Afternoon game in DC

[opi@unesco.org]

The Celts play this afternoon (1:00pm ET) in Washington trying to win
for the fifth straight time against the Wizards (12-26). The squad
apparently arrived in DC yesterday morning, so they should be reasonably
rested.

In their last meeting on November 3rd (our home opener), the Celts build
a 25 point lead and racked up 29 assists on their way to a 112-101 win.
Potapenko led the team in points (20) and rebounds (8) in 31 effective
minutes. The game was played in front of Bill Russell and Red Auerbach
(celebrating his 50 years with the organization). Antoine shot 7-12 for
19 points and 7 rebounds while Kenny went for 19 points and 10 assists
against his NYC rival Rod Strickland. It marked the Celts only
back-to-back win of the season to date.

The Wiz are one of the strongest rebounding teams (44.3pg or +4.3pg).
They are also well-balanced in this area, with none or their top seven
scoring leaders averaging higher than an unimpressive 5.4 per game (Ike
Austin). Michael Smith leads overall with 7.8 while Jahidi White
averages 6.4 boards on a team where basically everyone rebounds pretty
well.

The main three-point threats are Mitch Richmond (2.95 attempts per game,
.330 shooting), of course Tracy Murray (3.18 attempts, .397) and Chris
Whitney (2.68 attempts, .324).

To date, opponents have attempted over 100 more 3-pointers than the Wiz
while hitting a scary .374, which translates into a minus 4.5 ppg
deficit via treys for the Wiz. By way of comparison, the Celts have
seemingly gotten killed on open treys all season, yet they have allowed
"only" .345 shooting and have actually outscored opponents from that
range.

The Wiz have a rare ten man rotation of players averaging better than 15
minutes per game, all of whom have been healthy for most of the season.
The much heralded rookie Rip Hamilton (Cheaney's replacement) is
averaging a so-so 8 ppg on .389 shooting in 18.3 mpg.

The Wiz have lost six of their last seven games, including back-to-back
defeats to the Bull last week and close back-to-back losses over the
weekend to the Pistons despite 29-points from Mitch Richmond on Friday
and 27-points from Rod Strickland on Saturday.

The Celts haven't managed yet to win consecutive road games nor have
they had a winning-record road trip, so this matinee is a big (but
achievable) challenge. The Wiz are one of only a few counter-examples of
a veteran-dominated lineup that has played together for some time, yet
still are basically very mediocre.

The reputed Wiz-killer Antoine Walker can be said to have hopefully
peaked at a good time for Boston going into this game. Among other
things, El Capitano has accumulated five double-doubles in eight Y2K
games (including three in the past four games) and now leads the Celts
team in rebounding by a fraction over the injured Adrian Griffin. More
than Antoine, it would be nice to see a solid, balanced game from Paul
Pierce.

I haven't read any new injury updates this morning (notably concerning
Kenny Anderson) or any news about Fortson's ankle injury etc. In the
previous game, Wayne Turner played all 18 backup minutes behind Kenny
(getting 3 points and 2 assists). Overton had 5 assists and 0 turnovers
in 22 minutes against the Nets, who gave Marbury all but 8 of the point
guard minutes (the rest went to Elliot Perry).

Go CELTICS!

****