First Ex. Game Thoughts

[bird <birdw@aloha.net>]

Celts lose by 36 and Alex was right -- we saw a lot of bad play. 
Then again, the team we put out on the floor wasn't the team we'll 
have in two weeks.  The team looked lousy, but I guess the plan is to 
win the last four exhibition games and just sort of try things and 
look at guys for the first four.  The starting lineup looked like 
this:

Anderson
Carr
Williams
Walker
Potapenko

and the bench (in the order they appeared to come in):

Battie
Jordan
McCarty
Blount
Griffin
Elliot

though Blount and Griffin came into the game during the same timeout, 
I think.  Overall, I'd have to say that I saw a lot of the same 
things I've seen in recent years: the press giving up easy 
layups/dunks, some selfish offensive play, lack of D.  But it's only 
the first exhibition game, and guys like Elliot, Blount and Jordan 
were getting a lot of minutes.

Carr:  Can't play D, but anyone who saw Chicago play last year knew 
that.  Other than that, had some offense, but looked understandably 
lost.  I'm wondering if Stith might give Carr a good run for a non-IR 
roster spot.

Blount:  Looked halfway decent, and had a few nice blocks.  Scored 
something like 10 points but only had 3 rebs I think.  Still, I'm 
cautiously optimistic that he'll turn out to be the best of the 
mediocre big men the team has brought in recently (Riley, Schintzius, 
even Ellison, and a few guys I don't even remember).  It's the first 
time I've seen Blount play, so I wasn't moved one way or the other, 
but he looked, not really big, but fairly solid in a lean frame. 
(Took one shot from the top of the key that just looked pathetic, 
though -- I think that's just a bit out of his range.)

Jordan & Elliot:  I wonder if there's a spot open on the roster for 
one of these guys?  I count that we have fourteen players when they 
all get healthy/are officially part of the team/settle their travel 
plans, and I'd expect Pitino to fill up the full 15-man roster. 
Jordan pushed the ball and passed well; he looked a bit like I had 
hoped Wayne Turner would look like.  Little offense.  Herren's a 
better bet at third-string PG, though, and I doubt four PG's make it. 
Elliot didn't show much, however, but he is 6'8".

The rest of the players looked like they look on some of their worst 
nights.  Walker drove into 3-4 guys and was blocked, Anderson was 
Anderson on an off night (though when he _did_ push the ball, nobody 
ran with him on the break), Potapenko missed some in close and 
fumbled a few passes, Battie was just kinda there.  Eric Williams had 
a nice offensive game, though.

There were a few bright spots, as I saw.  Though neither were 
consistently there, at times the Celts seemed to want to run (with a 
few nice outlet passes by V) and also showed, at times, a willingness 
to pass the ball around.  If they could have doen that all game, they 
might've made it a closer.  They really missed Pierce and probably 
Brown, though.

Moiso:  What's the deal?  You'd think a guy who just got drafted high 
in the first round would settle up his pesky international travel 
obligations pretty early in the summer, so as not to ... oh, I don't 
know, miss the start of training camp and the first pre-season game. 
Or maybe his agent needs to define his job description a bit more, or 
write on the chalkboard 100 times "I will make sure my clients are 
able to legally travel to the country they get paid to play in."

Herren and Stith:  Sounds OK.  Too bad Pack didn't want to play for 
the Celts, and I can understand his reasons, but I say if a guy 
doesn't want to play for the team, take a hike, fella.  (Still, if I 
were him, and it was a team other than the C's, I might've done what 
he did.)  Anyway, Herren might be just what the team needs -- a 
third-string PG to groom for an eventual full-time backup job.  And 
I've already mentioned that Stith might possibly beat out Carr for 
minutes.

Not really a game summary (well, who could do them better than Bill 
Cooper, anyway?) just a few impressions.  Can't wait until the 
regular season starts.

Regards,

Bill