No Subject

	Things looked good for the Celts at the start.  They were
concentrating on making the extra pass, and seemed to be outhustling
the Magic.  Potapenko was the recipient of a number of fine passes,
and Eric Williams was making a nice contribution in the starting role.
In fact Williams was playing so well that Pitino left him in the game
after he had picked up his second foul.  Eric rewarded Ricks faith by
picking up his 3rd foul of the game with 5:00 to go in the first
quarter.  Meanwhile, though, Ron Mercer was keeping the Magic in the
game with some strong outside shooting.   The Celts went ahead 20-18
on a really sweet behind the back pass to Walker from Pierce.  The
score was tied at 24-24 with 3:00 to go.  The C's got a boost from
Adrian Griffin with 2 conventional 3 point plays, and Overton put back
a Battie miss as the buzzer sounded to give the Celts a 32-24 lead.
On the second of those three point plays by Griffin, Darrell Armstrong
picked up a technical, when he protested too vociferously that Griffin
had warded him off going to the basket.

	The Celts continued to play fluidly on offense at the start of
the second, especially Dana Barros.   The tide peaked for the Celts
when Barros hit Walker for a three pointer to put the Celts up 43-40.
I thought that at this point, Wallace and Outlaw reentered the game
with greatly heightened defensive intensity.  Chucky Atkins came off
the bench to supply some offense for the Magic.  They really turned
the tide of the game by blocking just about any shot the Celts tried
to take within 5 feet of the basket. At the same time, the Magic began
to dominate the offensive board..  The Celts were still leading by 7
with 4:00 to go in the quarter, when the Magic got a 10-0 run to take
the lead.  The Celts got a 3 from Griffin and a floater From Barros to
temporarily stem the tide, and they took a 52-50 lead into the half. 

	For some reason, after Mercer got called for a foul on
Potapenko, Armstrong picked up his second technical of the game, and
was ejected.  In quick succession, Doc Rivers also picked up a T.
Barros hit both free throws (Kenny had picked up his 4th foul of the
game a few moments earlier), to give the C's the 54-50 lead.  Atkins
and Mercer were put in the backcourt together, and they combined to
power the Magic on a 19-0 run (Atkins 10, Mercer 7).  Outlaw and
Wallace continued to do their thing on defense and on the boards.  At
this point, despite the C's only trailing by 15 (69-54), the game was
over.  The Magic were playing so much better, and harder than the
Celts, that Boston had no chance of reversing the trend.  The Magic
continued to pour it on, and led 91-63 at the end of the quarter.

	Pretty much garbage time in the 4th.  Bo Outlaw scored the
100th point for the Magic and put the finishing touches on a triple
double, with 9:00 to go.  The Magic set some kind of NBA record as
they forced the Celts into a 24 second violation, up by 33 points with
3:13 to go (that's how hard they played).  The final was 122-87.

     What does it mean, when the leading scorers for the Celts are
Barros, Griffin and Potapenko?  The C's shot .370 to the Magic's .553.
Each team had 13 offensive boards, which doesn't sound that bad, until
you realize that the Celts missed 58 shots while the Magic only blew
38.  The Celts shot 4-18 on threes.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Pierce, Williams, Walker, Potapenko
Magic: Armstrong, Mercer, Outlaw, Amechie, Wallace

Players:
Walker: I thought that Toine got off to a pretty good start tonight,
as he was really concentrating on passing the ball, and finding good
shots.  He wasn't hitting too well himself, but I figured that would
come.  He also maee a couple of reaaly nice steals.  Instead, though,
when the defensive intensity on the part of the Magic went up, Toine
disappeared.  He ended up the game with 5 points (2-11), 5 boards and
5 assists in 32 minutes.  Not one personal foul, by the way.  He shot
1-4 on threes.

Pierce: weird game for Pierce. Had a very tough time with the J,
hitting just 0-2 on threes.  He had just 8 points and 4 assists in 37
minutes.  On the other hand, I thought he was the only one of the
Celts starters who stuck his nose in and continued to compete, when
the Orlando onslaught hit.  He gave it the full effort on defense, and
came away with 4 blocks in the game.  I suppose that people will say
he didn't do as good a job of defense on Mercer, but I think it was
more a case or Ron being on tonight, and not in foul trouble (of
course we gave him credit when Mercer had bad nights earlier in the
year, so ....).

Anderson: was in foul trouble for a lot of the game, and just no
factor at all. Had 6 points, 3 assists and 6 fouls in 23 minutes.

Williams:  got off to a good start, but he began to miss on the jumper
and got smothered every time he brought the ball inside.  7 points,
and 6 fouls in 20 minutes.

Potapenko: also got off to a good start, and wilted when the going got
tough.  Ended up with a respectable 10 points and 10 boards in 26
minutes, but that all came early.  Just wasn't quick enough for a game
like this.

Barros: hitting the mid range jumper, and took good advantage of the
Magic tenancy to rush the 3 point arc.  Hit on 8-16 for 19 points, and
had 2 assists in 26 minutes.  He was pretty much hopeless against
Atkins though, who had 21 points in 17 minutes.

Griffin: his scoring outburst (11 points) was more good fortune than
anything.  He also had 3 assists and 6 boards in 26 minutes.

Fortson: 7 points, but 0 rebounds (!) in 12 minutes.  Against the
quick leapers he wasn't much use.

Battie: also shut out on the boards with 3 points in 12 minutes.

Overton: got some minutes when Kenny was in foul trouble, and Dana
couldn't handle Atkins (and due to Pitino's weird handling of
Cheaney).  Had 4 points.

McCarty: played the last 16 minutes of the game, and jacked up the
ball every single time he touched it within 25 feet of the basket
(well, not quite, he had 2 assists).  3-10 for 7 points.

Cheaney: I really don't get this about Rick.  I mean Cheaney was good
enough to start the last 10 games or so.  Clearly the question of who
get's the 5th starting spot is pretty marginal, but what did Calbert
do to get benched for the first 45 minutes of the game?  He got the
last 3 minutes, when the contest was totally over.

Coaching: I thought that the Magic (whether by design, I don't know)
took advantage of one of the Celts biggest weaknesses: their desire to
take a night off.  After the Celts got that 13 points lead, they let
up, and the Magic starters came out on to the floor with renewed
intensity at exactly the wrong (for the Celts) time.  I think that
some of the press reports will probably say that the Magic rallied
after Armstrong got T'd out of the game, and I'm sure that it didn't
hurt their motivation.  But remember that in the 8 minutes prior to
the ejection they had outscored the Celts 17-9, and I suspect they
were about to take control of the game anyway.

The Celts are now 30-41.  They're off until Friday night, when the
host the Wizards.

Bill Cooper