Celts Collapse: Dallas 108-Boston 100

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	The Celts were up 63-47 at the half, and then 78-58 with 6:30
to go in the game.  Over the final 18:30 of the game, they were held
to just 22 points as the Mavs came storming back with 50 points to
take the victory.  Sean Rooks, and Steve Nash spearheaded the
comeback, and then Ceballos, Nowitzki and Finley made contributions
down the stretch.

	The Celts got off to a quick start with Walker and Pierce
leading the way.  They went up 11-5, but Finley and Nowitzki began to
exploit some holes in the Celts defense.  The Celts did a lot of ball
hawking, and also piled up an impressive advantage on the boards.
Despite that they only led by 3 at the end of the quarter 29-26.

	The C's and the Mavs traded baskets over the first portion of
the second quarter.   About halfway through the period, Pierce picked
up his 3rd foul of the game and had to sit down.  At the same time,
Nelson took Nowitzki and Finley out of the game.  They had been
supplying the majority of the offense for Dallas, and with them out of
the game, the Mavs scoring dried up.  The Celts put together a 16-2
run to take a 59-42 advantage.  The half ended with Nowitzki and
Finley still on the bench and the Celts up 63-47.

	Nelson went with a 3 guards lineup (Pack, Strickland,Nash) to
go with Sean Rooks to start the second half.  The Celts adjusted
easily and went down low to Pierce, picking up some easy scores
agasint the undersized Mavs.  The Celts got the lead up to 20 at 78-58
with 6:30 to go in the period.  At this point two things happened.
Pierce picked up his 4th foul and Pitino lifted him.  And the Celts
started putting up shots from the outside rather than continuing to go
inside.  With Rooks scoring 10 points over a 4:00 period, Dallas cut
the Celts lead to 10 (79-69).  The Mavs continued to cut into the
Celts lead.  Nelson put Finley back into the game just before the end
of the period. just in time to score a buzzer beater to cut the Celts
lead to 6 (85-79) at the end of the quarter.

	Nelson quickly got Ceballos and Nowitzki back into the lineup
early in the 4th.  Pierce also reappeared for Boston only to quickly
pick up his 5th foul of the game (a really cheesy offensive foul
call).  The Mavs scored the first 6 points of the period to tie the
game at 85.  Ceballos was important early in the period, scoring 7
early points. He scored a conventional three point play to put Dallas
up 93-87 with 7:00 to go.  The Celts behind Walker fought back and
managed to tie the game at 95 with 4:12 to go.  Over the remainder of
the game the Celts were only able to score one basket (a trey by
mcCarty) and 2 free throws by Walker.  Nowitzki came up big from the
perimeter, and Dallas won going away 108-100.

	The Celts wee shooting over 50% for much of the game, but
ended up hitting at a .413 pace, while the Mavs hit .469.  That erased
a strong game on the boards by the C's (46-38: 20-12 offensive) and a
9 steal effort.  Both teams were sloppy with the ball.

Players:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Griffin, Walker, Potapenko
Mavs: Pack, Strickland, Pierce, Rodman, Nowitzki

Players:
Anderson: Kenny has played well this season, and generally exceeded my
expectations.  That said, he was terrible in the second half, and
probably deserves the lion's share of blame for the loss.  You can
understand (if not forgive), the tendency of the younger players to go
perimeter when they are on the verge of a laugher.  But your veteran
point guard should be leading the team away from that mistake, not
pushing them into it.  Anderson probably hit his tenth point midway
through the second quarter.  I'd guess that over the last 30 minutes
of the game, he scored 2 points and had a couple of assists, while
probably shooting 0-10 or so.  He repeatedly settled for outside
shots, did not try to push he tempo, and generally mailed din the
second half.  In 46 minutes he had 12 points (4-15), 7 assists and 5
turnovers.

Walker: also went perimeter in the 3rd quarter, but tried to redeem
himself down the stretch, and was the only effective Celtic over the
last 6:00 of the game.  Shot the ball well early (hit a number of
12-15 foot jumpers) and had several nice passes.  By the end of the
game his FG% had dropped below 40% (8-21).  He did have 6 boards and 7
assists to go with 23 points.

Pierce: had some nice moments in the game on both ends of the court,
but was plagued by foul trouble.  He only played 25 minutes, but
scored 21 on 8-15 shooting and had 3 steals.  He was really hurt by 2
offensive fouls, which cost him minutes and pushed his turnover total
to 4.

Potapenko: Maybe the most effective player for the Celts as he had 19
points on 8-12 shooting and 9 boards in 24 minutes.  Was on the court
for a good bit of the Rooks explosion in the third period. though.  He
also got the prize for boneheaded play of the game, as he got called
for fouling Rodman 22 feet from the basket.

Griffin: One of Adrian's better games since returning from the injury.
He scored 6, had 6 boards, 6 assists and 3 steals in 36 minutes.  Was
really pursuing the ball.  2 of his 3 turnovers occurred when he tried
to make a difficult pass, rather than take the shot himself.

McCarty: a grotesque 4-13, including 1-7 on threes.  Did make a couple
of decent defensive plays, but you have to do a lot to make up for
that kind of shooting.

Battie: Really showed some nice energy tonight with 11 boards (6
offensive) in 21 minutes.  He could't convert any of those offensive
boards to baskets unfortunately.

Williams: had 3 assists while attempting 0 shots in 14 minutes.  Who
would have guessed?

Fortson: got just 11 minutes (only had 3 fouls) and had 4 points and 5
boards.

Overton: got 3 minutes, and Anderson was playing so well.

Coaching: where was Rick in the second half.  As far as I can tell, he
really didn't try to get the Celts to run, or go inside, or do
anything that might have caused them to win the game.  He called some
timeouts during the collapse, and certainly switched players, but if
he was trying to straighten out the offense I didn't see it.  The
Celts only scored 4 baskets in the 4th period, and the only players
who attempted a shot from the paint were Vitaly and Antoine.

The Celts are now 23-33.  They get the Raptors on Wednesday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net