RE: Antoine's game vs. Minnesota

["Sampath, Venkatesh" <Venkatesh.Sampath@microcell.ca>]

Hi Joe, 
     I think you've captured this on-again, off-again feeling that Walker gives us (as does Pierce). There are some nights when they play electrifying basketball and others when they simply vanish into thin air. The game they played against New York (in New York) was one where they were firing on all cylinders - and then they accumulate a string of losses. 

Bird, Jordan, Magic Johnson, etc., were successful on a regular basis because they:
1) Had the drive, the hunger, the need, to win
2) Were sufficiently intelligent to realise when one facet of their game wasn't working, to do something else and recoup that facet by the fourth quarter.   

I would say that Walker and Pierce are beginning to acquire the hunger (hell, when you're 20 years old and a millionaire with an iron-clad contract, where is the drive going to come from) and perhaps the intelligence to work other facets of their game when their shooting isn't working. Maturity can only come with time (lots of it in their case, looks like!). 

venkat

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Hironaka [mailto:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
Sent: 16 January 2001 11:29
To: Sampath, Venkatesh; celtics@igtc.com
Subject: Re: Antoine's game vs. Minnesota


"Sampath, Venkatesh" wrote:

> Certainly hope so. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see him fade away a little over the next couple of games - specially against Sacramento.

It could go either way, but at least Walker seems to acknowledge that his game is off. In today's Herald, he tells Bulpett:

``The two days off really hurt me,'' Walker said. ``I had a lot of balls go in and out. I didn't have the bounce in my legs that I've been having. Hopefully with a good practice (today), I'll get my legs back and won't shoot this bad against Sacramento (tomorrow).''

It is worth noting that while Antoine is hardly a 2001 All Star or has much trade value, he does rank all alone in second place in triple doubles with three, which among other things is more than Garnett, Odom and Webber combined (two). He's also done it against non-pushover opponents in Charlotte, Indy and Minnesota. Last night was his second 12 assist game this season.

On the other hand, while I can recall bad shooting nights for Larry Bird I can't remember any 6-26 games where he follows a 1-11 first half by actually going out and taking even more attempts (15) in the second. This didn't even happen when Bird was the same age as Walker as a rookie.

I love Walker still but I'm confounded by how his obvious intelligence still leaves such room for gaping flaws and fugliness in his game. Doesn't he know when to quit when he's 1-8 on three pointers? Can't he think of a new approach to driving at the basket, after repeatedly getting his shot slammed back in the face before it even leaves his fingertips? This is one area where I just don't see any light at the end of the tunnel, despite his young age.

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Jim O'Brien's first four opponents have very quietly been contained to .431 shooting (128-297) since the hollering stopped on the sidelines and the chicken outbreak got simplified. Although O'Brien is in a hopeless situation with the worst part of the schedule lying ahead, the exciting thing so far is that the past four opponents are all above .500. In fact they were a combined 27 games over .500 and feature marquee, unstoppable players like Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace
etc. while the Celts have had two starters out and a very thin bench. Next up, Sacramento. Yikes! Pierce and Walker could each pitch a perfect game and we still might end up losing. That's basically what happened once against Indiana I think when Pierce had 29 and Walker had a triple.