Reports on C's

[Kevin Lok <kevin.lok@lycosmail.com>]

Hi everybody,

got sometime to kill. where's Ray (the way). did
sombody pissed him off this list? he's very active
(his norm) over at C's ng.

regards
kevin

SportsLine Report
Jan. 13, 2000
Panic has not set in yet in Beantown, but the
Celtics losing consecutive games to the Bulls and
Grizzlies was alarming.
After losing to the Grizzlies on Jan. 10, several
players left the locker room without comment
following their fifth loss in eight games.
"I think sometimes we look at the schedule and not
look at it game by game and that's starting to
bite us,'' Antoine Walker said. "I think we got
excited when we saw who we were playing and their
records.''
Wednesday, reeling from those two terrible
defeats, the Celtics faced a must-win against the
Clippers at home and prevailed 95-88. Then they
embark on a three-game road trip in Minnesota, New
Jersey and Washington.
"I wouldn't say we're down,'' Paul Pierce said.
"Frustrated is more like it. We have to fight
back. At any given time, we can win six or seven
in a row and be right back in it. We have to keep
our head up, keep going on. It's a lack of focus
on what the coaching staff is telling us. We just
lost to the two worst teams. If that's not a
wakeup call, I don't know what is.''
The Grizzlies went wild from the 3-point line.
"It's our fault because the coaches told us before
the game not to let the 3-point line become an
element in the game,'' Pierce said. "And they were
able to get off a lot of 3-pointers.''
Coach Rick Pitino said the club wasn't at the
point where any game should be looked at as a
must-win.
The Personnel File
GRIFFIN OUT: Adrian Griffin's Cinderella season
hit a bump in the road last week. Griffin left
last week's Bulls game after five minutes with a
sprained ankle. Griffin, the CBA wonder who
started the first 32 games, will be out at least
five games after being placed on the injured list.

At 6-feet-5, Griffin, a rookie who had played the
past three seasons in the CBA, was the team's
leading rebounder and best defender. "He's our
leading rebounder, a good playmaker, smart
defensively, makes correct plays,'' Pitino said.
"But injuries are part of this game.''
The loss of Griffin means Eric Williams will
return to the starting lineup. Williams started
six games when Pierce went down with an ankle
injury and didn't excel.
Noteworthy
QUICK DRIBBLES: Despite Boston's struggles, point
guard Kenny Anderson has remained hot. In a recent
five-game stretch, he was averaging 16.6 points, 6
assists and less than one turnover. In the
Vancouver loss, Anderson had 22 points, 8 assists
and no turnovers. ... Center Vitaly Potapenko has
played much better at home than on the road this
season. In three recent home games, he scored
double figures each time. In two recent road
games, he combined to score nine points. ...Walter
McCarty came off the injured list when Griffin
went on.
QUOTEWORTHY: Danny Fortson, talking about dropping
powerful agent Arn Tellem, who has a habit of not
returning phone calls to reporters. "He wouldn't
return mine either. And I was a client."

By CHRIS BROUSSARD

 AST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Jan. 15 -- They have been
lauded for getting off the mat and turning around
a dismal situation, praised for the way they
exploited their home-court advantage in December
and accepted as a legitimate Eastern Conference
playoff contender. But while the Nets are no
longer a baffling group of underachievers, not all
is well.
The Nets have an exasperating habit of becoming
complacent, of losing games they should win, of
looking great opportunities in the face only to
turn and run away.
That was what disturbed Coach Don Casey the most
about tonight's very winnable game against the
Boston Celtics. Playing host to a team that had
won only 2 of 16 games on the road, his Nets gave
a halfhearted, unenthusiastic performance and were
justly rewarded with a 99-96 loss that, in the
best-case scenario, will serve as a wake-up call.
"As I've said before, we're not anywhere near out
of the woods yet," Casey said. "We've only won 15
games. We had a chance to jump up tonight, and
Boston spoiled it. So I think our guys have to
refocus and remember how we got where we are. We
were very lackadaisical and very nonchalant on
defense."
The Nets' soft play on the defensive end, combined
with the tremendous and multifaceted skills of
Boston's Antoine Walker, made for perhaps the
greatest individual performance in Continental
Arena this season. Feasting on the Nets' troika of
Keith Van Horn, Jamie Feick and Scott Burrell,
Walker scored a season-high 39 points and also
grabbed 11 rebounds.

Norman Y. Lono for The New York Times Boston's
Antoine Walker (8), who had 39 points, tapping in
a shot in the final seconds last night.
 The versatile 6-foot-9-inch Walker was dominant
throughout, scoring 17 points in the first half
and 14 in the fourth quarter, including the
Celtics' last 7. And though he is not known as a
great defender, Walker decided the game by
stealing an inbounds pass by Kendall Gill near
halfcourt and converting it into a breakaway dunk,
which put Boston ahead by 98-94 with 16 seconds
remaining.
"He reminded me of Bernard King when he played for
the Knicks, the way he played tonight," said
Celtics Coach Rick Pitino, who was a Knicks
assistant for one of King's seasons in New York.
"He just took over the game, dominating the low
post, making all the right decisions, rebounding
and playing great defense."
Walker's brilliance enabled the Celtics to improve
to 16-20 and dropped the Nets to 15-21. After
winning nine straight home games in December, the
Nets have lost two of their last three in the
Meadowlands and barely outlasted the Los Angeles
Clippers on Thursday for their lone victory.
Casey is not the only one who says the Nets need
to search their soul.
"We have to learn how to handle success and come
with it every night," said Gill, who scored the
Nets' first 7 points but managed only 5 the rest
of the way. "We could've blown this team out, but
we didn't do the things that we needed to do
early. We let Antoine get off and let him get
started and we couldn't stop him after that. It's
very difficult to win a nip-and-tuck game when a
guy is as hot as he was."
The Nets struggled most in their shooting (38
percent) and their ball-handling (20 turnovers)
against Boston's pressure defense. If not for
their 35-of-45 shooting from the foul line, they
would have been blown out.
Even as Walker had his way, the Nets led
throughout the first half and for most of the
third quarter. Walker hit two free throws to tie
the score at 70-70 heading into the fourth, and
then Boston led for most of the final period.
The Nets, who fell behind by 5 points twice,
crumbled against Boston's pressure down the
stretch. After Van Horn (20 points, 11 rebounds)
tied it at 87-87 with a thunderous driving dunk,
Walker made a 3-point play, and then Stephon
Marbury had a pass stolen in the backcourt by Paul
Pierce, who turned it into a dunk.
Marbury, who played poorly in notching 17 points,
7 assists and 5 turnovers on 5-of-16 shooting,
redeemed himself momentarily by scoring 5 points
to tie it at 94-94 with 1 minute 9 seconds left.
But after the Nets' defense held on a critical
possession, he stepped out of bounds while
dribbling with 32.5 seconds on the clock.
Walker tipped in a missed shot on the other end,
and the Nets called a timeout and prepared to go
for the tie or the victory with 18 seconds left.
But the omnipresent Walker slipped in front of Van
Horn to snag Gill's pass and take it in for a
slam.
"I didn't see Walker until the last second, when
the ball was almost there," Gill said. "He just
came out of nowhere and stole the ball. It was a
good play on his part. I give him credit because
he suckered us into that one."
In speaking about his all-encompassing
performance, Walker credited Van Horn for
inspiring him. "With a great player like Van Horn,
I have got to take it a little personal because he
is like me," Walker said. "He can do the same
thing I can: put it on the floor, shoot it or
rebound."
The Nets would do well to learn from Walker and
take every game personally.
REBOUNDS
KERRY KITTLES matched KEITH VAN HORN with 20
points for the Nets.

Celtics Team Report
JANUARY 15, 2000
Peter May
Boston Globe
The Celtics are back on the road, where they have
been horrible all season. A quick three-game swing
started Thursday night in Minnesota with a big
loss.
Somehow, the team turns into its collective evil
twin on the road. (Then again, the Celtics lost at
home to Vancouver and barely beat the Clippers.)
All the things they know they must do, they don't.
The passing game comes to a grinding halt. The
shot selection is awful. They get behind early and
then find rallying on the road is a tough thing to
do.
Rick Pitino can't explain this Jekyll-Hyde thing.
It's not like the Celtics are unbeatable at home,
but they don't collapse like they do on the road.
They're exhibiting all the traits and
characteristics of a young team. And young teams
generally don't succeed in today's NBA. . . .
Injuries continue to plague the team. Adrian
Griffin remains out, and his soothing presence on
the floor is missed. He didn't put up eye-popping
numbers, but he did bring a calming influence to
the team. He also did a lot of things that go
unnoticed, as well as things that are noticed,
like rebounding. Eric Williams is bothered by a
sore knee, Paul Pierce by a sore ankle and Kenny
Anderson by a sore hamstring. All three are still
playing, but none is close to 100 percent. Pierce
may need offseason surgery to clean up some bone
spurs. Williams, meanwhile, was a close friend of
Bobby Phills and was close to tears on Wednesday
talking about how Phills, who shared the same
agent, talked to him constantly during his rookie
year. . . .
Pitino thinks there's no reason to make a judgment
on the team at this point of the season. He
promised the playoffs this year and the club is
going to have to make up a lot of ground for them
to do that. The coach said it's on him; he's the
one who set the bar high. The players have bought
into it, but so far they've done a lot of talking
and haven't backed it up. The Celtics won 36 games
in Pitino's first year and were close to that same
pace last year. They're on the same pace this
year. . . .
The Celtics had hoped to be at .500 by the time it
made this three-game swing (Minnesota, New Jersey,
Washington.) Those plans were scrapped when Boston
lost at Chicago and then was defeated at home by
the Grizzlies. A tough win over the Clippers made
them go 2-2 in a stretch of four; they had hoped
to win them all. . . .
POSITIONAL ANALYSIS
Power forward: Antoine Walker's scoring binge came
to an end when Pierce returned to the lineup. So
did his accurate shooting. Walker has reverted to
his earlier ways, with a lot of bad shots and
haphazard defense. The fans again booed him during
the Clippers game. GRADE: C.
Small forward: Williams temporarily filled in here
for Griffin, but he got hurt. Then, Walter McCarty
started there to try and use his long arms against
Kevin Garnett. It didn't work. It's going to be a
problematic position until Griffin returns. GRADE:
D.
Center: The Celtics' home/road dual personality is
epitomized by Vitaly Potapenko. He plays well at
home and disappears on the road. The Celtics need
more consistency out of this spot and haven't
gotten it. GRADE: C.
Shooting guard: Pierce is back, but he's still not
totally healthy and he has taken to shooting like
Walker. He's putting up a lot of shots and he's
still making defensive mistakes that have Pitino
baffled. GRADE: C.
Point guard: Anderson's health is always a main
concern and his hamstring, while not serious, is
still a problem. He's been one of the better
shooters, but lately his percentage has dropped.
And the horrible games on the road fall on him as
the point guard when the ball doesn't move. GRADE:
C.
Bench: This has been a source of diminishing
return. Pitino has been going more and more with
his starters and less and less with his subs. The
second unit used to press and wreak havoc. Now, it
mainly watches. Calbert Cheaney has given them a
lift now and then and Danny Fortson is slowly
getting back into shape after missing the first
two months. GRADE: C.
Coach: Pitino says he's at a loss to explain why
his team doesn't do some fundamentally easy things
on the road. It's not for lack of preaching or
practice. But if they don't do it, the coach
generally takes the hit. GRADE: C.
INJURY REPORT
Griffin is the only one of consequence on the
injured list. He will finish his five-game minimum
stay on the list on Monday, but it may be another
week before he returns. He has a sprained right
ankle. The other injuries are the aggravating ones
to Pierce and Anderson. Pitino has to be careful
with them.
Greg Minor remains on the inured list and will be
there all season.
WHO'S HOT/WHO'S NOT
The whole team is on the "Who's Not" list. No one
qualifies more than Pervis Ellison, who is now the
undisputed 12th man. He rarely plays and, in fact,
didn't even get into the Minnesota game, a
certifiable blowout.
Walker and Pierce continue to have terrible
shooting nights, and the whole team has shown it
has a hard time defending in the halfcourt because
of no inside presence or shot blocker.
STRONG TO THE HOOP
Pitino says he's going to be around for a while,
so we'd better get used to him. But he needs to
recognize now what we've all known for some time
-- it's not going to work with Walker. They may
need to get creative or even take a step back, but
the dynamics on this team militate against any
kind of success.
SEE A DIFFERENT GAME
Did you ever think you'd see a Celtics game and
not immediately recognize that Pitino was the
coach? That's the way it has been for some time
now. They've pretty much stopped pressing, except
when they're well behind and need to get some
quick points. They also don't shoot a lot of
3-pointers, also a Pitino trademark. Who ever
thought we'd see that?
FEARLESS PREDICTION
The Celtics blew their big opportunity to get back
to .500 when they lost to the Bulls and Grizzlies.
They won't get there again. And in the competitive
Eastern Conference, that's not going to be enough.



TEAM REPORT