Celts Rule Night

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CELTICS 101 KINGS 93
                 Celtics rule night

                 Sacramento's shooting not fit for these Kings

                 By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 1/8/2000

                      t was as if the Celtics were showing off dramatic,
before and after photos.
                      If you saw us play Dec. 28 in Sacramento, they
seemed to say, we just
                 want to let you know that you caught us in the throes
of a rough period.

                 Last night, there were 18,624 people at the
FleetCenter. They witnessed more
                 than a 101-93 Celtics win. They also saw a makeover.

                 They saw Antoine Walker throwing no-look alley-oop
passes to Tony Battie and
                 falling an assist short of a triple-double. They saw an
entertaining and ineffective
                 performance from outrageous Kings point guard Jason
Williams. They saw the
                 Celtics build a fourth-quarter lead, blow most of it,
and still win. And if they tuned
                 in to Rick Pitino's postgame press conference, they
even got an admission from
                 the Celtics' coach: he said he treats every game as if
it was ''World War IX.''

                 Anyway, let's go to the tapes.

                 Dec. 28: The Kings' reserves torch the Celtics for 45
points. You want to check
                 the back of Lawrence Funderburke's jersey again and
make sure it doesn't say
                 ''Abdul-Jabbar.''

                 Last night: In a combined 64 minutes, five Sacramento
reserves managed 8
                 points. Funderburke played seven minutes and threw in a
layup.

                 Dec. 28: An exasperated Pitino says he doesn't
understand why his team
                 doesn't defend the 3-point shot better and that there
will have to be improved
                 defense from ''Our 4 and 5 men [or Walker and Vitaly
Potapenko].'' Paul Pierce
                 has four fouls early in the third and ends the night
shaking his head after 24
                 frustrating minutes.

                 Last night: The quirky Kings went nuts from 3-point
range, attempting a
                 staggering 23 and making only six. Williams was 0 for
7. With most teams, there
                 is a fine line between a good and bad shot. With the
Kings, that line is a 3-point
                 line.

                 ''If you read the stats, you can see they'll take it
from anywhere,'' Battie said.
                 ''You just have to be ready for it.''

                 As for Walker, Potapenko, and Pierce, the Celtics would
have been lost without
                 them. Walker usually has some of his best games against
Chris Webber (his
                 resume includes a 49-point game and a last-second shot
against the forward)
                 and last night was not an exception. Walker had 17
points, 10 rebounds, and 9
                 assists.

                 Afterward, Walker was asked if he thought of getting a
late assist to secure a
                 triple-double. Former Orlando guard Anthony Bowie once
did that, a move that
                 was frowned upon by coach Brian Hill.

                 ''No,'' Walker said with a laugh, ''I'd probably get
fined for that.''

                 Potapenko and Pierce had 10 rebounds each. Pierce
scored 10 of his team-high
                 19 points in the fourth quarter and Potapenko made the
shot, an 18-footer with
                 26.3 seconds left, that unofficially ended the Celtics'
interesting night.

                 It was interesting for several reasons. One was the
style of play. There were
                 times when you asked yourself if there were traces of
asphalt in the new parquet
                 floor. There was definitely a playground feel to the
game, and the leader was
                 unquestionably Williams.

                 The Sacramento point guard took 17 shots and made four.
His attempts were so
                 distinct that many of them deserved their own names.
One of the most
                 memorable was a one-handed, combination pushup
shot/finger roll from 10 feet. It
                 didn't go in. There was also a smooth fake in the open
court that had the third
                 sellout crowd of the season gasping. But after the nice
fake, Williams missed the
                 layup.

                 Actually, there were a lot of misses for the Kings.
They trailed by as many as 14
                 in the first half and 15 in the fourth because of the
way they shot (42 percent).

                 ''As a team, we never got on track,'' Kings coach Rick
Adelman said, ''but we
                 never stopped playing.''

                 That was obvious in the third and fourth quarters. In
the third, the Celtics went up
                 14 after Battie made a jumper. The Kings cut the
deficit to 5 in the next 31/2
                 minutes and trailed by a hoop 15 seconds into the
fourth quarter.

                 ''But we never lost the lead,'' Walker said.

                 He was right. The lead reached 15 after Pierce scored
off an assist from Walker.
                 The Kings worked on the bulge again, but there was
never a feeling they would
                 take it.

                 This story ran on page G01 of the Boston Globe on
1/8/2000.
                 © Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.