Pukin' in the cheap seats

[Peter Delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

[Editor's preface: Sorry this is long and late, but I don't have email
access at home so I had to write it up over the weekend.]


If Friday night's debacle wasn't enough to convince Rick to blow up this
team, I don't know what is.

The Celts started the game off with high energy and efficiency, quieting
the larger-than-usual crowd that had shown up ready to cheer for Larry
Hughes' debut. The C's kept a 10 point lead throughout almost all the
first half. Pitino was working a tight eight-man rotation of Kenny,
Pierce, Griffin, Antoine, Vitaly, Dana, Williams and Battie. Walluh, I
was pleased to see, didn't make it off the bench, and Fortson was stuck
there so long I was sure the C's already had made a deal to trade him;
he didn't pull off the warmups til the last couple minutes of the second
quarter. The only other guy on the Celtics bench was Pervis, as Cheaney
didn't travel with the team because of his wife's pregnancy, and
Ovaltine and Minor are injured.

With Hughes in foul trouble most of the first half, the only Warrior who
was causing much ruckus was Sam Jacobsen, who was unleashing long arcing
bombs no matter who was in his face. Actually, the defense on Jacobsen
mostly consisted of some Celtic running up and trying to wave a hand in
his face as he released. Dana was countering that with some nice
long-range shooting of his own, working effectively off screens and
toss-outs from the post. Williams was looking for his shot pretty
aggressively and getting to the line, which I was glad to see. Pitino
also trotted out the Vitaly/Battie front line, which many have been
clamoring for, and it seemed pretty effective. Vitaly was getting some
murmurs from the people around me for a couple of nice mid-range
jumpers. Walker, on the other hand, was playing stupid ball, driving
into triple coverage and trying to force shots instead of dishing off.
One time he tried a ridiculous one-handed flip that wouldn't have worked
with a Nerf hoop. He also shot a couple of quick treys with 15 seconds
left on the clock. Even when those stupid shots were going in, he
shouldn't have been taking them.

The Warriors put together a little run at the very end of the half, and
had it down to five before Dana hit a jumper right before intermission.
The Warriors actually outscored Boston in the second quarter. The most
dire moment occurred about five minutes before the half, when Eric
Williams hobbled off the court and into the training room.

[Editor's note: I went up to Bob Ryan at halftime and re-introduced
myself; we had met in the French Quarter during a Mardi Gras parade
about four years ago, though of course he didn't remember. I asked him
what he thought about the team, the Fortson trade, Walker and whether
Pitino would be back. His answers, basically, were: a) they have a lot
of holes and need an interior defender; b) he seems to believe the
theory that the C's voided the Alvin Williams trade after getting heat;
c) Walker's a young kid with a lot of potential but lots of holes in his
game; and d) he doesn't expect Pitino to walk away from $20 million
plus. That's the gist of what he said, anyway, I wasn't exactly taking
notes. I also didn't tell him I had ripped him recently on the Celtics
list, not that he'd care. I had to admit, talking to him it's evident
how much he knows about Celtic basketball; and for a guy who had a front
row seat during so many of the glory years, it must kill him to see the
team making stupid mistakes and not progressing. All in all, he was
pretty approachable.]

Back to the game. Whatever Pitino told the troops during halftime, they
didn't seem to listen. Kenny picked up a quick foul and headed to the
bench; his first game after his superstar turn against Utah was a total
flop. Pierce, too, quickly picked up his fourth foul, and with Williams
sitting with his knee elevated, Pitino had to call on Walluh McDuh.
Things quickly went downhill, as Walter didn't score a single point
despite playing most of the second half. At one point Pitino had him at
off-guard, with a big frontcourt of Antoine, Danny and Vitaly, but there
was no combination that seemed capable of putting points on the board.
With Kenny out, I could see first-hand everyone's point about how the
offensive flow stops; and with Pierce scowling and pouting on the
sideline, it was up to Antoine to try to freelance some kind of offense.
Of course, he ended up taking a lot of bad shots, and at least once
stood under the basket while Golden State ran to the other end and
scored. Ryan was looking pretty disgusted. Antoine did have one nice
pass I remember, but he also airballed a FT at one point. At another
point Pitino had a lineup out there of Walluh, V, Fortson, Griffin and
Dana, and I was thinking, 'Where is the scoring going to come from?'

It's not like this lineup (or any other Celts lineup) was slowing the
Warriors down. Hughes started to really heat up, making some nice
dishes, grabbing a long rebound off his own miss and putting it up again
to score. Golden State was alternating Mookie Blaylock and Vonteego
Cummings pretty effectively at the other guard spot (they combined for
12 assists and 25 points on the night), and Jacobsen continued to score
when he got into the game. Our defensive rotations seemed to be way off,
and a couple of times Blaylock received the ball unguarded out above the
circle and nailed the uncontested jumper.

Meanwhile, up front, the Warriors kept bringing out big body after big
body. Maybe overseen in the Hughes hoopla was that Billy Owens gives
them yet another 6'9 bruiser to go alongside Jason Caffey, Donyell
Marshall, Tony Farmer and Dampier. Golden State's big men What's scary
is that Adonal Foyle didn't get into the game at all until garbage time,
and Terry Cummings is injured. Man, are they big. Owens made some
awfully nice passes, and ended up with 6 assists. The Warriors outscored
us 36-13 in the third, and I was screaming for Pitino to get Walluh out
of there. The guy was doing absolutely nothing, on offense or defense;
Boston was essentially playing 4 on 5. Williams did end up going back in
but was markedly less effective than earlier. When Antoine missed two
buckets back to back, Ryan looked ready to bite his pencil in half;
Owens then scored to open up a 20 point lead.

Rick kept Pierce on the bench far too long to try to snuff Golden
State's rally, and when he did get back in he wasn't getting any
touches. I couldn't tell how much of it was tentativeness because of
foul trouble, Golden State's defense, or his teammates not looking for
him. I saw him with his arm in the air at one point like he was trying
to hail a cab, and I think Antoine took it into triple coverage instead
and missed a forced shot. Battie got back in (I have no idea why Rick
kept him out as long as he did with only two fouls) and was showing good
defensive energy, but it wasn't translating into stops or points; Boston
didn't block a single shot all night, while Golden State had 8; Foyle
played only 5 minutes and still got a nice block!

The game ended with the scrubs showboating and the Celts not even
pretending to get back on D. Boston never made a run in the second half,
and the only guy scoring for us was Fortson getting a bunch of
garbage-time free throws. We are not going to win a lot of games with
Griffin outscoring Walker and Pierce. Maybe the worst part of the game
is that we got spanked by one of the lousiest teams in the league, in
what could be considered a must-win road game, when their franchise
player Antawn Jamison was sitting on the bench. Yeah, Hughes was every
bit as good as advertised, but it's a bad sign when a guy like Sam
Jacobsen, who's already on his third NBA team, is tying his career high
against you. I lay a good part of this loss on Rick's inexplicable
personnel combinations in the second half. I also have to burn my
"lucky" green shirt I wore to the game, as it obviously isn't worth a
damn.

As my wife & I were pulling out of the parking lot, I saw a guy in the
next car with his head in his hands, looking like he'd just been beaten
up. When I fell into line behind him. I saw the telltale reason why: New
Hampshire plates.