TWolves Nip Celts At Buzzer: Minnesota 109- Boston 106

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

	It was a well played game, with the essential difference being
that Kevin Garnett brought his A game, and Antoine Walker came in with
a B-.  The game was very close throughout, but the Celts made several
bids to take control in the middle of the 4th quarter.  They had a bad
stretch of execution between the 5:43 and 4:37 marks (TWolves 6-0)
that probably cost them the game.  Despite that, Paul Pierce got the
opportunity to tie the game with 3.6 seconds left and hit a three
pointer.  The TWolves came down the court without benefit of a
timeout, (but with the benefit off an illegal pick by Garnett) and got
a wide open shot for Anthony Peeler who hit a three to provide the
margin of victory.

	Kenny Anderson got off to a very promising start, hitting a
couple of jumpers and doing a nice job of distributing the ball. The 2
clubs traded baskets, with neither team creating a substantial lead.
Midway through the quarter, Pierce picked up his second foul of the
game, and headed to the bench.  With 2:00 to go the Celts had fallen
behind 23-20, but Anderson led them on a quick 6-0 run to take the
lead.  The C's led heading to the second quarter 26-25.  Kenny had 7
points and 6 assists in a very high tempo period.

	The Celts bench did not perform quite as well as they have
over the last couple weeks, and the Twolves were able to build a 7
point lead midway through the period.  Peeler provided some nice
offense off the bench and Garnett was hitting almost anything he
through up.  Potapenko got back into the game and hit a pair of jumper
to start a 10-3 run that tied the game at 44 apiece.  The Celts got a
pair of free throws from Dana Barros at the end of the half, to lead
56-55 going into the half.

	The Celts fell behind again at the start of the third, as
Malik Sealy began to do some business.  Once again, the Celts rallied
in the middle of the period with a 9-0 run powered by 3 Pierce mid
range jumpers.  Calbert Cheany made a nice defensive play on Sealy and
got a nice whap on the forehead for his trouble.  The Celts got a nice
break at the end of the period, when Battie grabbed a missed Pierce
jumper, and hit the shot after the clock expired.  The refs not only
gave Tony the hoop, but they sent him to the line for a free throws,
which he hit to give the Celts an 85-80 lead.

	The Celts couldn't even stand that small measure of
prosperity, and quickly let the TWolves close to with 1 point at
89-88.  Minnesota ran their offense exclusively through Garnett at the
start of the period, and the C's responded by going to the double
team.  The C's did a fairly good job of switching when Garnett passed
the ball our of the post, but while they were scrambling around trying
to cover the open shooters, they completely lost control of the
boards.  The Celts were holding on to a 93-91 lead with 5:43 to go,
when Pierce traveled trying to get off a jumper.  On the next play,
Walker got called for holding onto Garnetts shorts as he tried to
catch the ball in the post.  Garnett hit both free throws, to tie the
game at 93-93.  Then Peeler picked off a poor Anderson pass and went
in for the uncontested jam to put the Twolves up for the first time in
the period 95-93.  On the next play, Kenny turned the ball over again,
and Garnett got another huge jam to put the Minnesota up by 4 at
97-93.  Much to their credit the Celts battled back, and tied the game
on pair of Walker free throws with 1:32 to go at 101-101.  On the next
C's possession Toine drove the baseline for a hoop to put the Celts up
103-101.  Garnett came back with a turnaround hoop and a free throw to
put the Twolves up 1 (46second left).  The Celts got a pretty good
look for Williams, but he missed the shot badly, and then the Celts
had to foul Sealy.  He hit both free throws to put the TWolves up by 3
(106-103) with 20 second to go.  The Celts got a decent 3 for Pierce
which he hit to tie the game with 3.5 left.  The TWolves immediately
advanced the ball up the left sideline to Peeler.  Pierce who was in
position to make a defensive play, got picked off by Garnett (probably
illegally), and Peeler knocked down the shot to get the 109-106 win.
The refs put .2 seconds back on the clock, but Garnett knocked the
ball away before the C's could even catch it (not that they would have
had time to take the shot even if they had).

	The Celts had a big edge in shooting in the game (.539-.481).
They gave away that advantage at the free throw line, where they went
20-28, while the TWolves went  28-31, and on the boards where they
were outrebounded 42-33 (13-7 on the offensive boards).

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Cheaney, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Twolves: Brandon, Sealy, Szczerbiak, Garnett, Garrett

Players:
Anderson: Up until the last 5 minutes of the ball game, Kenny was
having one of his best games of the season.  He ended up with 14
points on 5-9 shooting, 5 boards, 12 assists, 4 steals and 2
turnovers.  Unfortunately the  2 turnovers came down the stretch, and
he also let himself get trapped a couple of times.  He did a really
nice job of distributing the ball, and was more responsible than
everyone else for the fine shooting percentage.

Pierce: had a nice night shooting the ball.  Hit on 9-14 and 2-2 on
threes.  Also had 6 boards, but three turnovers.  Did a nice job of
taking the mid range jumper when it was offered.

Walker: Maybe I was a bit kind with the B-.  He shot 9-21 (0-2 on
3's), 4-8 from the free throw line, had 5 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal
and 5 turnovers in 40 minutes.   He started out the game guarding
Garnett, which is a pretty tall order, especially as the Celts weren't
giving him any help.  Later in the game, Pitino went to Battie on
Garnett, and did give him help (and Garnett still scored).

Potapenko: Nice game for Vitaly.  He hit on 8-13, and had 7 boards in
31 minutes.  Most of his shots were of the patented mid range jumper
variety.  No coincidence that he had a good shooting game, and Kenny
got a lot of assists.

Cheaney: 2 points and 2 boards in 21 minutes.  He didn't play after he
got knocked on the head in the third.

Fortson: I don't know what happened here.  I thought that Danny played
well in the first half (though he had a relatively low 1 board in 7
minutes).  He had 5 points, and picked up a nice charge call.
somehow, He didn't make it back into the game.  Don't know if he was
hurt: Neither Tommy or Mike mentioned it.

Battie: 5 points and 4 boards in 18 minutes.  He got Garnett in the
third and did about as well as anyone could do one on one.  

Williams: sure could have used some of that nice offense.  He scored 7
points in 22 minutes.

Griffin: 4 fouls and not much else in 14 minutes.  Probably only got
that much because Cheaney didn't come back in.

Barros: Nice game as he had 8 points in 13 minutes.

Opposition Players of Note: Garnett, Sealy and Peeler combined for 80
of the TWolves 109 points on 28-46 shooting.  Heinsohn made a lot of
complementary remarks about both Sealy and Peeler (It's hardly
necessary to comment on Garnett any more).  Garnett's 40 points was,
surprisingly, a career high.

The Celts are now 30-38.  They play in Philly on Friday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net