Wednesday "Deer Hunting"

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

The Central division front-running Milwaukee Bucks (28-17), led by their
two All Stars and the always dynamic Sam Cassell, hammered the
Pacemakers on Saturday in a 19-point blow up.

Boston face the redhot Bucks on a back-to-back (the Bucks play
Sacramento tonight), but a victory will still represent a watershed for
the '01 edition. George Karl's teams have toyed with Poultrino's chicken
outbreak defense over the years (I remember they even beat us once
despite being in a bad slump and having three of their five leading
scorers out).

(Of course, Indiana had also boasted an impossibly long string of
success against us, which Obie's boys summarily put an end to last
week.)

Milwaukee is a bonafide New Year juggernaut with a 12-4 record to date,
and a casual 10-2 over the last dozen games. They've accomplished this
against a soft schedule similar to what Boston faced  in the first third
of this season (but failed to capitalize on). The most noteworthy Bucks'
triumphs have come against the Knicks, Dallas and Indiana at home. But
they've won mostly with ease rather than luck, and seem nearly flawless
in terms of the quality and experience of their frontline talent.

Meanwhile Boston is on an only slightly less notable 9-4 run, featuring
whupass on Miami, Minnesota, Phoenix and Indiana. If Milwaukee lets
their guard down on Wednesday in anticipation of another Poultrino
Chicken Run, they will be made to pay. Our two young captains will go
gunning for the Bucks on Wednesday like De Niro and Walken in "Deer
Hunting".

Ever since Pierce and Walker dropped 42 and 47 on Minnesota and
Sacramento respectively to announce the Obie era, they've been on a
scoring tear that few of the 24 All Stars can match. "Wazzzabi" Pierce
has gone for 40 and 39 already in the month of February. Antoine has led
the team in scoring 4 times since the Sacramento game, including 36 over
the weekend.

If you assume Walker+Pierce must be the only able-bodied players
contributing anywhere near double figures in our lopsided offense, you
might be surprised. Throbbing digit and all, Bryant Stith has scored 11
a game against the past four opponents, including .428 on threes (6-14),
with a nice 4.5 boards and 3.0 assists. Eric Williams, in addition to
replacing yap dog on the sidelines as our defensive signal caller, is
averaging 11 points per game over an even longer stretch (eight games).

Even more quietly, backup center Vitaly Potapenko has led the Celtics in
rebounding in three of the past four games, as well as six times since
the New Year. Did you know he's averaging 7.9 rebound in the past nine
games of the Obie era?

All season, Miracle Milt and Chris Carr have chipped in at every
opportunity with a .492 and .500 field goal percentage off the bench.
Milt is shooting an even .1000% from 40+ feet. :-)

Rookie Mark Blount, who along with Walker and Pierce has been viewed as
the biggest beneficiary of the Obie regime, has clearly been a
statistical factor on defense (2.2 blocks per game in the five games
leading up to the Raptors game) while still working on the rest of his
game. In the 14 games under O'Brien, he's been held to 2 points or less
a remarkable five times (and to just 4 points in an additional three
games). Overall, he's averaging a gaudy 3.8 personal fouls and 5.1 ppg
per game in the Obie era.

Moving on to our red hot opponent the Milwaukee Bucks, while they
feature arguably the most dangerous "Big Three" skill players in the NBA
right now with Robinson, Allen and Cassell (60.7ppg, 14.8 assists, 16.4
boards, 4.1 steals), they actually feature the depth of five scorers
averaging above 11.2 ppg (with Tim Thomas and shooter Lindsay Hunter).

The next leading scorers on the roster after that are Jason "Tea or"
Caffey (6.8ppg) and Darvin "Green Eggs &" Ham (6.0ppg).

The Bucks are also a "donut" team (no center) with Mark Pope (28 starts,
2.3ppg), Joel Pryzbilla (10 starts, 0.6ppg on a .261FG%) and Ervin
Johnson (6 starts, 3.0 ppg) in the pivot. Call it the "Curse of Kareem."

Go you '01 Celts!

--------