Blazers Outlast Celts: Portland 100 - Boston 94

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	The Celts put forth a solid effort tonight, and it would have
been enough to beat all but the best 2 or 3 teams in the league on
their home court.  But, of course, the C's were playing one of the  2
or 3 best (maybe The best) in the Blazers.  The Celts led most of the
way, but their bench faltered just enough in the 4th to give the
Blazers a lead.  The Celts starters had quite a few chances to even up
the game again, but missed some key free throws, and had a few mental
lapses as well.

	The game started out with a real nice streak of hoops by the
Celts.  They were moving the ball, well, and playing some nice defense
on Sabonis, whom the Blazers ran their offense through exclusively for
the first 5 minutes.  The C's got off to a 14-6 lead.  The Blazers got
a timeout, and readjusted their strategy, and answered with a 11-2 run
of their own to take the lead back, with Stoudamire leading the way.
Pierce was having some good offensive success against Pippen and then
also with Bonzi Wells guarding him.  The C's bench came into the game
(even Fortson), and they also played well, as the Celts had a 26-25
lead at the end of the quarter.

	At the start of the 2nd, Pitino had all bench players in the
game, except for Griffin.  The group played strong defense and the
Blazers cooperated by missing the open shots they did get.  The
Blazers went for almost 6 minutes into the period without a score.
The Celts really failed to take advantage, though, scoring just 6
themselves, and still were only up 34-27 after a pair of Steve Smith
free throws.  Pitino had come back with most of his starters, except
for playing Fortson at center due to foul trouble (each had 2) on the
parts of Potapenko and Battie.  The Blazer's starters were able to
make some headway against the C's with an 11-6 run to close to within
3 (45-42) at the half.

	The Blazers came out at the start of the second half with a
bit more intensity and managed to get the lead for a moment at 51-49.
The c's rallied themselves, with Vitaly stepping up with some nice
offensive moves.  The Celts put together a 9-2 run to take a 5 points
lead at 58-53.  Vitaly and Brian Grant got into it a bit, with Grant
being called for an technical, after he got an offensive rebound
against V.  Potapenko went out of the game, and Grant seemed
energized.  The Blazers came back to take the lead at 63-61.  Pitino
had to go to Fortson to match up with Grant (Battie just couldn't
handle him), and Danny put the Celts back up with a pair of free
throws at 70-68.  Pippen hit a 3 on the last possession of the period
to give the Blazers the 71-70 lead going to the final quarter.

	Jermaine O'Neil really came alive for the Blazers at the start
of the 4th.  for a moment the Celts led by Fortson (and some
outstanding acting on Danny's part) were able to stay in the game.
Maybe Rick left in the Bench a bit to long though, as the Blazers were
able to push out to a 83-76 lead, as the backups really had a hard
time keeping O'Neil off the boards.  Pitino came back with the
starters, and they got a couple of quick scores cut the Blazers lead
to 4 with 5:00 to go.  Wallace fouled Pierce, who had a chance to cut
the lead to just 2 with 4:51 to go.  Paul muffed both free throws,
though and the Blazers quickly got the lead back up to 7 at 90-83.
The Celts hung tough, but let Pippen get open for a 3 that really hurt
them, and then let Stoudamire drive the lane for a score that put the
down by 7 with just 590 seconds to go.  Walker came back with a 3 to
cut the lead to 4 again, but the Blazers hit the free throws to
preserve the win at 100-94.

	This was an extremely even game in every statistical category
but 2.  The Blazers got to the line 12 more times than the C's
(converting 10 of those), and they had 5 more offensive boards than
the Celts (thanks to Mr. O'Neil).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Griffin, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Blazers: Stoudamire, Smith, Pippen, Wallace, Sabonis

Players:

Toine: 2nd quiet game in a row for Walker (maybe he needs the All-Star
break off).  He had 14 points (5 in the last couple of minutes) on
5-16 shooting, 10 boards, 2 assists and 4 turnovers.  I thought that
he had a recognition problem.  The Blazers had him well scouted.
Wallace played him most of the time, and when Walker posted, he just
stepped back a bit and let Walker get the baseline, then sealed him
off around the basket.  Wallace blocked his shot a couple of times,
and Sabonis got him at least once when Toine, tried to wrap around to
the other side of the basket.  On the couple of occasion that Walker
went outside, and tried to drive past Wallace he had pretty good luck
(there is no way Wallace could guard Walker 18 feet from the basket).
But it took Walker to long to his mid range game, and he didn't stick
to it when he did.

Pierce: may have reinjured his hamstring towards the end of the game.
He had a good first half, making some nice moves against Pippen, but
as you could have predicted, Scotty really bore down, and denied Paul
the ball in the second half.  Pierce ended up with 16 points (6-14), 2
boards and also had 4 turnovers.

Anderson: Another good effort by Anderson against one of the better
point guards in the league.  11 points on 5-11, 10 assists and no
turnovers.  

Potapenko: the weird fluctuations in Vitaly's game continue.  Tonight
he had 19 points on 9-12 shooting in just 24 minutes it might be the
first time V. has ever led the team in scoring).  But he had 3
rebounds?  Just a few games ago I was writing about what an amazing
job V. was doing on the boards, now he's no where to be found.  One
reason he's not getting many defensive boards is that he's trying so
hard to get down the court fast (has the demonic Mr. Heinsohn been
putting ideas in his head?).  On one play tonight Vitaly was so fast
down the court (Toine was bring the ball up), that he was actually
setting up in the post, when Walker delivered the ball to Pierce on
the wing in the fast break.  Wallace was guarding Vitaly in the post
and just took a step back and fouled Pierce on his way to the basket.

Griffin: continues to be very quiet offensively.  He had 4 steals all
in the first quarter.  But he shot 1-4, and had just 3 boards and 2
assists.  He really just isn't touching the ball on offense.  The
truth is that the other 4 guys are pretty used to playing 4 on 5 on
the offensive end, and they don't really involve the 5th guy in
(whether it's Cheany or Griffin).

Battie: Fair game, as he had 3 offensive rebounds, 2 blocks and 8
points in 17 minutes.  He kinda got pushed around by all the beef from
Portland.

Fortson: got some extra playing time, as V.P. and Battie picked up 2
fouls apiece in the first half.  And then in the second to combat
Grant.  Did a real nice job on the defensive board with 7 in 16
minutes.  Also had 6 points all from the line, as Danny does a real
nice job of letting the refs know when he's been pushed,.. or leaned
on a bit,... or breathed on,... or looked at real hard.  Whatever
happens, Danny could go flying at any moment.

Cheaney: you might have thought that he'd get more playing time with
Smith out there, but he was only in for 13 minutes.   0-2.

Barros: again played reasonably well with 8 points and 2 assists in 16
minutes.  He shot 3-7.  The Blazers do a real good job of searching
out mismatches, and they got Dana a couple of times.

McCarty: 2-2, both 3's.

Coaching: Maybe Rick left the 2nd unit in a bit to long in the 4th.
Other than that, no complaints.  I do think he needs to get the other
starters to pass the ball to Adrian once in a while (I'm not saying
that Adrian needs to shoot it, just get a touch one in a while).  Also
I thought maybe that Ricks relentless optimism, is beginning to have
an effect on the Fleet Center crown.  They seemed much more positive
tonight, and were certainly trying to encourage the team.

So if Danny's going to be dumped, and Antoine is going to play the 4
until he's old and gray, then where does that leave Pierce and Adrian?
One of the reason that I think that Griffin has been less effective
since he's come back (beside being rusty and never getting to touch
the ball), is that he's playing a bit out of position at the 2 guard
spot.  At 3 he was using his quickness to get around small forwards,
and using guile to defend them.  At 2 the speed advantage is gone, and
his outside shooting skills aren't really strong enough to stand
around on the 3 point line.  Meanwhile, I doubt it matters much at all
whether Pierce plays 2 or 3, but if you want a real quick team, then
it would make sense to play him at 3.  So do the Celts need a front
line shooting guard, or should they move Pierce back to 2, and groom
Griffin as the Jeeves of the 3?

Opposition Championship Hopes of Note: Obviously the Blazers have
chosen to go with some veterans, and make a real hard run at a
championship this year and next.  Their are a lot of good things to
say about this club, and 2 negatives.  Sabonis seems to be aging at an
incredible pace.  He was just decrepit tonight.  I don't see how he
can be of any use in the playoffs.  And they are very thin at the 2
guard spot (I mean, who is the back up 2?).  And Steve Smith in the
poster boy for injury proneness.

The Celts are now 21-26.  They go to the Swamp to play the Nets on
Tuesday.

Bill C.
wfcooper@tiac.net