Celts Come Up Short Again!: Miami 105- Boston 103

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	Tonights loss was a bit harder to take than last nights, as
the Celts really broke down at the start of the 3rd quarter (outscored
by the Heat: 18-5), then fought their way back into the game in the
late stages of the third, and then the 4th quarter.  They (which is to
say, Pierce and Walker) were all too willing to stake the team's
fortunes to the jump shot, rather than do the hard work of getting
genuinely good shots.  The Heat were just able to hold the Celts off
(Mourning scored on a hood shot with 13 seconds to go to give them the
win).

	The first quarter was pretty much an Alonzo Mourning free
throw shooting exhibition.  He couldn't really score, but he got to
the line time after time, as the Heat built up a 12-7 lead.  Vitaly,
who was clearly trying very hard to avoid fouling and stay in the
game, actually made it to the 4:00 mark of the quarter before he
picked up his second foul and had to leave the game.   Battie was not
so careful, and picked up to quick fouls, leaving Fortson to play the
Center position for the last 2:00 of the quarter.  The Heat
immediately went to Zo to maintain a 7 point margin (27-20).  The
Celts took advantage of Tim Hardaway's absence to press, and got the
lead back town to 30-26 by the end of the period.

	The Heat got off the a quick start at the beginning of the
second quarter, and pushed their lead up to double figures for the
first time at 37-26.  Pitino rushed Pierce and Anderson back into the
game, and the Celts upped the defensive pressure.  With the score at
39-30, Walker was fouled, and while standing at the free throw line,
after making the first free throw, called for a pressing defense after
he made the second,  Amazingly, he actually did make the second free
throw (thereby using up all his good luck for the game), and the Celts
did press.  Griffin stole the ball, and found Anderson, for an easy
shot.  Meanwhile, Pierce, who had started off the game shooting
poorly, began to get really hot (he would end up shooting 8-9 in the
quarter).  The Celts went on a 27-12 run (with Fortson playing the
center position all along) to take a 55-51 lead, riding the hot hand
of Pierce.  Riley finally got a timeout, and got his guys turned
around.  Over the last three minutes of the period, the Heat went on a
10-4 run of their own to take a 61-59 lead into the half.

	The Heat continued that strong play at the opening of the
third.  They started off with a  9-0 run, that was finally interrupted
by a pair of Anderson free throws with 7:30 to go.  Then they put up
another 7 straight for good measure to make the score 77-61.  The
Celts just couldn't get a solid shot over the first 6:00 of the
period, and none of the iffy shots they put up would go in.  Walker
finally ended the drought with a 3, halfway through the period.  To
their credit, the C's continued to play hard, and began to eat into
the Miami lead.  They used a 6-0 run to cut the Heat lead to 11.  When
the quarter ended they had gotten a bit closer at 91-81.

	The Celts defense stiffened again, and Toine really worked his
tail off on the offensive end (unfortunately he mixed that hard work
in with some really questionable judgement) as the Celts gut the Heat
lead to just 2 with 7:30 to go in the game (94-92).  Both offenses
slumped, and Walker went into a funk at the free throw line, missing 4
in a row.  The Heat took advantage to push the lead back up to 99-92,
with about 4:00 to go.  Anderson got the Celts going again with an
aggressive drive to the basket, and then a nice pull up to get the
Celts to within 4.  After an Lenard offensive rebound, Pierce scored 5
straight on 2 free throws and a deep 3 to tie the game at 101-101:
1:28 to go).  The Celts threw a tremendous defensive effort at the
heat (esp. V.P. in the post against Mourning), and forced the Heat to
Spoon from 18 feet.  He connected though, putting the Heat up by 2
(103-101).  Anderson bailed the Celts out again with another pull up
jump shot off a drive to tie at 103.  The Heat got a hook shot for Zo,
which he hit, giving the Celts 13 seconds to tie or win the game.
Pierce took a 20 footer, slightly off balance jumper, which missed.
Griffin got the offensive rebound and fed the ball to Antoine with
about 2 seconds left.  Toine backed up behind the three point line (in
the left corner) and tried to win the game outright.  His shot missed
(quite predictably), and the Celts went down 105-103.

	If you look at the FG%s it's pretty amazing the Celts were in
the game at all.  They shot .414 vs. the Heat at .480.  The Heat were
5-11 on threes ( C's an excellent 8-14), and the Heat made 5 more free
throws, with both team trying the same number (31).  The Celts made up
for almost all of that advantage with 4 more offensive boards, 4 fewer
turnovers, and, the 3 extra three's (leaving them 2 points short).
Early in the game, the Heat were getting to the line much more often
than the Celts.  The Fleet center crowd was beginning to get restless
(and Tommy was nearing a state of ecstatic apoplexy).  The refs were
apparently reading the election returns, and in the second half,
managed to balance the free throw opportunities.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Cheaney, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Heat: Hardaway, Lenard, Mashburn, Brown, Mourning

Players:
Walker: in most respects, an excellent game for Toine.  He shot 12-28,
and got to the line 16 times (made 9).  He also had 7 boards, and 4
assists to go with 0 turnovers.  In the third quarter, when no one
else on the team could get a shot, he really just hustled and fought
his way to the basket to get the Celts much needed points.  He did let
down, at several points in the second half, and settle for the jump
shot.  He made a couple of them, but really, they were not good
decisions (especially when he was having his way down low).  And the
last second shot was just bizarre on several levels.  Toine played
nearly all the way totaling 47 minutes on the second night of a back
to back.

Pierce: Torrid in the second quarter, ice cold in the rest of the
game.  In the other three periods he shot 2-15.  Put up 27 points and
had 10 rebounds (all defensive). He also had 5 assists against 3
turnovers.

Anderson: Played another solid all around game against hone of the
leagues stronger points (though with the knee injury, Hardaway may not
really deserves that status any more).   He had 18 points on 6-13
shooting, 6 assists and 3 steals.

Potapenko\Fortson: both players seemed to make a decided commitment to
play with few fouls, and they were successful to some extent, picking
up just 6 violations in 37 minutes.  Unfortunately they also curtailed
most of what makes them valuable to the team, picking up just 6 points
and 6 boards in that amount of time.  Not to minimize the impact on
the defensive end, as Mourning shot 5-15 (though he make up for much
of that with an 11-12 performance at the free throw line).  Especially
down the stretch (when the refs were letting a little more play go
on), Vitaly did a great job of denying Zo the ball.

Cheaney: was in the game mostly to apply pressure on the perimeter,
and did a pretty good job.  Lenard was 1-4 on threes, and 5-14
overall.  Calbert scored 5 in 13 minutes.

Griffin: Got 29 minutes, and played well overall.  He performance was
marred by a 0-7 from the field.  Adrian's field goal accuracy was
declining before he went on the I.L. and the stay did his shot no
good.  He really doesn't seem to o be able to hit anything.  The rest
of his game is solid, with 8 boards, 4 assists and 2 steals in 29
minutes.

Barros: Dana had 5 points (2-4) and 2 steals in 13 minutes.  He came
into the game, an really injected some speed and energy into the Celts
press.  A positive effect on defense for once.

Battie: was both ineffective and foul prone.  Well, actually he did
get 5 boards in his 12 minutes, but also had 5 fouls (though a couple
of them were pretty ridiculous calls).

McCarty: 17 minutes, and took just 1 shot, a three which he made.

Pitino: although Rick used the reserves a little more tonight than he
did last night (though the 14 minutes for Fortson was probably the
result of foul trouble more than any intentional plan), he did still
pretty much commit to having a couple of starters on the  floor the
whole game.  Oddly enough, it was the starters who went through the
big offensive drought at the end of the second and start of the third
periods.  

	I don't know if the coaching staff sat Danny and Vitaly down
before the game and told them to minimize the fouling, or if they did
it on their own, but I'm not sure I'm crazy about the result.  In
general, I don't think that foul prone players  can really cut down on
their fouls without reducing their effectiveness greatly.  Basically,
you have to either  fish or cut bait with foul prone players: let'em
play aggressively and live with the consequences or don't play them at
all.  At half speed they're usually no use at all.

The Celts are now 21-25.  They host the Nets on Friday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net