Fine columns at Patriot Ledger

[kevin from singapore <bostonceltics17@yahoo.com>]

SPORTS
CELTICS NOTEBOOK: It's bleak, but Celtics talk about improving
By MIKE FINE
The Patriot Ledger
BOSTON – They've got to hang in there, keep practicing hard, get on a
winning streak and stop the fourth-quarter blood-letting.
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
It's getting stale around here, what with the Boston Celtics unable to
execute down the stretch in game after game, unable to establish a
home-court advantage, and unable to inject themselves back into the
playoff race at this early stage of the season.
"The most important thing right now is that we keep fighting," said
Paul Pierce, who scored 16 points on 4-for-15 shooting in a 100-91
loss to the New York Knicks last night at the FleetCenter. "We know
we'll eventually turn it around. As captain of this team, I definitely
can't get down or be frustrated."
"We've got to continue to work hard," said Bryant Stith (16 points).
"I've been in this situation before (in Denver), but I know we can
break down this wall. It's frustrating. Everyone understands that.
It's a test of character. Perseverance develops real men."
If that's the case, the Celtics are real men. They're just real men
who don't play NBA basketball very well. They've now lost five of
their last six games after an impressive victory at New York, and
they're even 9-10 at the FleetCenter, where they won 26 games last
season. Don't look now, but there are only 22 home games remaining.
"We are nowhere near where we want to be as a team," said Antoine
Walker, who scored a game-high 30 points. "Our execution has been
poor. Only the strong survive. We have to take one game at a time."
And, perhaps, take a course in clichι improvement.
All the talk in the world can't erase the fact that the Celtics have
been unable to execute in the fourth quarter. "Tonight," Walker said,
"we turned the ball over. We tried to create, to get in the lane, but
we turned it over three or four times in a row."
"Yeah, that's frustrating," Pierce said. "Throughout the game we were
in it, and there it goes in the fourth quarter. Teams make
adjustments. Looks that you got in the beginning aren't going to be
there in the end. It's tough for me to figure things out. If I had the
answers, I'd be on the other end of the stick."
Celtics coach Rick Pitino gave Mark Blount his first NBA start, hoping
to use his size and quickness as a defensive deterrent. Blount
finished with three rebounds, two blocks and two points in 18 minutes.
Vitaly Potapenko played 31, scoring nine points with eight rebounds.
"I feel like I did my job," Blount said. "I clogged the middle and
made it easier for Paul and ‘Toine to do what they do best. I just
work hard."
Pitino is enamored with Blount, saying that he, Bryant Stith and Randy
Brown are "wonderful, wonderful learners. They're like sponges, ready
to soak it all in."
Pitino had planned to start Brown at point guard, but changed back to
Kenny Anderson when he learned that Chris Childs would start for the
Knicks. After handing out no assists in 21 minutes in Atlanta,
Anderson had eight last night.
Celts center Tony Battie did not fracture his left ankle when he
landed on the foot of Orlando's Troy Hudson Saturday, but the sprain
is so bad that he'll still be out six to eight weeks …
Chris Herren, recovering from right shoulder surgery, has begun
working on his conditioning …
The Knicks welcomed Marcus Camby back from a four-game absence with a
strained groin. He did it against the Celtics. The Knicks won each of
those four games. "I think it affected my lateral quickness," Camby
said …
Fed up with the media hordes, Stith moved his locker last night. He
was situated between Walker and Pierce, who draw the biggest crowds …
Pitino was extremely frustrated with the officiating of Dee Kantner,
James Capers and Bernie Fryer, but he refused to comment. "Coaches who
comment about officials – that's an act of cowardice," he said.
"Blaming the officials is not what the game is about." He felt that
the refs weren't enforcing recent rules changes.
Copyright 2001 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted January 4, 2001

SPORTS
PRO HOOPS: Upbeat Pitino shows some gallows humor 
Boston's Kenny Anderson finds a way around New York's Chris Childs.
(Associated Press)
By MIKE FINE
The Patriot Ledger
For a dead man, Rick Pitino was in a remarkably upbeat mood early last
evening.
Not only were his Boston Celtics about to absorb a 100-91 FleetCenter
beating by the visiting New York Knicks, and not only was his team
taking yet another step in its own downward death spiral, but the
coach is now the subject of a death watch never before seen in this
town, at least not since Red Auerbach overturned four years of
frustration under Honey Russell and Doggie Julian.
"This game is so strange," said a smiling Pitino, "that I wouldn't be
shocked if we won."
He got that right. The Celtics did beat the Knicks at Madison Square
Garden two weeks earlier, their first victory there in almost eight
years, and they did come back to win another road game, at New Jersey,
on Milt Palacio's miraculous buzzer-beating three-pointer. Indeed,
last night they held a 14-point first-quarter lead, were never far out
of contention later, but, as usual, reverted to their Five Stooges
routine in the fourth quarter, when they were outscored, 27-19.
Since that uplifting triumph in New Jersey, the Celtics had pretty
much stunk out every joint they'd been in – at least in the fourth
quarter – including Tuesday's 11-point loss at Atlanta, where more
beer vendors than fans cared enough to come out and watch them.
Pitino decided to start rookie Mark Blount and veteran Randy Brown
against the Knicks, offering, "if you stay up all night, you can think
about it. I had nothing better to do." He did pregame, anyway,
scratching Brown at the last minute when the Knicks started Chris
Childs.
Pitino is, after all, going down fighting, but this is obviously a
losing proposition for a coach who likes to think he knows what he's
doing while being unable to get his players on the same page.
So when he was asked when his meeting with owner Paul Gaston was to
come off – this is the one where he promised to re-evaluate his future
with the team – he said, "That's an old story. Just wait it out, baby.
I've got to. So do you."
Now, it would be nice to speak to Gaston about this, but the
Connecticut recluse doesn't deign to discuss these matters with the
common folk. Yet, one gets the feeling that the weight of the world
would be off the shoulders of Pitino and his family if the end came
quickly. Word has it that his wife, Joanne, once a fixture at all his
home games, can't stand the sight of the FleetCenter any longer, given
the abuse her husband takes here on a nightly basis. The only boos
heard in the arena last night were for Pitino, during introductions.
Although the Celtics had beaten the Knicks once this season, and
narrowly lost here in overtime, last night was more of the same.
Early lead … stay close throughout ... inability to execute down the
stretch. The Celtics trailed by one entering the final quarter, and by
four with 5:51 remaining. The Knicks finished up by shooting 54
percent and outscoring the home team on the break, 12-0.
Coming in, the Celts had allowed 97.7 points per game (26th in the
league) and a .464 opponents field goal percentage (29th) while
holding only 15 opponents to fewer than 100 points (27th). They were
shooting only .420 (24th) while scoring under 100 24 times (19th).
Last night was No. 25, and the Celtics shot .425.
The Celtics have been a dismal failure down the stretch so often this
season. They've been outscored in the fourth quarter in 19 of 29
games, and 13 of 16 since Nov. 30, when they followed up their first
road victory in Cleveland with a loss at Milwaukee.
Plus, the Celts have been outshot in 24 of 32 games, 14 of 18 since
Nov. 30. Worse, opponents had shot better than .500 in 11 games,
including two each by the Wizards and Hawks.
In a season of promise, when the Celtics should have been growing
comfortably behind Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce, with the additions
of Bryant Stith and Randy Brown, they are going straight down the
tubes of basketball hell.
Instead, both Pierce and Walker are plagued by offensive
inconsistency, and the defense is at times unspeakable. The offense is
such that these players do not understand what a fast break can do,
and why you simply don't pull up to take a three-pointer on the break.
Ball movement is atrocious. Last night, the Celtics took 23 shots
after making only one pass after advancing from midcourt. Many other
games have been worse.
"Ninety percent of the time we played very intelligent," said a
considerably more somber Pitino afterwards. "We gave it everything we
could give it, but I don't take away anything positive from losses.
We're doing the best we can do. We're fighting. We were in a situation
to win. We're not hanging our heads. We've had adversity, and we're
fighting through it, but we need a victory."
Yet, the Celtics are 12-20 and falling fast. They've got a chance to
stop the bleeding tomorrow when they host Golden State, but that's
what they said when the Bulls and Grizzlies came to town. That's what
they said when they went to Atlanta.
After the Warriors, they're at Miami Saturday, and while they then
host three straight home games, they're against Portland, Miami and
Toronto, which precedes four straight out West.
Perhaps that's when Pitino will have his sit down with Gaston. Perhaps
when he leaves for the coast Jan. 14, it'll be the last time he's seen
in Boston.
Still, the coach was in rare form before this one. Asked about
Walker's poor three-point shooting, 21-for-73 (.288), since the Dec.
13 loss to Chicago (and before last night's 3-for-5 performance),
Pitino said, "No comment." Then he thought for a moment. "Why didn't I
learn that four years ago? Why did it take me so long to get smart?"
Yes, he's still got a sense of humor. Gallows humor.
Copyright 2001 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted January 4, 2001