Celts Hold the Line: Boston 95 - Los Angeles 88

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	This game was not an artistic success by any stretch.  The
Celts hung in a game were they were being seriously outshot, and
hustled, fought and scrapped their way to a victory.  Paul Pierce, who
had a poor night, came alive for about 60 second, late in the 4th
quarter.  He scored 7 and had a steal, and then fed Anderson for an
easy score, giving the Celts an 8 point lead.  The Celts got some
critical efforts off the bench from Cheaney, Fortson and McCarty.
Eric Williams, who started the game, injured his knee in the first
half, and was unable to return to the game.

	Early on the game looked like a replay of the debacle in L.A.,
as Taylor and Odom were both shooting extremely accurataley, The 
Clips used a 12-2 run to take a 23-14 lead.  Antoine was getting off
on his futility tour, as he got blocked a couple of time in the first
quarter.  The Celts got the last couple of scores of the quarter, to
cut the lead to 5 at 23-18 as the quarter ended.

	The C's, for once, got a nice boost from the bench, as Fortson
and McCarty had nice stretches at the start of the second.  The Celts
got started with a 5-0 run to tie the game at 23.  They actually got
the lead on a McCarty 3 with 8:00 to go.  Ford began to work his
started back into the game, while Pitino tried to ride the hot hands.
The Clippers got more offense from Odom and Taylor to push the lead
back up to 34-30.  Pitino got the starters back into the game.  The
starters closed the lead, and were able to tie the score at 39-39.
They trailed at the end of the half 42-41.  That really wasn't too
bad, as Odom was 4-4 on threes, while Walker had a dreadful first half
(3-15).

	The Celts got a nice little streak of play from Pierce, who
hit a couple of jumpers and then got to the free throw line a couple
of times, as the C's built a 51-46 lead.  Unfortunately that success
seemed to go to Pierce's head as the started to force up questionable
shots.  The Celts offense stalled, and the Clippers came back. Pitino
tried to go to the bench again, but this time Eric Murdock took
advantage of Barros. The Clippers came back and took a 61-59 lead.
Pitino rushed Anderson back into the game, and he teamed with Cheaney
to put the Celts back in the lead 66-63, as the quarter ended.

	Pierce continued to try to shoulder the load alone, as the 4th
quarter started.  He wasn't hitting, though and the cClippers got
offense from such stalwarts as Piatkowski and Olowikandi  as they took
a 74-70 lead.  Cheaney and Anderson continued to keep the Celts in the
game (on those rare opportunities that Pierce gave them).  Finally,
with the Celts leading at 79-78 (4;40 to go) Pierce began to hit some
shots.  He hit a jumper, then a three, then came right down the court
and tried another 3 (missed).  The Celts got the ball back and Paul
tried another jumper, sinking it this time.  The C's pressured the
inbounds play, and Pierce took advantage to steal the ball, and then
fed Anderson under the basket for an easy score, as the Celts took an
88-80 lead (2:58).  They got the lead as high as 11 at 91-80.  the
Clippers got a nice 6-0 run to make the game interesting, but Anderson
scored on an offensive rebound of his own missed shot to close out the
game.  The Celts won with a final score of 95-88.

	The Celts dug this game out in the trenches.  They had 12
steals to the Clippers 3, 8 turnovers to L.A.s 19 and 17 boards  to
just 10 for the opposition.  That allowed the C's to attempt 13 more
field goals (93-80) and 15 more free throws, probably enough under
normal circumstances to fuel a 20 point win.  The Celts only shot .376
from the field while the Clippers hit at a .463 pace.  The Celts 5
starters (Williams only played 7 minutes and didn't take a shot)
combined to shoot a horrendous 24-71 (34%).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Williams, Walker, Potapenko
Clippers: Hudson, Anderson, Odom, Taylor, Olowokandi

Players:
Pierce: Really, you take away that 1:30 in the 4th, and this is about
as bad a game as you can imagine.  Paul ended up shooting 8-24, with 7
boards, 3 steals and 4 assists.  He was forcing all sorts of shots,
and generally making poor decisions.  He did have the golden stretch,
where he scored 7 and had the steal and the assist to really put the
Celts in control of a very dicey game.  Despite that I still would
have to call this a poor effort.

Anderson:  Anderson scored some important points, but he may (for the
first time in his life) had a better game on defense than on offense.
He had a couple of steals, and did a good job of pressuring the ball
late in the game.  He also alertly converted a couple of offensive
rebounds into scores.  Which makes his overall 6-15 shooting look even
worse.  He also had 7 boards and 5 assists.

Walker: Really bad first half.  To his credit, Toine tried to go into
the post early, but the Clippers clearly had him scouted.  He had his
shot blocked 4 times in the first half.  Olowokandi in particular,
seemed to be laying in the weeds for him.  Also to his credit, Toine
came back in the second half, and worked very hard off the ball and on
defense.   He ended up with 19 points on 7-23 shooting, 8 boards, 4
assists and 2 steals.  He made several really fine passes in the game.

Potapenko: Seemed to play with a lot of energy again.  The new hair
style seems to fit him.  Although Vitaly shot just 3-9, for 10 points,
he did have 11 boards (5 offensive) in 29 minutes.

Cheaney: got 39 minutes in the game (I wonder how long it's been since
he played that much).  He hit a couple of important shots early in the
4th quarter, and scored 11 points on 5-9 shooting, to go with 3
assists.  He guarded Odom for most of the game, and did a decent job
in the second half.  Oddly Odom, didn't try to post Cheaney at all,
but was instead very content to play from the perimeter, despite the
height advantage.

Fortson: Danny had 9 points, 5 boards, just 1 foul, and he still only
got to play 14 minutes.  What does he have to do?  Definitely ready to
contribute for more minutes.  It'll be interesting to see what Pitino
does if Williams can't play tomorrow night (tho Fortson-Garnett isn't
my idea of a good matchup).

McCarty: after Taylor got off to another fast start, Waltuh came in
and did a very creditable job of guarding him.  Maybe the best one on
one defensive job I've ever seen out of McCarty.  Also scored 7 points
on 2-4 shooting.

Barros:  I thought he did a pretty nice job for 6 minutes or so in the
first half.  In the second, though, Murdock just ate him alive, and
Pitino had to rescue him after a couple of minutes.  Shot 0-3, and had
2 assists and a steal  in 12 minutes.

Williams: Probably lucky to get hurt as Odom was just toasting him
early.

Coaching: I suppose the record may be better with Pierce, but at least
stylistically, the Celts miss Griffin more than they did Pierce.
There is just no ball movement, little good passing and no fast break
with Adrian gone.  Everything is one on one, and the points are very
hard to come by.  Tonight the team won on pure hustle, but the clubs
basketball I.Q. must be down 25% without Adrian.

The Celts are now 15-19.  They head out to the twin cities to play the
T-wolves tomorrow night.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net

P.S. Debate topic for tomorrow (like I don't know how this will turn
out).  Can Kevin Garnett become a better player than Kevin McHale (his
boss)?  Anyone care to cross post to the Twolves list?