bskball.com Celtics Center column

["Ozersky, Joshua A" <OzerskyJA@corning.com>]

Once Down is No Battle

What can you make of these Celtics?  My last column was 
a letter from the underworld - a defeated submission that, 
yes, the team really did suck.  But a funny thing happened 
on the way to the morgue.  The Celtics woke up and started 
playing the way we all said they would and should and could
, and proceeded to get themselves right back into the playoff 
race, winning 7 of their next nine, including the dreaded back 
to back road games we've heard so much about.  

What caused this shift?  Some have pointed to the post-Vince 
Carter-lucky-shot debacle, in which Coach Pitino laid into the 
Boston fans and media, informing them that history is bunk, and
 that they could blow out the candles still left burning for the Big
 Three's return.  Pitino earned himself a huge shitstorm for that; 
but it reverberated in the locker room.  Later Pitino would claim
 that it was in fact a calculated gambit to bring the team together,
 and if this was the case then Coach Corleone deserves every 
penny of his vast salary.  (In fact, this was an open question two
 weeks ago - Pitino/Pacino met with owner Paul Gaston for a 
secret sitdown in New York, and offered to resign.  Gaston refused.)  

By showing that he was with his young troops, Pitino seems to have 
inspired Antoine Walker to take up the mantle of leadership which he 
had so long been seen as lacking.  Or not exactly - Walker always 
had a leadership personality, it's just that his oncourt play hurt the team.
  But now he has become a monster of unselfish play, passing, 
rebounding, playing hurt.  All the things you want from you Celtics captain.
 The bench has finally started to contribute, allowing Pitino to rest the 
starters in the first half, and to play the more frenetic, uptempo style to 
which this talent is suited.  (Practically every player on the team, with 
the possible exception of Danny Fortson, is faster than the average 
player at their position.)  Fortson, meanwhile, has been getting the minutes
 he so richly deserves, and has helped the Celtics outrebound the 
opposition in game after game - a necessity, given that the Celts' defense, 
while much improved, is still a far cry from New York or Miami's.

But with all the offensive cylinders firing, and with the team doing
 what it needs to in all the other departments, the Celtics are actually
 a very tough team to beat. They have been winning despite subpar 
play from Paul Pierce, and despite the fact that Kenny Anderson 
has been in a pretty serious shooting slump.  (On the other hand, 
Kenny has been doling out assists less stingily, so maybe it's a blessing
 in disguise.)  The way the schedule looks right now, they have to.  We 
have a home game tonight (Wednesday) against the T-Wolves.  That
 is a must-win, as most of our games are these days.  Then we have
 three immense road games:  a Philadelphia appearance, where the
 combustible Sixers will be looking for revenge; a road game in Milwaukee, 
ahead of us by one game in the Standings, and our major obstacle
 between lottery ignominy and playoff redemption; and then Orlando, 
which has an identical record as Milwaukee.  It says here that we should 
win all three of those games.  A few road games more after that, and we
 have the last seven or eight games at home.  And that should do the trick.  
But what's important right now is that the Celtics keep playing their own 
game, which centers around passing and uptempo offense and defense.  
There can't be any more games like Phoenix, where Antoine tries to do 
his Cedric Maxwell "climb on my back" routine.  He's not a good enough 
scorer to do that, and it hurts the team even more than Kenny Anderson's 
standstill dribbling.  I think, speaking for myself, that I can live with missing 
the playoffs if the Celtics lose fair and square, playing their best game and 
getting beaten.  But I don't see that happening with many of the teams remaining
 on our schedule.  So really, this upcoming stretch is more about the team
 finally clearing the opiate fumes out of their heads and balling than any particular
 issue of strategy or skill.

This has been undoubtedly the hardest season in memory for fans my age.  
Wouldn't it be wild if it had a happy ending?  Stranger things have 
happened, and this season was one of them.
Joshua Ozersky
Marketing Communications
Environmental Products Division
Corning Incorporated.
HP-CB-02-C6A
Corning, New York 14831
Phone:  (607) 974-8124
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