4 In a Row: Boston 93 - Philadelphia 77

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	Very solid impressive win for the Celts.  The Sixers came out
rather flat, and the Celts took advantage to build up a 14 point
halftime lead.  Philly made a couple of strong rushes in the second
half with strong applications of defensive pressure. The Celts refused
to wilt, and responded each time, getting their largest lead of the
game with about a minute to go in the contest.  Walker got hurt in the
second quarter, but came back into the game.  Calbert Cheaney got the
nod as the starter with the responsibility for covering Iverson.

	The Sixers were having a really hard time holding onto the
ball at the start of the game, and the Celts took advantage to jump
out to an  8-2 lead.  Kenny Anderson picked up his second foul, just
3:00 into the game and was replaced by Barros.  The Sixers got the
lead down to 12-10.  The Celts came back with a 13-4 run to take their
first double digit lead of the game.  Tony Battie came into the game
and immediately made his presence felt with a jumper.  With just a
minute to go in the period, Barros picked up his second foul, and
Pitino had to bring in Overton.  The Celts lead at the end of the
opening quarter, 31-21.  The Sixers had 8 turnovers in the period.

	On the first Celts possession of the second quarter, Toine
made a flashy move to evade his defender, but got his shot swatted by
Ratliff.  He came down on one of the sixer's feet and twisted his
ankle.  Walker was taken to the locker room, had his foot x-rayed and
diagnosed as a mid-foot (?) sprain.  Meanwhile back on the court
Battie continued to play well.  Anderson briefly got back into the
game, and almost immediately picked up a silly third foul.  Despite
that adversity, the Celts pushed the lead up to 41-24, holding the
Sixers to just 3 points scored over the first half of the quarter.
The Sixers finally began to get their offense in gear, and began to up
their defensive pressure.  With about 4:00 to go, Walker reentered the
game, not looking too much the worse for wear.  The Sixers closed the
gap to 10 at 46-36, before Walker led the Celts back to a 14 points
lead at the end of the half (52-38).

	The Celts scored the first 2 baskets of the 3rd, to push the
lead up to 18.  The Sixers made their first run.  They outscored the
Celts 17-5 over about 6:00 to cut the lead to 61-55.  Walker exerted
himself, and together with a big 3 from Overton (who was a disaster
otherwise) and Battie, the Celts outscored the Sixers 12-2 over the
remainder of the quarter, to get the lead back up to 16.

	Overton put on an incredible display of bad shooting to open
the 4th period (he must of missed 6 or 7 shots in the first 3:30 of
the period.  When Pitino went back to Kenny, he kept turning the ball
over, trying to be too aggressive going to the basket.  Between the
two of them the Sixers were able to cut the Celts lead to 78-67 midway
through the period.  Finally the Celts were able to turn the Sixers
over a couple of times, and convert to easy baskets to put the game
away.  They got the lead as high at 93-73, when Walker hit Pierce on a
nice back door.  Anderson fouled out after playing just 16 minutes
with about 3:00 to go in the game.  The Sixers scrubs hit a couple of
meaningless baskets to make the final 93-77.

	The Celts really did not shoot the ball well in this game.
They were 1-15 on threes, and didn't do much better on mid range
shots.  They ended up shooting a lower percentage than the Sixers at
.387 to .411 for the sixers.  They were 20-25 on free throws and had
an advantage of 10 in turnovers and 9 in offensive boards.  They ended
up attempting 20 more shots than the Sixers.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Cheaney, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Sixers: Snow, Iverson, Lynch, Ratliff, Geiger

Players: 
Battie: Tony was a major presence in this game.  He had 11 points, 11
boards (4 offensive) and 5 blocks in 26 minutes.  Once again he seems
to be heading in a positive direction, and Pitino should give him all
the minutes he can eat, while Tony continues to play this way.  Be
real nice to see it last the rest of the season.

Walker:  Toine was on his way to a real big game when he got hurt.
Despite the ankle turn he still played 40 minutes (why?).  He had 25
points, 13 boards and 5 assists, and came up big every time the Sixers
made a run.

Pierce: Found a way to do some damage despite his jumper being non
existent.  I don't think he hit a shot from further than 15 feet away,
and was 1-5 on threes.  He got enough shots close to the basket to go
9-19, and he was 11-12 at the line.  He scored 29, and had 6 boards, 4
assists, 3 steals and 5 turnovers.

Anderson: actually managed 7 assists in his 15 minutes of play.  I
think he got quite a few of those fouls trying to help out on Iverson.
The Celts were doing a very nice job of advancing the ball early in
the game, and Kenny played a part in that.

Cheaney: got 35 minutes in the game, and his mission was simple.  Stay
in front of Iverson.  He did a pretty good job.  Iverson scored 21
points and hit on 8-18.  Cheaney hit on 4-10 shots for 9 points
himself.

Potapenko: played just 14 minutes, and scored 4 points and had 3
boards.

Barros: 2-5 shooting and 2 assists in 14 minutes.

Overton: played dreadfully. Got toasted by Iverson several times when
he had to pick him up, and hit on 1-11 shots.  had 0 assists in 19
minutes.

Griffin: 0-3 shooting, 5 boards and 2 steals in 13 minutes.

Williams: 0-2 in 10 minutes.

Fortson: another nice effort for Danny, though overshadowed by Battie.
He had 5 points and 6 boards in 15 minutes (3 fouls).

Coaching:  Liked the move to put Cheaney on Iverson.  I suspect that
he's been seeing a lot more of tall, relatively quick guards since
Kobe did that job on him last month.  Rick had to be pleased by the
quality of the Celts defense in the game.  They really kept the Sixers
from getting many easy shots.  Eric Snow was 9-13 though, as the Celts
basically left the perimeter unguarded.  Against a lot of other teams
that would have cost them dearly.

The C's are now 27-35.  They play again on TBS tomorrow evening at
8:00 vs. the Pistons.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net