Golden State (early preview)

[opi@unesco.org]

The Boston Celtics are presently 3 and 1/2 games out of the Eastern
playoff chase, and six games under .500

Golden State (12-37) has lost five straight and is just 7-18 at home.
They are precisely the type of team that gives the Celts problems this
year.

There are five NBA teams that have a losing record at home, yet so far
Boston has been vanquished twice on the road by Chicago (6-17 at home)
and once by the Clippers (8-16). They've also gotten whupped by
Vancouver (8-18), but that was the Fleet Center. They did beat the Wiz
(10-14) recently. They have yet to play Dallas (11-13).

Offsetting this depressing stat, the Celts have amassed a brilliant 9-2
record on Friday nights. These include underdog wins against Phoenix,
Seattle, Sacramento, Miami, Charlotte and New York.

Former NCAA Player of the Year Antawn Jamison is gaining ground on his
ex-teammate Vince Carter. This year he is shooting .471 from the field
and averaging 19.6 ppg and 8.3 rpg (4.0 on the offensive glass). He must
have worked very hard in the offseason.

The Warriors have seven players averaging over 9.0 ppg (including the
newly acquired Larry Hughes) and six more guys averaging between 5.7 ppg
(Adonal Foyle) and 8.4 ppg (the ageless Terry Cummings).

Due to injuries and whatnot, the Warriors feature an absurd 11 roster
players averaging over 20 minutes per game. The "12th man", Terry
Cummings, averages just 18.1 ppg and delivers a healthy 4.9 rebounds.

The Warriors are a statistical anomaly in many ways. For one thing, they
are third in the entire NBA in rebounds at 45.8 rpg. Unfortunately, they
also give up an identical 45.8 per game. By contrast, a team like Utah
only permits 38.3 rpg.

The Warriors shoot .425 from the field. They are getting outscored by 7
points per game and allowing .464 shooting by opponents.

The Warriors are 4-25 when they permit an opponent to score over 100
points.

Although this game is the first of a back-to-back, it is critical that
our Celts leave their hearts on the floor tomorrow night. On paper, we
will get slaughtered on this trip by many superior teams playing at
home. So the Celts really have to try to win the winnable games, even if
it means getting embarrassed by Gary Payton and the Sonics in the
revenge game on Saturday.

I've noticed that it has been bad luck to post game previews right
before tip-off, so I'm doing it a day early.

Whenever our team goes out on this annual left coast pilgrimage, I pray
they bring some serious cans of whup-ass with them. These guys are
wearing the kelly green road uniform for crissakes...it's the one we
wear shooting hoops in our driveway and the one we'll buy for our kids
to wear. An hour ago, I interviewed a college applicant who among other
things captained her club team to the under-17 French basketball
championships when she was 15-years-old. Her dad is from Nigeria and her
mom (whom I also met) is from Alsace right on the French-German border.
I ended up showing her  the Boston Celtics mementos in my office. I told
her this was one exciting advantage (other than superior financial aid)
of applying to "the Big H" over Yale or  Stanford (her other choices). I
mean the Golden State Warriers? Puh-lease! Sorry Pete Delevett. :-)

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