C's Blow Sonics Away: 111-86

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	The most thorough and encompassing win of the Pitino era.  The
Celts demolished the Sonics with running, pressure defense, excellent
ball movement and dominant rebounding.  The Celts outscored Seattle
(quarterly) by scores of 28-18, 33-23 and 25-14 before the C's bench
kindly permitted the Sonics a semblance of respectability with a 31-25
4th.  The Celts were without the services of Calbert Cheaney.

	From the start of the game, the Celts not only seemed to have
come out of their victory on Wednesday with high energy, but an extra
measure of confidence and crispness of execution.  They quickly
assumed a 10-6 lead, with nice offensive contributions from all the
starters.  Pierce had an excellent block against Ruben Patterson, and
a few moments later, was rewarded by his teammates with an open look
at the 3 to put the Celts up 13-6.  Antoine was making Horace Grant
look his age as he was able to take advantage of the veterans lack of
quickness, at will.  Antoine completed a traditional 3 point play to
put the C's up 18-10 (you could tell the Sonics knew this was not
their night, when you saw Grant pushing the ball at Potapenko in
frustration after the play).  With 3:30 to go, the excellent ball
movement resulted in a McCarty 3, and then Pierce drove to the basket
for a jam to give the Celts their first double digit lead at 23-12
An excellent opening period ended with the C's up 28-18.

	With the Celts shortmanned at the guard position they
short-manned the backcourt at the start of the second with Anderson
and Barros paired together.  Anderson supplied the outside shooting
that Dana wasn't as the Celts pushed out to a 37-22 lead.  Kenny left
for a most deserved rest, but without his guidance the Celts offense
hit a speed bump.  They were unable to score over the next 3:30 of the
game and the Sonics made their first and last run of the game,
outscoring the Green 9-0 to cut the lead to 6 at 37-31.  Pitino got
Walker and Anderson back into the game, joining Pierce to stabilize
the game.  With 4 minutes to go, the Sonics were still in the game,
trailing by just 8 at 45-37.  The Celts finished off the half with a
resounding 16-4 run, ending with a Walker 35 foot bank shot as the
buzzer sounded to end the half with the Celts up 61-41.

	The Celts continued to dominate at the start of the second
half, starting off with a 10-4 run.  For a moment, though, it looked
as though the win might come at a high price, when Pierce stole the
ball from Ruben Patterson.  In trying to regain control of the ball,
Paterson poked Pierce in the eye.  Paul had to leave the game for
about 2:00.  Both teams quieted from the field, as the Sonics, with
the Celts constantly double teaming Payton, really had a hard time
producing quality shots.  Pierce came alive toward the end of the
quarter, and he scored his second conventional 3 point play of the
game to put the Celts margin at 30 (82-52).  The Sonics back-up big
man, Stepania, got into it with Battie, and they were tagged for a
double foul.  Nothing could Derail the Celts, though, as they closed
out the 3rd quarter with a 31 points lead (86-55).

	The 4th opened with most of the starters for both teams on the
bench, except for Pierce.  Paul stayed in the game till about the 8
minutes mark, when Pitino realized that he could easily be injured in
the somewhat wild garbage time play.  The Sonics bench, had slightly
the better of the C's pine crew, cutting into the lead slightly.
Towards the end of the quarter, Dana, who had been fruitlessly
shooting the ball all evening long (really the only Celtic to have a
substandard game), finally hit a pair of jumpers to cap off an
extremely impressive win 111-86.

	Although the Celts played well in all facets of the game, the
rebounding continues to be mind blowing.  They outboarded Seattle
60-42 (Potapenko and Fortson combined for 22 bounds in just 33 minutes
of PT).  I also have to emphasize that the C's victory tonight was not
especially the result of hot shooting (Anderson was the only C who
shot the ball really well).  They shot at a .484 clip because of
excellent execution.  They were a bit it sloppy with the ball,
committing 23 turnovers to the Sonics 16.  And they held the Sonics to
just .376 shooting (at the end of the 3rd quarter the difference was
more like .50-.35).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, McCarty, Walker, Potapenko
Sonics: Payton, Barry, Patterson, Baker, Grant

Players:
Anderson: big night for Kenny.  He put up 19 points on 8-11 shooting,
5 assists and 2 steals.  He also (with a lot of help from his
friends), more than contained Gary Payton, who had 13 points on 5-16
shooting.  Kenny looks to be fully recovered from his injury of a few
weeks ago, and is displaying more quickness and energy than he has
since joining the team.  Shot 3-4 on treys.

Walker: another nice game for Toine.  He was taking the ball at Grant
tonight, rather than posting and pitching the ball out.  He had 21
points (8-18) and 8 boards in 29 minutes.

Pierce: Also 21 points on 8-18 shooting.  He also had 10 boards, 4
assists and 4 steals in 31 minutes. Seems to have regained his
approach to the game after a shaky couple of weeks.

Battie: maybe his biorhythms are on the upswing again.  Had a lot of
energy tonight as he scored 12, had 8 boards, 3 assists and 2 blacks
in 24 minutes.

Potapenko: Kind of an afterthought, as he played just 16 minutes (1
foul).  Still managed 6 points and 9 boards in the short time.

McCarty: actually led the team in minutes played with 39 (of course I
suppose Walter could play 96 a night if he had to).  He had a couple
of flashy defensive plays, and also made some sweet passes.  5 points,
4 assists, 3 blocks and (but) 4 turnovers.

Fortson: very mixed bag for Danny.  He fouled out in 17 minutes, after
getting 12 boards, 7 points and committing 6 turnovers.  For some
reason he kept losing his balance after he got a rebound and lost the
ball several times that way.

Barros: I thought he played with some energy tonight.  He missed his
first 5 shots of the game, but came back to hit the last 2.

Overton: played serviceably in the relief role with 9 points and 5
assists in 22 minutes (he shot 3-10 though).

Ellison: got the last 10 minutes of the game and had 5 points and 2
boards.

Coaching: Although the Celts are playing well as a team, I think the
reason for the resurgence is clear: for the first time (ever, I think)
Anderson, Walker and Pierce are all playing well simultaneously.  It
gives the Celts a very solid base to build the rest of their game on.
Tonight the trio combined for 59 points (shot 24-45), had 20 boards
and 10 assists in 86 minutes (basically starters minutes for 2
players).  And those are numbers they're capable of posting on a
pretty regular basis. 

	And for the second game in row, the Pitino tactic of doubling
the outside player was successful.  The C's were consistently able to
take the ball out of Payton's hands without opening up any holes or
the other Sonics.  I still would like to see that particular gambit
reserved for the Paytons of the league, but it's been effective 2
nights in a row.

The Celts head out for a game tomorrow night against the Hornets.
They're record is now 19-20 (I notice that the Hornets have won 3 in a
row, so this should be a stiff test).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net