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C's Start Off Right - Celtics 101, Jazz 99
The Celtics got off on the right foot with a 101-99 win over the Utah
Jazz. The Celtics hadn't beat Utah at all since 1991, and hadn't beat
them in Utah since 1988. The C's started the game with Walker,
Griffin, and Potapenko up front, and Pierce and Anderson in the
backcourt.
The C's got off to a quick start, with Adrian knocking down two 15
foot jumpers they jumped out to a 7-2 lead. Tempers flared early as
Potapenko and Polynice picked up a double technical 13 seconds into
the game for jawing at each other. Pierce had cold hands losing
the ball out of bounds off a fast break and driving into a crowd and
getting stripped shortly after. Fortunately the game was blessed with
a good set of officials who managed to ignore the constant whining of
the Jazz players when they didn't get the calls they were used to.
Kenny knocked down a couple of jumpers to push the lead to 11-2. Eric
Williams came in off the bench, followed closely by Tony Battie after
Vitale picked up his second foul. The Jazz started to get it in gear
and cut the lead to 13-9. They weren't exactly on a tear, but the C's
couldn't generate much offense themselves. Sloan picked up a
technical because the C's weren't called for fouls for breathing. By
the end of the quarter it was mostly the bench (Barros and Fortson
were in) and the Celtics closed it out with a 22-14 lead.
Barros was aggresively looking for his shot and knocked down a jumper
to open the second quarter. Kenny came back in for one possession
only to pick up his third foul, so he got yanked again with Barros
back in. The refs continued to actually make calls against the Jazz,
calling a three seconds on Malone. Pierce suddenly warmed up, scoring
on three possessions in a row, including two jumpers and a nice dunk
off a great pass from Barros on the break. Unfortunately the momentum
died as the C's went cold. Antoine had a particularly brutal stretch
that included a drive into three defenders on a fast break, though he
did get the foul. He followed that with a bad pass to Dana that went
out of bounds and followed *that* with an offensive foul. He got
stripped one more time, then fouled Malone going the other way. The
offense completely dried up and the C's went into a tailspin. They
only scored 11 points in the quarter and trailed at the half 42-33.
The third quarter picked up where the second ended, with Russell
taking it strong to the hoop and getting the basket, the foul and the
free throw. The C's started to show some life, with Antoine getting
two free throws, Pierce a dunk, and an offensive foul called on the
Jazz. The teams traded baskets for a few minutes, the C's able to get
the lead down to 62-57 with a nice defensive play by Antoine who
negated a Jazz two on one break by himself, followed by a Griffin 18
foot jumper, a Kenny Anderson free throw, and a steal and layup by
Walker. They kept chipping away and got it down to 66-63 before
finishing the quarter down 66-72.
Fortson scored to start the fourth but followed that with an offensive
foul. Still, the C's had it down to 72-70. The Jazz pushed the lead
to 77-71 but Kenny hit a three to cut it in half. That started the
Kenny Anderson show, as he hit a jumper, got fouled and hit the free
throw to tie the game at 77-77. After two three throws by Malone
Kenny took a kickout pass from Pierce to give the C's the lead at
80-79. He hit another tough jumper then finally got some help from a
teammate as Battie hit a jumper to tie the game at 84-84. The Jazz
got a couple of buckets but Kenny kept the C's close with a little
floater. Pierce knocked in a jumper and with 4:00 to play it was
90-88, Jazz in the lead.
Pierce buryed a three on the next possession. Walker got in Malone's
face and forced an airball. Pierce went to the well once too often
and got his three pointer blocked. Malone dropped in a pair of free
throws but Kenny came back with a dispy-doo on the way to the hoop to
put the C's up 93-92. After the Jazz came up empty on their end,
Toine got stuffed twice on the same possession and the Jazz came back
and scored. Potapenko hit a jumper to give the C's the lead back, but
the Jazz' bread and butter, Stockton and Malone, worked the give and
go with Stockon hitting the layup.
With 1:03 to go Pierce hit two free throws to put the C's ahead 97-96.
Malone missed a jumper but the Jazz got the rebound. The C's got the
ball back when it squirted lose on a Jazz drive to the basket and
Kenny got fouled with 16.4 seconds to go. He hit both putting the C's
up by three, 99-96. After a timeout Stockton drove to the basket for
the quick two, but Pierce blocked it and Kenny got fouled. He hit
both putting the C's up 101-96 with 9.9 seconds left. The Jazz kept
it interesting by hitting a three then stealing the inbounds pass but
John Stockton couldn't hit a shot to tie the game and the C's came
away with the win.
Anderson: Quite the shooting night for Kenny, as he scored 33 points on
12-15 shooting, even though he was in foul trouble much of the first
half. Had an answer for everything the Jazz threw at the C's.
Beat Stockton off the dribble regularly and looked like he could do
whatever he wanted out there.
Pierce: Had a *big* block on Stockton at the end of the game. Nice night
offensively shooting 7-12, though he was only 1-4 on threes.
Walker: Ugly night with seven turnovers. Was a large part of the
disasterous second quarter. Looked like he was going to have a great
night against Gilliam but got overconfident and tried to force things.
Shot 6-19, but hit 7-9 on his free throws, and helped out with 9 boards, 3
assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
Potapenko: Only got 19 minutes and was very quiet on the offensive end,
going 2-5. Did get 7 boards thought and set the tone early by not backing
down from Polynice.
Griffin: Seems to have his shot back, though he only finished 3-7. His
three buckets were 15-18 foot jumpers. Also added 8 boards and 2 steals.
Barros: Aggressive with his shot, but finished just 2-6. Data seems to
really be forcing things. I suspect he's getting a lot of support from
the coaches and his teammates, which is nice, but he just can't seem to
settle in and play his game.
Battie: High energy, low production. Battie always comes to play, but he
doesn't have the nose for the ball the way Fortson does. Sometimes he
managed to expend a lot of energy but not really affect anything, while
other times he seems to be part of every play and looks like an All-Star.
Williams: Pretty dismal -- 0-3 from the field, 3-6 from the line.
Fortson: Just five minutes, not surpisingly he didn't show a whole lot.
Still managed 2 rebounds and 2 points.
McCarty: Didn't show up in the box score, but I'm sure he played. Had
one nice tip in.
A good start to the road trip, but I doubt Kenny is going to average 30+
every night. Hopefully someone else can step up. The Celtics play next
on Friday against Golden State.
SCORE BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Total
Celtics 22 11 33 35 101 Final
Jazz 14 28 30 27 99
BOSTON REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST PF ST TO BS PTS
Walker F 41 6-19 0-2 7-9 2 7 9 3 5 2 7 2 19
Griffin G 35 3-7 0-0 1-1 3 5 8 1 3 2 1 0 7
Pierce F 33 7-12 1-4 5-6 0 4 4 3 3 1 3 1 20
Anderson G 24 12-15 2-2 7-9 0 1 1 6 5 0 1 0 33
Barros G 22 2-6 0-2 3-3 0 1 1 2 1 1 0 0 7
Potapenko C 19 2-5 0-0 0-0 1 6 7 0 4 1 1 0 4
Battie G 17 1-4 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 1 5 0 2 0 2
Williams F 16 0-3 0-1 3-6 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 3
Fortson F 5 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2
Ellison F 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cheaney G 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 36-77 3-12 26-34 11 28 39 17 29 7 17 5 101
Team Rebs: 11 Total TO: 17 (17
Pts)
UTAH REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST PF ST TO BS PTS
Malone F 38 8-19 0-0 16-17 3 6 9 4 2 1 2 3 32
Eisley G 35 7-15 3-5 2-2 1 2 3 6 4 0 2 0 19
Russell F 35 3-7 1-1 4-5 2 5 7 2 5 4 3 1 11
Stockton G 28 3-12 0-1 6-6 3 1 4 9 4 1 3 0 12
Hornacek G 21 5-12 2-3 1-1 0 0 0 0 3 0 2 0 13
Ostertag C 20 2-4 0-0 0-0 2 4 6 0 0 0 2 4 4
Gilliam F 18 4-7 0-0 0-0 1 6 7 0 2 0 1 0 8
Polynice C 14 0-1 0-0 0-2 3 4 7 0 2 0 1 1 0
Lewis F 8 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 0 0
Keefe F 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0
Vaughn G 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Padgett F 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 32-80 6-10 29-33 15 29 44 22 28 6 18 10 99
Team Rebs: 7 Total TO: 19 (20
Pts)
Officials Dick Bavetta, Don Vaden, Bruce Alexander
Location Delta Center - Salt Lake City
Attendance 18555