Re: Magic Crush Celts: Orlando 111- Boston 89

["John Lyell" <johnlyell@hotmail.com>]

Hopefully RP will find some taker for guys like Battie, Cheaney, Williams,
Barros (having a terrible year) by the trading deadline. But it probably
won't be likely or for anyone of value, but I can dream.


Who was it that said VP was a force down low ? He is terrible. Guys like
Amaechi , Kelvin Cato, & Brad Miller have career nights on us.





----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>
To: <celtics@igtc.com>; <RiteshR@excite.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2000 8:18 PM
Subject: Magic Crush Celts: Orlando 111- Boston 89


> 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
>
>
>
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