Raptors top Celts (Again): Toronto 114- Boston 104

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	A bit of a bizarre contest tonight.  The Raptors beat the
Celts with 30 points from Carter, 24 points from McGrady and a new
career high for Mugsy Bogues (also with 24).  The C's wasted the best
offensive effort by the bench this season, with 50 points, led by Eric
Williams with 22 points.  Both Rick Pitino and Antoine Walker got
tossed from the game.

	The Raptors and Carter started off just where they ended on
Wednesday, as Vince opened the game with a three.  The Raptors jumped
on top 12-2 and then 20-6 (a lot of strong outside shooting in there,
mixed up with some defensive breakdowns by the Celts).  Pitino went to
the bench with the Celts down 27-14.  They immediately responded with
some unusual offense as Overton, Williams and Battie all contributed
as the C's cut the lead to 10 at 35-25.  Just before the end of the
quarter, though Curry hit a jumper to put the Raptors up 37-25.

	The Celts went heavily to the press at the start of the second
and got some positive results despite the presence on the court of
Bogues.  Basically Bogues could easily break the pressure by himself,
but many times the Raptors chose to try to go over the top of the
press, which usually resulted in a turnover.  Meanwhile the C's bench
contributes to score points at an unusual pace.  With 7:00 to go in
the quarter the Celts had outscored the Raptors 15-5 (with all 5 of
the Raptor points coming from Bogues).  Pitino substituted Walker for
Overton, leaving the Celts without a point guard on the floor (not
such a big deal since the Raptors play most of the time with no point
guard).  The Celts pulled to with 1 point (46-45) on a Williams trey.
They couldn't quite get a lead, and with the Raptors starters back in
the game Toronto started to pull away again.  The Raptors were able to
extend the lead to 7, at 57-50, by the end of the half.

	The Raptors starters continued to dominate the C's as they
went on a 13-4 run to start the second half, taking a 70-54 lead.  The
Cetls came back to cut the lead to 9 (74-65) with 3:47 to go (nice
stretch by Walker and Anderson).  Just before the end of the quarter,
Anderson was pushing the ball down the court with only Bogues between
him and the basket.  Mugsy tripped Kenny (inadvertently), but the ref
failed to make the call.  Pitino went nuts, pretty much, and got T'd
out of the game.  Bogues hit both free throws to put the Raptors up
86-73 going to the fourth.

	On the opening play of the 4th period, Walker seemed to say
something to Joe Crawford, while he was playing defense against
Antonio Davis.  He immediately collected a technical, and then when he
protested the call, got another one in very short succession.  Toine
definably did not want to leave the court, and had to be persuaded to
exit.  The Raptors and the Celts traded baskets through the middle of
the period, when Toronto seemed to loose their concentration.  They
let the Celts put together an 11-2 run to cut the lead to 5 (100-95)
with 4:00 left.  The Celts just couldn't get any defensive stops when
it counted, though, and the Raptors fairly easily held them off down
the stretch for the 114-104 win.

	Really if you take away the technical fouls, and the strong
Raptor shooting from the 3 point line (8-17) this was a very even
game.  The Celts only scored 1 fewer basket than Toronto (they shot a
lower FG% but had more shots), and each team shot well from the free
throw line.  The Celts had a small advantage on the offensive boards. 
The Raptors had 29 assists on 38 baskets.  Why do they give out
assists on 3 pointers, anyway?

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Walker, Fortson, Potapenko
Raptors: Christie, McGrady, Carter, Oakley, Davis

Players:
Williams: led the Celts in scored with 22 points (in 25 minutes).  He
shot 6-10 (2-4 on threes) and 7-8 form the free throw line.  He drove
the ball to the basket, and collected at least 2 (if not 3)
conventional three points play to go with the long bombs.

Anderson: Most of the game, Kenny was stymied by the defense of
Christie, who seemed to be quick enough to keep Kenny from driving,
and big enough to make him uncomfortable taking the jumper.  Late in
the game Bogues was in the game trying to guard Kenny, who took
advantage several  times, and got his point total up to 17.  Kenny had
just 2 assists against 3 turnovers in the game.

Walker: Seemed to be trying hard to make good passes and involve
teammates in the action.  Mostly he got turnovers for his trouble,
though, as Vitaly and Danny both muffed good passes from him.  he shot
just 3-10, and had 7 boards and 4 turnovers before he got tossed.  He
did seem to be settling for the outside shot a bit more than you would
like to see.

Pierce: it seems to me that you could make a reasonable argument that
the difference between the first 2 game the Celts played against the
Raptors, and the last 2 was the Carter-Pierce match up.  Early in the
season Pierce outplayed Carter, while in the last 2 games Carter has
pretty easily dominated.  Tonight each played 40 minutes.  Carter had
30 points, 7 boards and 7 assists while Pierce had 11 points, 3 boards
and 2 assists.  Pierce shot 3-11, and 0-5 on threes. 

Fortson: Played a bit better tonight.  He stretched 5 fouls out over
22 minutes, and managed 11 points and 11 boards.  He is so single
minded in attacking the offensive board, that it is useless to dump
the ball off to him on a drive.  He won't see that the ball is being
passed to him, because he is already jostling for position.

Overton: Probably the best stint he's had in a game this year.  He
scored 9, and had 5 assists in 17 minutes, though he shot just 4-11.
did make some nice passes, and advanced the ball on the break well.

Battie: Supposedly has been working with Andy Enfield on his shot.
What is it that Enfield does that improves players shots for a short
period of time, whereupon they inevitably regress?  Or do we only hear
about Enfield when a player is shooting well?  I really can't see that
he's made much difference in the overall shooting level of the team.
Anyway, Battie shot well tonight going 5-7 and hitting several
jumpers.  So what?  He had just 5 boards in 28 minutes, though he did
have 2 blocks.  The Celts need defense and boarding from Tony much
more than jump shooting. 

Potapenko: 2nd tough night in a row.  He got 5 fouls in just 15
minutes, and scored just 4 and had 2 boards.  It's been hard to judge
the effectiveness of the Fortson experiment, since Vitaly has come up
dry in both games that Danny has started (I don't think there is a
causal relationship).

Griffin: Picked up 4 fouls in just 10 minutes.  But he still managed 3
boards, 3 assists and 2 steals in that time.  Another "Ofer" from the
field.

Cheaney: quiet night in 15 minutes.

McCarty: 2-6. 

Coaching:  Mounting frustration was the reason for the ejection, I
think.  It was a bad non-call, but far from the worse that the Celts
have suffered this year.  

	I actually like the Fortson experiment, though it hasn't
yielded much in the way of positive results yet.  At least Rick is
trying something, rather than just trudging through the season with
the same lineup and the same results.  

The Celts are now 23-35.  They play a Sunday afternoon game agasint
the  Magic at 3:00.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net