Knicks and Houston Outlast Celts: New York 96- Boston 88

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	The Celts did a great job of battling back in this game after
the Knicks jumped out to an early lead.  The Celts had gotten the lead
down to just 2 points when Kenny Anderson, who had a huge first half,
pulled up lame (pulled hamstring).  Anderson tried to soldier on, but
that probably killed the Celts chances to win the game.  Nonetheless
the Celts battled down to the end, but bowed before a 37 point effort
by Allan Houston.

	The Knicks were on fire at the start of the game.  Houston and
Sprewell were both hitting everything from outside, and Johnson seemed
upstoppable from the low post.  The Celts quickly fell behind by
scores of 12-4 and then as much as 11 at 25-14.  Anderson was the only
Celt able to produce on offense early as he scored 9 first quarter
points to keep the Celts in contact.  At the end of the quarter the
Celts trailed 33-25 despite the Knicks shooting over 70% in the
period.

	Pierce began to get hot in the second, and Danny Fortson did
some nice work on the offensive boards. In the middle of the period,
the Celts got a 9-0 run to cut the Knicks lead to just 1 at 40-31.
The Celts tied the game on a pair of Pierce free throws at 45-45.  A
few moments later, Anderson was running the wing on the fast break and
just pulled up limping (neither Tommy or Gorman could identify
anything that caused the injury: the cameras didn't catch it).  Even
without Anderson, the Celts were able to grab a 50-49 lead at the
half, with Pierce (19) and Anderson (15) combining for almost 2/3's of
the Celtic points.  The other key to the second quarter come back was
the improved post defense by Potapenko and Walker, as the Knicks were
able to score just 16.

	Anderson came back to play in the second half, even though he
was clearly playing at 50% or so, of his normal capacity.  Walker took
over much of the ball handling responsibilities.  There was definitely
a negative impact on the Celtic offense (especially as Pierce cooled
off), but luckily for the Celts, the Knicks were cold (even Houston
for a little while).  With about 7:00 to go in the period, the Celts
had extended their lead to 58-53.  The Knicks were able to come back
with a 6-0 run to take the lead, as Houston began to get hot again.
Sprewell hit a jumper with about 2:00 to go, that gave the Knicks the
lead for good at 68-67.  Still, the Celts were staying in the game,
and trailed by just 1 (72-71) at the end of the quarter.

	Houston led the way, as the Knicks started out the 4th period
with an 8-2 run to push the lead up to 7 at 80-73.  The Celts got some
help from Fortson and Walker on the offensive boards to stay in the
game.  Griffin hit a deep three to pull the C's to within 3 at 82-79,
but a moment later Houston answered with a 3 of his own.  With the
score at 92-85, Walker fouled out and incurred a technical.  The
Knicks took home a hard earned victory at 96-88.

	This was an unusual statistical game for the Celts this year.
They had a big advantage on the boards (12 offensive to the Knicks 3)
and in turnovers (18-13).  Even that wasn't enough, to overcome the
huge Knicks advantage in field goal percentage (.550-.395).  The
Knicks were 5-10 on three while the C's were 2-15.  The Celts had just
11 assists on their 32 baskets.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Griffin, Walker, Potapenko
Knicks: Ward, Houston, Sprewell, Johnson, Ewing

Players:
Anderson: looked to be heading to one of his finest performance as a
Celtic in the first half.  He had scored 15 and had (I think) all 4 of
his assists when he was injured.  Made several really sharp passes and
had the jump shot going to boot.  he still played a lot in the second
half (39 minutes for the game), but was reduced to staying on the
perimeter and waiting for a teammate to find him for an open jumper.
Still had a much more than respectable game with 22 points (8-13) and
4 assists.

Pierce: Looked great in the first half with 19 points, but fell silent
in the second.  In the first he got to the free throw line 11 times.
In the second he scored just 4 points.  ended up with 23 points on
6-17 shooting (he was 11-13 on free throws).  Still not all the way
back on the jump shot, though he had a very powerful jam, and a nice
strip of Sprewell at mid court (so his ankle seem to be back).

Walker: it was a bit of a relapse game for Walker.  Even before
Anderson went down, he seemed to have lost his dedication to playing
in the paint.  Afterwards, he played almost strictly on the perimeter.
He shot 6-23, including 0-6 on threes, and had 6 boards.  He did have
some nice moments on defense after the first quarter, picking up
several steals off Johnson and Ewing in the low post.

Griffin: also had a poor shooting game at 3-9.  Had 7 points 4 boards
and 3 steals in 32 minutes.  Seemed to pick up some cheap fouls
tonight.

Potapenko: seemed to be hitting the jump shot, but just didn't get
enough looks.  Had 8 points and 5 boards in 27 minutes.  After some
early game troubles, he settled down and did a good job on Ewing in
the post.

Fortson: continues to come on.  had 8 points and 8 boards (without a
single play being run for him) in 17 minutes.  And just had 4 fouls!
Pitino matched him up against Ewing for part of that time, and while
Danny gave it the full effort, there was just no way he could guard
Patrick (giving away 6 or 7 inches).

Battie: continues to wither on the vine.  3 points and 4 boards in 11
minutes.

Williams: had a nice driving hoop in the first half.  4 points in 13
minutes.

Cheaney: got 7 minutes.

Overton: quite the vote of confidence for Doug tonight.  Even with
Kenny playing on one leg for much of the game, he only got 9 minutes.
Tommy observed in the second half, that Ward didn't even try to take
advantage of the gimpy Anderson on defense but as soon as Overton came
into the game, Ward tried to take the ball to the basket on him.  0
points, 0 shots and 0 assists.

Coaching: I think that the Celts will benefit from going back to
basics on defense, but tonight they mostly seemed confused.  Larry
Johnson collected 5 assists, and probably was the cause of at least
that many more easy shots, passing the ball out of the post for open
jumpers for Houston and Sprewell.  The only difference seemed to be
that the Celts would fitfully decide to play Johnson straight up for a
play or 2,, but then would relent, and go back to their old double
teaming ways.  Playing Kenny for 39 minutes, hurt, was just amazing. 

The Celts are now 13-17.  They host the Kings on Friday

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net