TWolves Devour C's: Minnesota 103- Boston 85

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	I think we all realized that this evening's game would be an
uphill climb for the Celts, and most of us would have been happy if
they had made it halfway up the incline.  Truthfully, though, except
for a few minutes towards the end of the first half, the  Celts really
didn't get out of the gate.  The TWolves outplayed the Celts in the
first half, and a disastrous performance by the C's at the start of
the second let them walk away with the victory.  Walter McCarty got
the start this evening.

	The Celts seemed to start the game with a bit of rhythm and
some idea what they were trying to accomplish on offense.  They got a
number of good shots in the first quarter, that just didn't go down.
They tied the game at 8-8, before the TWolves took their first
substantial lead of the game with a 7-2 run.  Walker was making a nice
contribution on the boards, while Pierce was starting yet another
dreadful shooting performance.  Danny Fortson made into the game
fairly early, as Potapenko picked up his second foul with 4:00 to go,
and made some good plays.  Despite that, the TWolves used very
balanced scoring to take a 29-18 lead at the end of the quarter.


	Anthony Peeler came into the game at the start of the second,
and started jacking in shots from all over the court.  He got the
TWolves lead up to 14 at 36-22.  The Celtics caused a 5 second count
with some good pressure defense and with Garnett and Brandon both on
the Bench were able to disrupt the Minnesota offense.  The Celts cut
the TWolves lead to 10 at 40-30.  Just before the end of the half, the
TWolves were up 51-40, when Battie materialized out of nowhere to put
back a missed Williams shot to bring the Celts to within 9 at 51-42 (I
think the last time they had the lead under 10).

	Minnesota came out charging at the start of the second half.
Garnett, who was held in check in the first, finally began to get
involved in the offense. The TWolves went on a 17-6 run, to take a
commanding 68-48 lead (that was pretty much the game).  The Celts
tried just about everything in their bag of tricks, but nothing would
work on a sustained basis (mostly because the Celts offense never
generated any really good opportunities).  Pitino went to the bench
early, and experimented with some pressure from the second unit.  The
TWolves led at the end of the third 83-60.

	In a reversal of the normal pattern, Pitino played his
reserves for the majority of the 4th, while Sanders kept Garnett and
Brandon in for big chunks of the fourth quarter.  The Celts bench kept
the game in the low 20 range.  With about 3:00 to go, Pitino put
Pierce and Walker back in, and we were treated to the depressing
spectacle of Pierce, simply jacking up the ball at every single
opportunity.  I think he took at least 5 shots in the last 4 minutes
of the game with the Celts down 20 or more points for most of that
time.  Tony Battie scored on a drive to the basket with 15 seconds to
go, to get the margin of defeat below 20, at 103-85.

	Once again there were some positive stats for the Celts in the
game.  They got to the line more often (26-19), had a nice edge in
offensive boards (13-7), and committed few turnovers 15-13.  That got
them a decent edge in shots attempted (83-81) to go along with the
extra 7 free throws.  No where near enough to overcome the huge
difference in field goal percent (.519-.373).  Once again the first
unit was dreadful at a combined 18-55 (.327).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, McCarty, Walker, Potapenko
TWolves: Brandon, Sealy, Mitchell, Garnett, Nesterovic

Players:
Anderson: Kenny continues to shoot rather poorly at 4-10, and ruined
his recent trend of excellent assist to turnover ratios, by getting a
1:1 tonight (he actually had 1 assist and 1 turnover).  I continue to
be impressed by how hard he's working on defense.  For a guy who's
probably never applied himself on the defensive end for more than a
couple of plays in a row, Kenny has gotten to the point where he gives
it a very consistent effort.

Pierce: He scored 8 points in the last 4 minutes of the game when the
Celts were hopelessly out of it.  Take that away, and his night goes
from poor to dreadful.  He shot 5-17, had 7 boards, 2 assists and 1
steal (the one steal was exceptional by the way).  While his shot is
probably still suffering from the ill effects of the ankle injury, his
poor FT% are more the result of poor shot judgement.

Walker: had a good first half, on the order of 11 points and 10
rebounds.  Just disappeared in the second and ended the game with 14
points on 6-17 shooting and those same 10 boards.  Other than the 3
treys he took, I would rate his shot selection as decent.

Fortson: got 16 minutes tonight.  Scored 11 and had 5 boards as he
continues to impress.  Maybe he was very tired, but it surprised me
when Pitino took him out with 4 minutes to go, after Danny picked up
his 3rd foul.  Seems to be getting the hang of the new rules.

McCarty: Actually did a decent job on Garnett for a while.  Balanced
that off with terrible shooting at 1-7.

Potapenko: Seemed to be playing ok early, and had a lot of confidence
playing against Nesterovic.  But picked up his second foul after about
8 minutes, and then, after the Celts fell behind in the 3rd quarter
never got back into the game.  Had 4 points and 4 boards in 16
minutes.

Cheaney: 2-2 on jumpers and had 4 assists in 16 minutes.  Continues to
shoot with confidence.  The Celts just can't muster the kind of ball
movement that would get him open shot on a regular basis.

Barros: Hit a couple of threes, when they no longer meant anything.
Had 8 points and 2 assists in 22 minutes.

Battie: With 9 points and 5 boards in 19 minutes, I suppose this was
the best game Tony has had in a month.  

Overton: got 13 minutes.  Shot 0-5 with 2 assists.  Tommy keeps saying
that he would help the team given playing time.

Coaching: The team continues to play hard in the Walter McCarty sense:
They work hard, but they don't think hard.  How can you call
performing in a way that will almost certainly lead to a loss, playing
hard, no matter how many calories you actually consume while doing it.
This is supposed to be about more than aerobic exercise.  Heinsohn
said that he thought (as he has said at every turn over the last 5
years), that the problem is that the team doesn't run effectively.  I
would say, on the other hand, that the half court passing game, that
was fairly effective for the first 20 games or so, is just a memory.  

The Celts are now 15-20.  They play in Jersey on Saturday evening.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net