Magic Crush Celts: Orlando 111- Boston 89

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	Just another woeful performance on the road trip that's become
the C's version of the retreat from Moscow.  The C's sandwiched a
decent 2nd quarter with truly dreadful first and thirds (they were
outscored 35-17 in the 3rd), as they showed very little intensity in
any area of the game (very much in contrast to the Magic).  Adrian
Griffin returned for the game.

	The Magic got off to a quick start thanks in large part to
John Amaechi (and a sub par defensive performance by Vitaly
Potapenko).  The Magic took a 17-12 lead midway through the first.
Walker was keeping the Celts in the game with 11 first period points,
but it wasn't enough as Orlando headed into the second leading 28-20.

	After the opening 2 minutes of the second quarter (when the
Magic scored 6 quick points) the Celts stiffened on defense, and held
Orlando to just 12 points over the remaining 10 minutes of the period.
The Celts continued to get solid offense from Antoine and also got
positive contributions from Barros and Fortson.  They tied the game at
36-36, and had 4 opportunities to take the lead, but were turned back
each time.  Finally the Celts took a 46-44 lead with 1:00 to go in the
half, their first and only lead of the game.  A couple of moments
later McCarty turned the ball over, and Armstrong turned it into an
easy basket to tie the score going into the half 46-46.

	AFter the second quarter, things seemed hopeful, but the Magic
extinguished any thoughts of partially redeeming the road trip with a
13-3 run to open the third.  Once again Amaechi was unstoppable down
low, and the Mgic employed some excellent ball movement to get easy
shots.  Pitino tried to team Anderson and Barros together in the
backcourt, but Orlando did an excellent hob of identifying the
resulting defensive mismatch (Abdul-Wahad vs. Barros) and took
advantage of it.  The Celts were soon down 72-54.  The lead got as
high as 81-59,b before the Celts scored 4 points to close out the
quarter trailing 81-63.

	Early in the 4th, the Magic put together another run (8-4) to
push the lead back up to 22 and pretty much turn the rest of the game
into garbage time (not that you can tell from the players Pitino has
to put out on the court: there's no real bench left).  For some
reason, the refs, who had been very quiet in the game for the first 3
quarters, started whistling everything in the 4th quarter.  At one
points the Magic went to the foul line on 7 straight possessions.  It
didn't make much difference though, as Orlando had the game under
control.  They won 111-89.

	The Magic shot .600 to the C's .413 and had 11 turnovers to
the C's 17.  What else do you have to go to win?  The Celts held their
own on the boards, but the Magic did have a big edge in free throws
attempted 43-24.  Part of the reason for that was that the Celts tried
24 3's to the magic's 3 (attempted 3's that is).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Griffin, McCarty, Walker, Potapenko
Magic: Armstrong, Abdul-Wahad, Outlaw, Wallace, Amaechi

Players:
Anderson: Heinsohn observed that he thought that Kenny's physical
condition is deteriorating.  Coincidentally or not, Pitino pretty much
kept him out of the game after the Magic's run to open the third
quarter.  Kenny did have 8 points and 7 assists, though the good
pressure defense by Armstrong contributed to 3 turnovers.

Walker:  An absolutely brilliant first half with 19 points, and any
number of wonderful forays to the basket.  He was much quieter in the
second half (almost like he thought it would be better to score 26 in
a losing cause than 49?).  He shot 10-17 (and several of the misses
were late 24 second jump shots), and had 5 boards and 4 turnovers.

Potapenko: very disappointing game.  He wasn't a factor on the boards
(just 3 in 24 minutes), and Amaechi scored on him in about every way
imaginable.  The Magic doubled down on Vitaly every time he turned his
back to the basket and he did a poor job of recognizing it and passing
the ball back out.

McCarty: got the big minutes tonight (I'm sure because of Outlaw), and
he did put up good rebounding number with 13 (a career high).  He also
palyed a decent floor game with 4 assists.  He negated that with 2-13
shooting (though he, like Walker had to force several shots do to the
shot clock).  I noticed that in contrast to the early parts of the
season, when he had a pretty nice arc to his shot, he has reverted to
the very flat shot he used in the past (have you ever seen anyone line
drive a 3 pointer?).

Griffin: he got 40 minutes, and didn't seemed winded.  But I thought
that a lot of the spark was missing from his game.  He shot just 2-8,
had 4 assists and 2 steals.  he seemed much less active than he did
before the injury, like he knew he was going to play the heavy minutes
and was conserving himself.

Overton: had the shooting eye tonight, with 4-6 shooting including 2
threes.

Barros: Not so much with the shooting eye at 1-4 (and missed some very
Makeable shots).

Fortson: had a nice impact when he was in there with 7 points, 7
boards and 3 assists in 17 minutes.  and "just" 3 fouls.

Battie: gone AWOL.

Cheaney: 4 points in 15 minutes.  I assume he got the short minutes to
work Adrian back into the flow.

Coaching: Is it just me, or do others think that the Celtics have a
very hard time overcoming injuries, at least in the first couple of
games after they occur?  When Pierce went down the first time, and
then when Adrian went out, and then with the second Pierce injury, the
C's seem to have a really hard time responding at first.  Eventually,
they get their bearings and begin to play better (even if they don't
win much).  It seems to me that many teams have exactly the opposite
psychology: after an injury they'll have a game or two, where they
make up for the absence with an excellent effort, before they revert
to their normal level of effort and you really begin to see the
effects of the injury.  Maybe Pitino pushes them so hard, that they
don't have anything extra to give (or at least perceive that they
don't) when it's really needed.

The Celts are now 19-23.  They host the Suns this Friday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net