in general).  The Magic were having trouble
generating offense also, and with some more help from Fortson, the
Celts were able to gain a small advantage from the bench. About
halfway through the period, Pitino went back to the starters in a mass
substitutions.  Pierce, back in the game, immediatly picked up his 3rd
foul, and was right back out.  The Magic ended the half with a 6-2 run
to take a 53-49 lead at the end of the half.  It was a pretty good
effort nonetheless, as the Celts were trailing mostly because they
were missing jumpers (not bad shots).

	That perrenial (it seems) thorn in the C's side, John Amaechi
reared his head again at the start of the second half.  He was really
taking advantage of Potapenko, who had no way to deal.  Fortson got
back into the game, and pretty immeditaly corrected the Celts downward
spiral.  The Cetls got the lead back at 65-63.  As at the end of the
half, the Magic came on with a run at the end of quarter, and led
76-73.  

	Tony Battie made a rare appearance at the start of the 4th,
and scored 11 points over the first half of the quarter to keep the
Celts in the game (though he made several miscues that helped the
Magic cause as well).  The Celts were still trailing by 3, when Pitino
got Walker, Pierce and Forston back into the game.  Fortson
immediately went to work and got the Celts the lead with an offensive
put back (90-89: 4:48 to go).  With 3:43 to go, Mercer scored the last
Magic points of the game on a drive to the basket (Magic up 91-90).
With 2:35 to go the Magic turned the ball over, and the Celts took the
lead, as Anderson scored a layup.  On the next Celt possession Pierce
hit a 3, to put the C's up 95-91 with 2:04 to go.  The Magic came down
court, and made a maniacal attempt to score (getting a couple of
offensive rebounds), but could not get a shot to go down.  After the
Celts got the ball back, Fortson followed up a Kenny Anderson miss,
got fouled, and muffed both free throws (about the only thing he did
wrong all night).  After the Magic recovered a missed Amaechi jumper,
Mercer turned the ball over with .56 to go.  The Celts came down the
court, and milked the clock for 45 seconds, as Fortson retrieved a
missed Cheaney 3, and passed the ball back out to help the Celts
maintain possession.  With about 4 seconds to go, Armstrong was able
to get off a poor, off balance shot, which was well off.  The Celts
took the win 95-91.

	Very close game in most respects.  The Celtics slightly
outshot the Magic, which was a near miracle considering that the Celts
launched 24 threes (making 6).  The Celts had a 19-14 edge in
offensive rebounds and a 16-13 edge in turnovers caused.  Kenny
Anderson and Dana Barros, who have been a major source of offense or
the Celts recent games combined to shot 4-19.  The Celts had a nice
edge in assists 26-19.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Cheaney, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Magic: Armstrong, Mercer, Outlaw, Wallace, Amaechi

Players:
Fortson: was clearly the difference tonight.  He had 14 boards (9
offensive) and scored 23 points on 9-15 shooting (the most field goal
attempts by any Celt).  He was generally all over the court, and
supplied a great deal of hustle as well as the obvious statistical
benefits.  One thing that I think helped Danny was that in the second
half he played for about 6 minutes, and picked up his 4th foul.
Pitino took him out (also making way for a very timely contribution
from Battie).  Then Danny got back into the game with about 6 minutes
to go, and made major contributions down the stretch.  It seems that
Fortson gets tired (especially when he's playing very hard) and does
his best playing in 6-8 minute spurts.

Walker: really minimized his shooting and concentrated on distributing
the ball.  He shot 6-14 for 15 points, and 10 boards and 8 assists in
36 minutes.  He stayed outside a lot, and went 1-5 on threes.

Anderson: had a very tough time with Armstrong tonight.  He wasn't
hitting the long bomb (0-4), and was having a very tough time
penetrating.  Scored 8 points, and had 2 (?) assists in 33 minutes.

Pierce: more foul trouble.  Really had a tough time figuring out how
to guard Outlaw in the post and picked up some silly fouls.  Had 12
points on 4-8 shooting in 26 minutes.

Potapenko: In view of certain remonstrations on the list today, I
would like to take the opportunity to say that I think, also, that
Vitaly has had a surprisingly good season, and had complicated the
scheming of our armchair G.M.s by demonstrating that it won't be easy
to get a much better center.  That said, though, Vitaly stunk tonight.
He had 4 points, 3 boards and 3 fouls in 9 minutes of playing time.
And Amaechi must have scored at least 15 points while Vitaly was (not)
guarding him.  

Battie: there was a 6 minutes stretch at the start of the 4th, when it
seemed as though every other name that Gorman called was Battie.  Good
or bad, Tony seemed to be everywhere.  On the good side, Tony scored
13 on 6-7 shooting in just 11 minutes.

Williams: 9 points on 3-7 shooting, 5 boards and 5 assists in 26
minutes.  He continues to shoot the long ball well, and to play a nice
floor game. 

Barros: 1-8 shooting.  Of course, the Magic do a nice job of
pressuring the perimeter and deserve some of the credit, but I think
you have to chalk up the rest of it to an off night.  Dana did have 5
assists in 16 minutes.  During Battie's little hot streak, he and Dana
worked a pick and pop play several times.

Cheaney: another off shooting night at 2-9.  And the Magic pretty much
ignored him, Calbert was just missing.  He did do a pretty good job on
Mercer, who was 5-16.

Griffin: just got into the game for a couple of minutes.  Apparently
he is so tired that Pitino would rather play

McCarty: who shot 1-4 from the floor, 2-5 from the free throw line,
and had 2 turnovers in 12 minutes.

The Celts are now 32-46.  They host the Bulls on Friday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net