Rose & Pacers Defeat Celts: Indiana 113- Boston 104

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	The Celts were in this game late, with Boston ahead at 90-89
with 8:00 to go.  Down the stretch, Jalen Rose crucified the C's with
15 points over the last half of the 4th quarter, including 13 in a row
for the Pacers.  The Pacers outscored the Celts 19-11 over the last 6
minutes of the game.

	The Pacers started out the game, going after Kenny in the low
post with Mark Jackson, with mixed success.  Anderson, meanwhile,
counterattacked from the perimeter and had some good early success
with the 3 point shot, as they went out 19-12.  Jalen Rose got the
Pacers back into the game leading the Pacers on an 8-0 run to take the
lead at 24-21.  Adrian Griffin played some of his stronger ball since
the injury, making some nice passes, and helping Dana to score 5 quick
points to end the quarter with the Celts up by 2 at 30-28.  Of course
the Celts were 4-4 on threes in the period.

	Dana hit a couple more shots, and the Celts had the rare
luxury of having Potapenko contribute in the second quarter, as the
Celts went up by 7 at 38-31.  The pace of the game began to slow
dramatically from the first quarter, and the two clubs settled into a
pattern of trading baskets.  Off a 3 by Cheaney the Celts got their
first ten point lead of the game at 49-39.  Late in the quarter,
Pitino made the rather strange decision to put Dana on the court
against Jackson, who immediately went to the post and scored 5 quick
points to cap off a 12-0 run that gave the Pacers the half time lead
at 55-53.  Amazingly, the 2 clubs combined for 50 points on just 35
possession in the 2nd quarter (as opposed to 58 on 52 in the first). 

	The Celts, after falling behind by 6 early in the quarter,
came back to tie the game midway through the period at 69-69.  The
Pacers put on the gas again, and put together an 8-1 run to move the
lead up to 78-71.  The Celts put on the press just before the end of
the quarter, and were able to but the Pacer's lead to just 1.  Miller
hit a three just before the end of the period, to increase the Indy
lead to 85-81.

	The Celts came out with increased intensity at the start of
the third, and they were able to put together a 7-0 run, capped with a
Pierce 3 to take a 90-89 lead.  The Pacers were up 96-93, when the
Rose barrage started with a turnaround.  He scored the next 13 for the
Pacers, and by the time he was done, the Pacers were up 109-102, with
a minute to go and the game pretty much over.  The final was 113-104.

	For the second game in a row, the Celts got toasted on field
goal percentage.  The Pacers shot .564 to the C's .471, and the Pacers
hit on 19-22 free throws.  The Celts made up a bit of that advantage
by shooting 8-16 on threes, and by getting 11 offensive boards and an
amazing 5 turnovers (if you think about it, if the C's only shoot
6-16, and make 12 turnovers, they might lose the game by 20).  

Players: 
Celts: Anderson, Cheaney, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Pacers: Jackson, Miller, Rose, Davis, Smits

Players: 
Pierce: Not a bad evening for Paul, with 27 points on 9-18 shooting, 5
boards, 7 assists and 2 steals in 45 minutes.  I did think that he was
Rose's main victim down the stretch, though, as usual, when the C's
start scrambling no one has anyone.  Pierce has shown an interesting
new style over the last 4 or 5 games.  He is trying much much harder
to draw fouls.  Pierce got to the line 8 times tonight, and he is
throwing a lot of fakes, leaning into people, and sticking his leg out
at odd angles trying to create contact.  Not to mention a healthy dose
of acting.  Kind of like the 00's version of Chet Walker.

Potapenko: an amazing game for Vitaly, as he was able to play for 42
minutes, and pick up just 1 foul.  A year ago, when he arrived from
Cleveland it seemed unlikely he would ever go 4 minutes with just 1
foul.  And he was blazing hot from the field, with 21 points on 9-12
shooting, most of the legitimately difficult shots.  He actually hit a
wing jumper on the fast break.

Walker: I really hate to say this, especially tonight, but it looks,
off the last 3 or 4 games, that a lot of Toine's success in the low
post since the beginning of December, might have been caused by a lack
of scouting by other teams.  For the third game in the last 4 (and you
really can't count the Jersey debacle) the opposition has come in with
a nice plan for dealing with Toine, and they've had pretty good
success.  Tonight Walker scored 12 on 5-17 shooting, and had 10 boards
and 3 assists.  Toine took pretty good shots, it was just that Indiana
was waiting for him most of the time, and really clogging the middle
when he got the ball.  Walker looked to pass several times, but not
enough to effect the defense.  Of course his mini-slump might be due
to fatigue as well.  

Anderson: started off the game like a house afire, but fell apart at
the end.  He ended up 18 scoring the game, shooting 6-19, to go with 5
assists.  He was 3-4 on threes, but had just 1 point in the 4th
quarter (and he took quite a few shots).  He also had a bit of trouble
with the Jackson low post (though nowhere near as much as Dana).

Cheaney: Got 33 minutes, and pretty much had Miller for the whole
game.  Couz was commenting that he thought that Reggie was taking it
easy, and would really come on in the 4th quarter.  But Rose's
outburst made that unnecessary.  Calbert had 9 points on 4-8 shooting,
while Reggie had 16 on 2-5 (10-10 from the free throw line).

Griffin: I thought that Adrian was showing signs of revival tonight.
He had at least 3 strong drives down the lane.  Had 4 points, 2 boards
and 3 assists in 14 minutes.

Barros: hit on 5-6 shots, and scored 11 points and had 2 assists in 17
minutes.  Got killed by Jackson (what could Rick have been thinking
putting him out there).  It occurred to me while watching Dana go 5-6
from the field while being toasted by Jackson on the defensive end,
that Alvin Williams might be the perfect backcourt mate for Dana.
Dana can basically play the shooting guard, while Alvin plays the
point on offense and they can switch roles on defense (while Adrian
slips into his preferred small forward spot).  Could be good.  

Battie: once again you can tell how Tony played by looking at his
offensive rebounds: 0 in 14 minutes.  On top of that he had 2 points
and 2 defensive boards.

McCarty: back to his old tricks at 0-2.

Coaching: I've been thinking that the Celtics now have achieved the
worst of both worlds on defense.  They have the reputation (around the
league and in their own minds) as a trapping, pressing team, but in
fact they do it very rarely.  and it hasn't worked for them in a major
way (other than for a few minutes at a time) all season.  But because
they press and trap so much, there is no accountability on defense.
It seemed as though Pierce should have been matched up against Rose
down the stretch tonight, but every time you looked up it seemed that
a different player was going out to put a hand in his face.  So no one
had to really gather themselves and go out and get the guy.  Same
thing with Walker and Dale Davis, who scored 16 points on a variety of
layups and offensives rebounds.  Some one was failing to pick up
Davis, but how can you say who it was.  I really think that the Celts
were on the track back in December when they started to simplify the
defense, but they seemed to have abandoned that idea.

The Celts are 21-28.  They're off until tuesday night, when they
attend the annual massacre in Utah (O.K., I'm sorry, that is kind of
negative).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net