Celts Stink!: New Jersey 131- Boston 113

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	Real simple, tonight, folks. New Jersey came to play, the
Celts mailed it in.  You can read the rest of this report, but I
really can't say any more about the game than that.

	New jersey exploded out of the gate, and never looked back.
They jumped out to a 14-2 lead, with Van Horn doing a lot of the
damage very early.  For just a moment, the Celts stabalized, and got
the lead down to 8 at 20-12.  Midway through the quarter, though, the
Nets erupted with another 16-2 run to take a 44-21 lead, and pretty
much hand the Celts a fait accompli.  The quarter ended with the Nets
up 46-23, and 3 Jerseyoids in double figures.

	Pitino tried to go the press team but they didn't have any
more heart and intensity than the first team.  The Nets got the lead
up to 65-36 midway through he quarter on a Kiitles 3.  Walker made an
attempt to push the Celts and helped to cut the lead down to "just"21
at 74-53 at the end of the half.  Unfortunates, like the rest of his
teammates, Toine was only willing to work hard at one one of the
court.

	Early in the third the C's got the lead down below 20 (74-57),
but they wouldn't make the effort to put together a sustained
defensive stand that would get them back into the game.  The Nets got
the lead back up to 29 again in the middle of the third, before the
Celts put on a another rush at the end of the period. to reduce the
lead to 21 again (95-74).

	The 4th quarter was garbage time, even though both teams
starters were on the court for much of the time.  The Celts actually
got the lead down to 110-95 with 5:00 to go, but that was a joke.
With about 2:00 to go, Walker committed his 6th foul of the game just
to get off the court, and then got called for his 2nd technical, and
got to take an early shower.  The whole team might just as well have
joined him, as the Celts went down by a final score of 131-113.

	You look at the stats from this game, and you have to remember
that the Nets only played hard for about 18 minutes.  But they so
overwhelmed the Celts with that start, that the rest of the game (the
last 2 and a half quarters), was effectively garbage time.  Funny
thing is, the Celts wasted a miraculous night at the free throw line,
where they were 33-34! (which just makes things worse).  They shot
.438, to the Nets .580, and they had 26 offensive boards to Jersey's
10 (Toine, Pierce and Kenny combined for 14).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Griffin, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Nets: Marbury, Kittles, Gill, Van Horn, McIlvaine

Players: Obviously there were lots of points and boards to go around
even on the losing side tonight.  No one on the Celts really played
well:

Walker: 27 points, 9 boards (7 offensive).  Toine really did try to
rally the team in the second quarter.  He just tried to do it on the
offensive end (which wasn't where they really needed the help).  His
game tonight looked a bit like a throwback to his rookie year, when he
was getting a lot of offensive boards off his own misses.   Van Horn
really set the tone of the game, by taking the ball to Toine early. 

Pierce: Almost had a triple double (1 assist short).  He was lousy
too.

Anderson: really did have a bad night tonight.  Marbury was at full
strength, and he was just too much for Kenny to handle. The Celts
needed a tie out of the matchup to have a good chance of winning and
they didn't get it.

Potapenko: wasn't too awful, as he was only in the game for 13
minutes.  He had 8 points, but once again just 1 board.

Griffin: 1-7 shooting, as he continues his post injury slump.  He just
cannot find his role on offense.  I think the switch to guard, plus
returning from the injury, is just too much at once.

Battie: not an awful effort by his recent standards.  10 points and 4
boards in 15 minutes.

Cheaney: another quiet game. 5 points and 4 boards in 20 minutes.  

Barros: Hit a three on the last possession of the game.  Otherwise
nothing.  Gill practically decapitated him with a pick in the first
quarter.

Fortson: 10 points, 6 boards, in 15 minutes, also had 4 fouls.  Danny
doesn't play defense in the conventional sense at all.  There are just
plays where he gets called for fouls, and plays when the refs miss it.

McCarty: had a new haircut.  maybe that was the problem. 4 points, and
4 assists in 28 minutes.

Overton: came into the game after Gill leveled Barros. Marbury
immediately blew past him for an easy layup.

Coaching: I wish that Fox was still showing Pitino's press conference.
That must have been interesting.  

The Celts are now 21-27.  They host the Pacers tomorrow night.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net

P.S.  Boy, the Swamplands was empty tonight.  It looked like the crowd
from an indoor soccer game or something.  Maybe 2 or 3000 fans.  I
don't think I can remember an NBA game with that kind of attendance.