Ugh

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

And I was really looking forward to that game...

Several things, but first and foremost... the Celts got where they are by
defending and rebounding. Those are the reasons everyone expected them to be
lousy again this year-there was no real reason to expect them to suddenly be
a good defensive team or good rebounding team. But they have been. So what
did they do last night? They didn't defend or rebound. At all. Hopefully
that's the lesson they take away from this game and not just "we didn't
shoot the ball well." Newsflash: This team never shoots the ball well.
They're at 41 percent for the season, among the worst in the league. If they
want to win, they have to defend and rebound.

Other points... Philly, when healthy, is rock solid. No weaknesses, other
than maybe a little thin on the bench (and not even there when McKie plays
like he did last night)... This game is a little reality check and a
reminder that it's early. Teams like Philly, Milwaukee and Toronto are going
to put it together and remain the best teams in the East... Evil Antoine
appeared, and the 6-for-23 (0-11 on threes) was only part of it. He had four
rebounds. He's been a monster on the boards all season and he has to be for
this team to win. He was a non-factor last night and they got killed up
front... The Celts are falling into a bad habit of waiting for Pierce and/or
Walker to shoot them out of trouble. They do it a lot, but you can't expect
it every game. Last night, instead of digging in on defense to get back in
the game, they just kept waiting for Pierce to start hitting. He had that
brief spurt, but it didn't accomplish much because they didn't really dig in
and stop Philly at the other end.

Finally... the Celts need to get back to consistently doing what got them to
this point...defending and rebounding. Last night wasn't the first
indication of slippage during this streak. They played the same way most of
the game against the Bulls, then pulled the game out down the stretch. I
hope Obie sees it.

Mark