Bos-ATL 2

[Kestas <Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu>]

What a pathetic game for the Celtics. It's not that they weren't trying,
but the effort was somehow always misapplied. Instead of playing tight D,
they were tight on their shots; instead of running hard on fast break, they
were dribbling the basketball hard off their sneakers. 

I think our guys wanted this game too much. There's no question that in the
psychological war with Atlanta, our guys are like the Taliban right now.
Shareef and Terry have been carpet-bombing our front lines, and our
spiritual leaders are in hiding. 'Reef has been demolishing Osama bin
Walker to an extent  grossly belied by the latter's stats. Walker was being
stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey tonight. I think if the two played a
game of one-on-one to 21 right now, 'Toine would lose something like 21-3,
with his lone field goal a threepointer. 

The only guys who showed some spunk were Kenny and Battie. Strickland
fought hard, as always, but shot horribly.  Pierce was visibly angry, but
that didn't translate into a very productive game, the kind we need from
him when JJ's being a rookie and Toine's being daisy-cuttered by
Abdur-Rahim. He did have a very emphatic stuff, but it was a little too
late. I'm not sure why Blount got 21 minutes vs. Pot's 3, given that
interms of basketball IQ, he's somewhere between a moron and an idiot. The
stuff he pulled elicited deep groans from Tommy. At one point the cameras
showed Mike Gorman ruefully shaking his head.    

I didn't think Atlanta could sustain their shooting % from Saturday, and
they didn't. But they hit all the big shots, while our guys couldn't hit
the broad side of a barn. There were airballs, shots that  barely grazed
the rim or just hit the backboard, blocks galore...All in all, our worst
game this season by a wide margin.  
Kestas