The Williams duo etc.

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

For one of the first times I've seen, Eric Williams made 
several outstanding individual defensive plays (steals 
off the dribble etc.), to augment his reputation as a 
great "team" defensive player. He had an outstanding 
weekend for the C's, to say the least.

Meanwhile Shammond Williams' struggles continued, and he 
got schooled by Charlie Ward on two occasions. 

Opposition defenses seem to have found away to take his 
open looks away. 

To wit, Shammond has been held to less than half his 
scoring average in the past six games, on 9-30 shooting 
(.300). 

Those numbers resemble the Seattle stats that landed him 
on the bench. I guess I'm typical fatalistic Boston fan, 
but I hope the bubble doesn't pop (like it eventually did 
for Adrian Griffin and Joe Johnson after equally 
promising starts).

But here's something I noticed (maybe others have too) in 
the six-game slump. To Shammond's great credit, he has 
had three games with 5 or more assists in that span, to 
the tune of an outstanding 4:1 assist-turnover ratio.

Moreover, at least on one night, Vin Baker thankfully 
held up his side of the so far lopsided Seattle trade, 
which has been good for a nightly 16+ ppg added to 
Boston's rotation. 

Whatever direction Shammond's season takes after his 
fantastic start, at least we look solid at that position 
when Tony Delk is on the floor. And I do think Shammond 
will start making his shots again. 

The other notable slump trend is Antoine Walker's free 
throws. Its brutal to watch from game to game. He's 28-55 
in the past 11 games.

And he's been a bit of a showboat with his passing too, 
averaging 4.5 turnovers so far this month, compared to 
barely 3 per game prior to December. 

He hasn't been so much sloppy as more risk-taking. In 
fact, if I didn't notice the turnover stats, I'd say he 
is more of a dangerous weapon than ever with his passing.

I'm sure he picked up a few All Star votes in New York 
last night, and he made a number of slick passes that 
weren't assists even if he didn't record another triple.

(He did get his 13th career triple on Friday the 13th, 
which is kind of cool I suppose.)

Walker's passing is erratic but dazzling, like LeBron 
James in that ESPN game. Both guys have a similar way of 
flicking blind alley passes with great velocity, using 
only wrist action. 

It doesn't excuse his FT shooting, which is a genuinely 
troubling trend, but Antoine is on another huge December 
tear in terms of his FG shooting. 

In the last five games, Walker has shot .482 (54/112) and 
upped his scoring to 28.0 ppg. He's a player of the week 
candidate, going into tonight.

Another positive trend - Paul Pierce's inexplicable early 
ballhandling woes seem to be largely behind him, if you 
ask me. I haven't really thought about or noticed the 
problem in quite some time....maybe a few weeks? 

For Pierce, this year's Knicks have been much like last 
year's regular season Nets. They are a slump breaker. He 
has scored at will against them, for whatever reason.

I'm not sure what's going on with the "Sundov Music" 
experiment. 

Sundov, who to his shame is not close to Vin's level on 
defense, again got rotated in twice by Obie with the 
regulars. 

In his favor, Bruno does have a nice outside shot, which 
he is far too hesitant about taking, plus he has been a 
solid tip-in artist unless the paint gets really crowded. 
But his footwork isn't good at all, on either end.

On defense, I can't imagine Sundouche blocking or 
altering shots, in part because his defensive intensity 
still seems 50% below everyone else so far including 
Baker or Kedrick. He plays defense as though he was just 
added to the Boston roster yesterday. 

But he is tall and great for offensive spacing. I don't 
fully understand Obie's thinking.

Meanwhile, I get the sense that the Celtics vets play a 
bit of keep-away from Kedrick. In his first game back a 
week ago, Walker and others basically ignored him when he 
was open on the perimeter, perhaps out of solidarity with 
Walt, whose playing time is at stake. Frankly, I can 
understand that. As long as we're winning, every member 
of the eight man rotation deserves to play.

Maybe it's a Kentucky thing (including Obie). 

Kedrick's never going to impress anyone playing four 
minutes of garbage time with Bremer running the point. 
Everyone will be looking for their own shot, and that's 
not really his thing. 

I actually think the scorekeeper was generous in giving 
his four minutes. It seemed like less than that. 
Considering that Pierce definitely did something to his 
knee (the replays clearly show it buckled), I can't see 
why Obie kept the starters in there so long with a 25-
point lead. Kedrick was basically the last guy off the 
bench. But we won the game, which is all that matters.

Joe H.










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