Celts Fall in 2nd OT: Philly 117-Boston 115

[Bill Cooper <wfcooper@tiac.net>]

[Sorry for not posting this last night.  The game was just too
depressing to write up]

	The contest last night started out very slowly, then built and
built to the agonizing crescendo we Celtic fans have become so
familiar with the last few weeks.  The Sixers hit yet another shot
with the clock running out to tie the game at the end of the first
overtime (after Pierce had apparently won the game with another clutch
shot), and then won the game outright in the second.  The Celts really
had no one to blame but themselves, particularly in the first OT, when
they missed 4-8 free throws, setting up the tieing shot by Aaron McKie
(!).

	Really, almost as though they knew that it was going to be a
very long game, the respective team started out pacing themselves.
The Celts went with their Cheaney-Iverson matchup that worked well in
their last game with the Sixers, and it looked to be effective again
as they built some nice early leads (7-0, 14-6).  Pierce was hitting
effectively from the outside.  The Celts lost their offensive touch
over the last 4:00 of the period, scoring just one basket.  The Sixers
took advantage to put together a 9-2 run that saw them to a 22-18
advantage heading to the second.  On the last play of the quarter,
Walker tried a fifty foot shot, and coming down from it, stepped on
Aaron McKie sneaker, mildly twisting his ankle.

	The C's offensive stupor continued at the start of the second.
They only scored on an Eric Williams three over the first 5:00 of the
period.  The Sixers did little better, though, and the C's still only
trailed 26-21.  Finally The Celts broke out of cold storage, and went
on a 16-5 run (37-31) with a nice contribution off the bench from
Barros.  The Sixers rallied, though, and it took a Williams jumper on
the last Celt possession of the half to give them the 41-39 lead.

	The tenor of the game changed completely after the half.  The
two teams, after scoring 80 points i the first half, put up 63 in the
3rd quarter.  Basically, the Sixers seemed to realize, that they
weren't going to get huge production from Overton with Cheaney
guarding him, so they had better go somewhere else, and the Celts got
some offense from Kenny, and Danny Fortson off the bench.  Pierce
picked up his 4th foul early in the period, and went to the bench for
a very extended stay.  The Celts, several times took small lead (3
points), but the Sixers closed out the period with a 7-1 run to lead
73-70.

	Pierce came back into the game early in the 4th, and helped
the Celts regain the lad.  The Celts were trailing 84-82, when Pierce
blew a huge jam opportunity.  The Sixers immediately ran the ball back
down for an easy score by Tyrone Hill.  Philly was up by 5 (88-83)
with 4:44 to go, when Walker, who had been having a slow game, really
took charge.  He led the Celts on a 12-2 run (scoring and assisting)
to put the Celts in control of the game 95-90 with 2:00 to go.  The
Sixers rallied (with a little help from the refs) and tied the score
with 18 second to go when Iverson dumped off to Ratliff for an easy
score.  The Celts had a chance to tie on a Pierce jumper, but his shot
was off.

	The C's held the Sixers scoreless over the first 3:00 of the
first overtime, and held a 102-97 lead (the first 5 points being
scored by Pierce).  After a Snow drive, Walker came back with an
impressive spin hook combo the put the Celts back up by 5 with 1:30 to
go.  After a  Ratilff free throw, Walker drove again and got the 5th
foul on Ratliff.  Walker missed both free throws, though, and on the
next play Kukoc scored to put the Sixers to within 2 (104-102).  After
a Walker miss, though McKie commited an offensives foul (great charge
pickup by Pierce) with just 23.7 left.  The Sixers fouled Anderson,
who hit 1 off 2 free throws (105-102).  With that opening, the Sixers
came down court, and got a decent (but not great look) for Kukoc, who
sunk the three to tie the game.  The Celts came back and took the lead
back with a clutch 18 foot jumper by Pierce (with a hand in his face:
107-105).  The Sixers inbounded the Ball to (1.7 left) to McKie  who
got too easy a shot, and hit a jumper with .2 left on the clock to tie
the game.

	Pierce kept the Celts in the game early in the second OT, by
getting to the free throw line.  The Celts had a 113-111 lead with
2:38 to go.  Cheaney fouled out on the next play and Iverson gave the
Sixers the 114-113 lead.  With 1:14 to go, Pierce fouled out, and
Ollie hit 1 free throw to put the Sixers up 115-113.  Walker made a
great pass to Griffin on the next play to tie the game at 115 with :56
to go.  On the next play Geiger put back an Ollie miss to give the
Sixers the lead 117-115.  The Celts set up a shot for Barros with 24
second to go, but Dana misfired.  Iverson inexplicably lost control of
the ball as the Celts were scrambling to steal the ball.  With a
second chance at life, the C's went to Walker for the tie.  His drive
fell short, and Potapenko muffed a very good look at a putback.  Final
score Sixers 117- Celts 115. Sigh.

	The stats for the game were exceptionally even.  The Sixers
did have a serious edge in trips to the free throw line at 46-32,
which the Celts made up for with 8-20 shooting on threes.  

Lineups: 
Celts: Anderson, Cheaney, Pierce, Walker, Potapenko
Sixers: Snow, Iverson, Kukoc, Hill, Ratliff

Players:
Pierce: very mixed bag, as Paul (defended for big chunks of the game
by Kukoc) shot 10-25, for 31 points and 8 boards in 38 minutes.  He
was awesome in the 2 OT's before fouling out, scoring 11 points.  It's
ironic that the last second shots in the last 2 games have blotted out
a couple of great clutch shots by Pierce.

Walker: was asleep for most of the game, then was brilliant over the
last 6 minutes of regulation, and then cooled off a bit in the OT, but
still played reasonably well, except for the 0-2 at the foul line.  He
shot just 10-28, and had 14 boards, 9 assists and 6 turnovers (in 52
minutes, though).  I though he set a negative tone for the team early
on when he attempted several unwarranted and hurried outside shots.
He had several exceptional assists in the game.

Anderson: back to his Stevey Kerr imitation.  18 points on 6-11
shooting (4-7 on threes), but just 3 assists in 38 minutes.
Surprisingly, when Cheaney wasn't available to cover Iverson, Pitino
preferred Barros to Anderson.

Potapenko: Probably a career high in rebounds with 18.  Of course,
playing 40 minutes, while picking up just 4 fouls is probably some
kind of personal record also.  Unfortunately he shot just 3-12, and
the Sixers had him well scouted, and didn't leave him open for many
short range jump shots.  Most of his shot were off offensive boards,
and I think Ratliff blocked him a couple of times.  On the last shot,
Vitaly thought there was less time on the clock than there really was,
and rushed the shot.

Cheaney: another very solid job on Iverson, who shot 7-25 and had 6
assists in 52 minutes.  He just played of him by about 4 feet at all
times, and got a hand in his face when he went for the jumper.  The
other Celts did a nice job of clogging the lane when Iverson did get
to the basket, and made the shot difficult without fouling.  Cheany
was able to take advantage of Iverson size a couple of times, as he
scored 11 on 5-7 shooting.

Williams: got 29 minutes with the foul trouble for Pierce, but didn't
get many looks.  Had just 6 points and 5 boards.

Barros: was shooting the ball well early on, but ended up at 3-8.  He
played Iverson several times when Cheaney was on the bench with foul
trouble, and did a pretty good job of staying with him.

Fortson: mysteriously got just 11 minutes, but managed 8 points and 3
boards in that time.  I don't get it.  On a side note, I think the
Celts tried 4 set piece last minute shots in the game (1 of which was
successful).  I think the Vitaly was in the game on each one.  Why
wouldn't you prefer Fortson as the clean up guy to Vitaly?  Seems to
me that with Danny would have a much higher chance of getting the
offensive board and just about as high a chance of putting it back in.
After all, in that situation, you don't care about defense, or using
Vitaly's jumper, which are the 2 main reason to prefer him to Danny.

Griffin: got 12 minutes, Mostly because Cheaney was in foul trouble.

Battie: really an after thought with just 11 minuets. though he did
have 6 boards in that amount of time.

Coaching: not to start anything, but you couldn't help but notice that
the Sixers consistently out executed the Celts in the late stages of
the game last night.  They got good shots on their set pieces, and
were able to do little things like intentionally foul, easily and
quickly.  Certainly a large part of the reason is the Philly
experience (if you think about it, the only  young players they use
are Iverson, and Ratliff: Lynch when healthy).

	It's also interesting, that when Pitino really wants and needs
a win, he abandons the bench.  The Celts really only played 7 guys
last night (Griffin, Fortson and Battie totaled 34 minutes).

Defensive Tactics of Note: maybe someone can answer this for me.  When
teams put a bigger, somewhat slower, defender on Iverson, why doesn't
he just run them off picks and screens?  If the Sixers brought their
center up to set a pick, Cheaney (who's playing off Iverson by 4 feet)
couldn't possibly follow him around a pick.  either the Celts would
have to switch (leaving Potapenko guarding Ivo), or Alan would have an
open jumper.  Are the Celts just daring Iverson to shoot from behind
the screen?

The Celts are now 30-39.  They're in Milwaukee on Sunday at 4:00.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net