Celts Hold Off Suns: Boston 91- Phoenix 88

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	A very solid mature win for the Celts tonight.  They won the
game with tenacious defense down the stretch as they held the Suns to
just 14 4th quarter points, and really limited their shot
opportunities.  Paul Pierce was back in action tonight, and made his
presence felt with 31 points.  Down the stretch they held Cliff
Robinson (who had 37 on the night) to just one basket.

	The Celts and Pierce got off to a fast start jumping out to a
12-8 lead.  While the Suns were depending on the outside shot, the
Celts were pounding the ball inside to Pierce and Walker, and getting
to the foul line.  Dana Barros capped off a successful first period
with a 3 pointer at the he buzzer to give the Celts the4 26-21 lead.

	The Celts continued their most efficient portion of the game,
as they pushed out to a 42-32 lead midway through the second quarter.
They employed very nice ball movement to shake Kenny loose for a
jumper to give them a game high 12 points lead at 44-32.  Cliff
Robinson was heating up, and the Celts perimeter defense which had
been very solid up until this point, began to loose it's intensity.the
Suns finished off the game with a 12-3 run to cut the Celts lead to
just 3 at the half, 49-46.

	The Suns and Robinson continued to cut into the Celts lead in
the third, and with about 8:00 to go, they got the lead at 60-59.  On
the next play, things really looked dark for the Celts as Pierce went
up for a jumper, and appeared to injure his leg again.  He was limping
and Pitino quickly called timeout to get him off the court.  The Celts
had fallen behind by 5, when Pierce reentered the game with about 3:00
to go.  It was Kenny and Vitaly who led the Celts on a 11-5 run to cut
take the lead back just before the end of the quarter.  They led
heading to the 4th 75-74.

	Both clubs had a very hard time finding their offense at the
start of the 4th period.  The Celts were playing fine defense, but
were missing easy shots at the offensive end.  Vitaly went something
like 0-7 at the start of the quarter (most of them pretty good shots).
With 6:00 to go in the game, the score stood at 78-77, each team
having scored 3 points in 6 minutes.  The Suns broke out of their
slump first, as they scored 7 unanswered to take an 81-78 lead.
Adrian Griffin got a big offensive rebound/score, and then Pierce hit
a midrange jumper to get the C's back the lead at 82-81.  A few
moments later, the Celts had fallen behing again 86-84.  with 2
minutes left Pierce faked Robinson into the air leaned into/around
him, to draw the foul, and then hit the jumper (and got the free
throw), to put the Celts up by 1.  Neither team could score over the
next minutes.  Rex Champman hit a very difficult runaround with 35.0
to go, to put the Suns up by 1 again (88-87).  On the next play, the
ball kind of bounced into Battie's hands, and he hit a clutch 12 foot
turnaround of his own to give the Celts the lead with 15.3 to go.
Kidd took the ball in bounds, with Kenny dogging him all the way up
the court.  Kidd tried to dump the ball off, but Kenny anticipated the
pass, and picked the ball out of the air, no more than 6 inches from
where Kidd released it.  Anderson dribbled the ball into the Celts
forecourt, where Kidd fouled him (but the Suns weren't in the
penalty).  The Celts inbounded the ball, and Griffin was immediately
fouled with 4.0 left, and the C's up 1.  Adrian hit both of the huge
free throws, and the Celts were up 91-88.  The C's played very good
defense on the inbounds and forced an absurd 25 foot twisting hook
shot from Chapman, which went well awry.

	As you would guess from the score, this was a very even game
statistically.  The Celts shot .410 to the Suns .388.  The Suns
slightly outrebounded the C's (45-43), while the Celts had fewer
turnovers (15-17).  The C's got to the line 10 more times, but only
hit 2 more free throws.  They made up for the poor free throw shooting
by going 6-13 on threes.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Griffin, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Suns: Kidd, Hardaway, Robinson, Gugliotta, Longley

Players:
Pierce: very nice night shooting the ball, and driving to the basket.
Penny Hardaway, who had the defensive assignment quite a bit, seems
rather lackadaisical about playing defense against Paul.  Still
doesn't quite seem to have the balance between shooting and passing
though.  Tommy was very concerned about Pierce sitting down late in
the first half, and letting the hamstring tighten up,but after that
score midway through the 3rd, Pierce seemed to have close to full
mobility.  Shot 10-20 and 9-11 from the line. 

Walker: Got off to a slow start, then closed out the first half with a
rush.  Gugliotta, who just seemed stuck in cement every time Toine
drove the ball, in the second quarter, recovered a bit in the second
half, and played halfway decent defense against Antoine.  He started
out the game shooting 2-7, then got up to 50% (7-14) , before he
finished out at 10-21.  24 points to go along with 4 boards.  He did
have 5 turnovers though.

Anderson: another pretty impressive game by Kenny against a top flight
point guard.  He scored 12, and had 5 boards, 4 assists, and 3 steals
(1 turnover) in a team leading 43 minutes.  Kidd (who played 44), had
a very impressive double double with 14 assists and 12 boards, but
spoiled it with 1-8 shooting and 5 turnovers.  The last defensive
sequence was a real gem.

Griffin: a little more in the Adrian groove tonight.  He had a couple
of nice drive and dish combos, and played the solid floor game we've
come to expect.  He was 1-4 shooting, had 5 boards and 5 assists in 36
minutes.

Potapenko: strange game for Vitaly.  He played very well for the first
3 quarter, and was a monster on the offensive boards yet again.  All
of a sudden at the start of the 4th quarter, it seemed as though, on
every other possession the ball would end up in Vitaly's hands for a
shot, he just couldn't turn down (a 12 foot jumper, or a 4 foot hook
shot).  He'd take them, just like we would all want him too, but he
just couldn't hit anything.  Finally Pitino had to take him out of the
game.  He ended up shooting 2-13, although he did have a commendable
12 boards (6 offensive ) in just 23 minutes of playing time.

Battie: hopefully that big shot at the end of the game, will inspire
him a bit.  He was playing a bit better tonight, with 7 points and 9
boards in 29 minutes.  He still only had 1 offensive board, which I
think is the key to his game.

Fortson: came into the game and immediately picked up a foul.  A
couple of moments later, Hardaway stepped on his foot, and Danny was
called for the foul.  Pitino took him out after a total of 2 minutes
played, and didn't put him back in for the rest of the game.  

Cheany: 14 very quiet minutes.

Barros: 4 points in 5 minutes.

McCarty: 2 assists in 8 minutes.

Coaching: Pitino's handling of Fortson puzzles me.  Since Rick came to
the team DeClercq, Potapenko, Knight and Battie have all had stretches
where they've picked up enormous numbers of fouls in very short
minutes.  Pitino has always tried to put them back in the game, and
give them the kind of consistent playing time, that helps them avoid
fouls.  He doesn't seem to be giving Fortson the same deal.  Maybe
Danny's not showing up for practice at full speed.  Whatever it is,
Fortson seems to have gotten on Rick's bad side (to be fair to Pitino,
he's capable of changing his mind).

Opposition Ex-Celtics of Note: I thought it was odd when I saw the
name Day popping up in the Sun box scores at the beginning of the
season.  Though I wasn't surprised to see his minutes head up, and
then back down after the Suns found out what he's like. Tonight,
though, I saw why, as the Suns have absolutely no bench at all. if you
except Chapman. Day and Oliver Miller are the best Suns backups. It's
worth noting that Todd took just 3 shots in 13 minutes.

The Celts are now 20-23.  They are at Indiana this Tuesday.

Bill Cooper wfcooper@tiac.net