C's Go Out with a Small Bang: Boston 112- New York 85

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	The Celts brought their final record up to 35-47, as the
Knicks treated the game like a light shoot around in preparation for
the playoffs.  The Knicks actually led at the end of the half, but the
Celts blew them out in the third, holding the Knicks to just 11
points.  Van Gundy put up the surrender flag early, and the Celts won
going away.

	Early on it looked as though Kenny Anderson was going for the
Fleet Center record.  Every time he got to within 25 feet of the
basket he launched.  Of course, he was hitting a fair bit of the time
too, and the Celts jumped out to leads of 13-6 and 17-8.  The Celts
were leading 29-17 with about 2:00 to go, when Pitino mass substituted
the bench.  The Knicks took advantage, and closed out the quarter with
a 6-0 run, cutting the Celts lead to 29-23.

	Van Gundy kept Ewing in the game at the start of the second,
and that led to some pretty interesting matchups with Danny Fortson.
The bench played the Knicks even at the start of the quarter, but
Pitino didn't stay with them for very long.  Instead, about with about
8:00 to go he went back to the starters.  The Knicks (especially
Brunson and Thomas) did a nice job, as the Knicks went on a 19-8 run
to take their first lead of the game at 49-45.  Doug Overton got into
the game and gave the Celts some production from a surprising source,
as he helped the C's close to within 1 at the half (56-55).

	The Celts quickly tied up the game, and then took the lead at
66-62.  Anderson continued to jack up the shots, but did find time to
throw a really sweet pass to Walker for a fast break kay-up.  About
halfway through the period, Van Gundy went to the far end of his
bench, bringing in stalwarts like Chris Dudley and Andrew Lang.  The
bottom dropped out of the Knicks offense, as they were only able to
score 2 baskets in the last half of the quarter.  The Celts outscored
the Knicks 18-4 over the last 6:00 of the period (the Celts led 84-67
going to the 4th).

	The Knicks outscored the Celts 5-0 to start the quarter and
cut the lead to 84-72.  Andrew Lang was called for a flagrant foul on
Fortson (in rebounding action: a bit unusual), and Danny got a T.  The
Celts stayed in control of the game pretty easily,a and were leading
99-83 with about 4:00 to go.  They really padded the score over the
last couple minutes as they outscored the Knicks 13-3 over the last
couple of minutes.  The final was 112-85.

	For the second game in a row the Celts had a big edge in
shooting at .526-.398 despite taking 21 threes.  They outrebounded the
Knicks 41-37, though they did take a bit of a beating on their
defensive boards.  They had 27 assists on 41 baskets.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Williams, Walker, Potapenko
Knicks: Ward, Houston, Sprewell, Johnson, Ewing

Players:
Anderson: I guess I was a bit unfair to Kenny, although he did take 8
shots in the first ten minutes of the game.  He actually 7-14 and had
6 assists in 33 minutes.  He took 7 threes (hit 2).

Pierce: 3-6 on threes, and scored 19 points in 33 minutes.  Shot 7-12
overall, and seemed to be hunting out good opportunities.  Also
decided to wear a headband, and was joined by Williams and Barros.

Walker: for the second game in a row, didn't seem to be taking things
all that seriously.  He had 14 points and 6 boards in 29 minutes.
Towards the end of the third quarter he left the game, and was getting
some treatment on his ankle.

Potapenko: his teammates were really taking trouble to get shots for
him.  They must have gotten Vitaly at least 8 nice jump shots.  He was
still missing almost all of them.  Played pretty well besides that and
beat Ewing up the court a couple of times for easy scores.  Had 10
points and 6 boards in 20 minutes.

Battie: Tony's jumper was on tonight, as he shot 5-8 and 7-8 from the
free throw line.  He also had a couple of nice blocks but only 1 board
in 21 minutes. 

Williams: did a nice job on Sprewell defensively early on.  Eric was
definitely not looking for his shot, as he went 2-2 and had 4 points
and 6 boards in 27 minutes.

Fortson: made up for the 1 foul performance last night by fouling out
in 25 minutes.  He did manage 13 points and 13 boards before he went
though.  

Barros: only played for 10 minutes (I guess Pitino didn't like the
headbands either).  Had 5 points and 4 assists.

Overton: one of his rare appearances.  He hit a pair of threes, and
scored 10 points in 10 minutes.

Griffin: Was presented with the 6th man award at halftime.  Had 3
assists, 3 steals and 3 boards in 19 minutes.  

Cheaney: 13 minutes, 0-2.

McCarty: ended the season as he began it: with ak perfect shooting
performance.  He was 1-1 and had 2 points in 2 minutes.

The Celts wrapped up with a 35-47 record.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net

P.S. Well, another season over with.  I had some hopes for the
playoffs this year (perhaps foolishly).  I now have a longer streak
out of the playoffs than most of the Celts (5 years).  The season
seemed to be going along pretty well until March, when the Celts
raised my hopes by winning 7 of 8, and threatening to make the
playoffs.  Up until then I was mildly pleased with the improvement
some of the players were making, and was resigned to another losing
season.  After that (followed by that 10 game losing streak) I was a
bit less satisfied with mere improvement.

	In any case I'd like to thank everyone who pinch hit for me on
occasion this year, often on short notice.  Also thanks to everyone
who wrote with words of encouragement, and all who overlooked my less
astute observations.