Various articles

[kevin <bostonceltics17nojunkmailplease@yahoo.com>]

Boston roadblock doesn't force Nets to downshift

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Chris Palmer
ESPN the Magazine


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Run. And do it often. That's how the New Jersey Nets feel their
improbable season will continue. If they simply run.

For the better part of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, they did just that and
nearly blew the Celtics back to Boston with a 104-97 victory. During the regular season,
the Nets were the league's top fastbreak team getting about 17 points per game on the run.
In the first quarter alone, they had 13.

"That's who we are," Jason Kidd said. "We're a running team. All we wanted to do tonight
was play to our strengths."

On Boston's first possession, Kidd grabbed a rebound and spotted Kerry Kittles streaking
up the left sideline. He quickly zipped him a pass and Kittles, who has become one of the
game's best finishers, threw down a two-handed stuff. Two plays later, Kittles got loose
on the right sideline. Kidd found him on his radar and delivered another surgical pass,
and this time, Kittles decided to flush it with one hand.

One hand or two, the Nets already have firm control of the wheel thanks to their running
game.

"We are going to run, period," Nets head coach Byron Scott said. "I never understood why
people say it boils down to halfcourt basketball in the playoffs. Why? We're not going to
change our game plan just because this is the playoffs."

Kidd is obviously the key to the Nets' fastbreak. But look a bit deeper and see how the
break really gets started. It all starts with the boxing-out of Kenyon Martin, Todd
MacCulloch and Aaron Williams. When they box out properly, it allows Kidd to get inside
for easy rebounds. It's one of the overlooked reasons Kidd gets so many rebounds. And when
he grabs a board he sparks the Nets' break instantaneously.

 " I've always said that a Jason Kidd rebound is an instant fastbreak. But give our big
guys credit first for boxing out. " 
  - Byron Scott 

"I've always said that a Jason Kidd rebound is an instant fastbreak," Scott said. "But
give our big guys credit first for boxing out."

But the big fellas got into the act on the other end, too. Late in the first quarter, Kidd
tossed an impossible pass to Martin that looked like a sure turnover. Somehow, Martin
grabbed it out of the air and touch-passed it to (who else?) Kerry Kittles. Was that the
Kidd influence?

"Not really," Martin said. "I've been an unselfish player all my life. That's just me out
there making plays."

Maybe. But Martin won't argue with Kidd's ability to set him up when he goes back door.
"Oh, no question about that," Martin said.

Richard Jefferson, one of Kidd's biggest fans, can clearly see Kidd's impact. "He just
makes us go," Jefferson said. "He's the best I've ever played with."

No pass was sweeter than the no-look oop he tossed to Jefferson to slam home the nail in
the fourth quarter. But even Jefferson has become spoiled by Kidd's greatness day in and
day out. Despite the rare conference finals triple-double of 18 points, 13 rebounds and 11
assists by Kidd, Jefferson has seen better.

"It wasn't his best game," Jefferson said with a smile. "Maybe he'll do something about in
Game 2."

Whatever it is, Richard, keep your hands up.

Chris Palmer is a staff writer for ESPN the Magazine.


Celtics without center's services 

Monday, May 20, 2002

By Bill Doyle
Telegram & Gazette Staff 


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Celtics backup center Vitaly Potapenko not only won't return
during these playoffs, he probably won't be ready for the start of next season after
undergoing knee surgery Saturday.
     Potapenko slightly tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the
Celtics' regular-season finale April 17, but the team waited a month before deciding to
operate.
     "Generally when somebody has an ACL tear, they don't operate right away anyway,"
Celtics coach Jim O'Brien said. "They let it settle down and let the swelling go down and
we wanted to use that time to find out if he could progress to the point where we could
use him in this series or the next if we could get there, and it didn't work out."
     Potapenko is scheduled to begin rehabilitation today, but recovery time is expected
to be six to eight months. Six months would enable him to return in two to three weeks
after the 2002-2003 season begins, but he would have to miss all of training camp. That's
the best-case scenario.
     Team physician Dr. Arnold Scheller performed the surgery at New England Baptist
Hospital.
     The Celtics can't replace Potapenko on the playoff roster. They could have activated
forward Roshown McLeod or rookie guard Joseph Forte if they placed Potapenko on the
injured list prior to the playoffs, but neither of them would have played much, if at all,
anyway.
     The Celtics didn't miss the 6-foot-10, 285-pound Potapenko against the smaller
Pistons, but they could have used him last night against Todd MacCulloch, New Jersey's
7-foot center. Tony Battie couldn't handle MacCulloch so Mark Blount had to come off the
bench to play him in the second quarter. MacCulloch tied his career playoff-high with 14
points. 



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Series is historic
     Last night's game marked a few firsts. It was the first time the Nets played in a
conference final. It was the first time Boston and New Jersey ever met in the playoffs.
(Toronto is the only remaining Eastern Conference team the Celtics have never faced in the
postseason.) It was also the first time two teams met in the Eastern Conference finals
after not making the playoffs the year before. The only other time two non-playoff teams
met the following year in a conference final was when the Lakers played the Blazers in the
1977 Western Conference final.
     The last time the Celtics won a conference final without homecourt advantage was in
1969 when they beat the Knicks in Bill Russell's final season. Russell, a Celtics
consultant, attended last night's game. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game 2 tomorrow
     Game 2 of the conference finals will be at 8:30 p.m. tomorrow here at the Continental
Airlines Arena before the best-of-seven series moves to Boston for 5:30 p.m. games on
Saturday and Memorial Day. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goals not met
     Prior to the game, O'Brien set these goals and his team failed to attain any of them:
"We have to keep them out of transition, not let (Jason) Kidd run wild. He's great in the
open court and they have great wings that fill the lanes and finish. We have to do a
consistent job on the glass. We have to be prepared for anything, zone, trapping of Paul
(Pierce), one-on-one with Paul, different players on Paul. We've worked hard to try to
anticipate anything New Jersey can give us."
     Kidd had a triple-double. The Nets dominated the boards, 49-38. Pierce scored 27, but
only 13 after the first quarter. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foul-shooting woes
     The Celtics shot only 65.5 percent (19 of 29) from the foul line. They were 8 of 16
in he fourth quarter. Prior to last night, they had been shooting 82.8 percent during the
postseason.
     "We got to go practice," said Antoine Walker, who made 5 of 6. "That's all you can
do."
     "It's not a major concern," O'Brien said. "We practice them enough, but it was just
one of those games where they didn't fall."
     New Jersey made 25 of 28 at the line (89.3 percent). 

Monday, May 20, 2002



Jason terrorizes Boston 

Monday, May 20, 2002

By Bill Doyle
Telegram & Gazette Staff 


Nets 104 Celtics 97
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Yes, Jason Kidd and the Nets drove the Celtics nuts for much of
last night's 104-97 New Jersey victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
     Kidd did indeed record the first triple-double in Nets playoff history -- 18 points,
a career-high 13 rebounds and 11 assists.
     It's true that New Jersey scored 20 more points than the Celtics had been allowing in
the postseason.
     The Nets certainly enjoyed a 48-20 edge in the paint and a 35-15 advantage off the
bench.
     And while the Nets may not have made Paul Pierce eat his words about no one being
able to stop him, he couldn't have liked the taste of Boston's defeat.
     But guess what? The Celtics still insist they're in great shape.
     "We feel good about this game to tell you the truth, even though we lost," said
Pierce after scoring 27 points, 10 below his regular-season average against New Jersey.
"We know we didn't play our best basketball. We still kept it within range of coming back
and we didn't even play a lick of defense."
     "Our defense is not going to play many games like that," Eric Williams said. "We take
their best offensive game and our worst defensive game and still have a chance to win.
It'll be a better game next game."
     "This ain't nothing," Kenny Anderson said. "Game 2 is what I'm worrying about. This
was just like a practice run."
     Game 2 is at 8:30 p.m. tomorrow back here at the Continental Airlines Arena.
     Pierce picked up his third foul early in the second half, then 16 seconds later he
bulled into Kidd on a drive and was whistled for his fourth foul with 7:10 left in the
third. He went to the bench with Boston trailing, 63-58. By the time he returned to start
the fourth quarter, the Nets had increased their lead to 81-68 in large part by limiting
Boston to 7 of 24 (29.2 percent) shooting in the third.
     Richard Jefferson's layup early in the fourth stretched the advantage to 85-68.
     The Celtics rallied to pull within six, 99-93, on a Pierce foul shot with 1:21 left,
but he missed his other attempt at the line and Walker was off the mark on a 3-pointer
that would have cut the deficit to three with 39 seconds to go. Boston missed half of its
16 foul shots in the fourth quarter and 10 in all.
     Pierce scored 14 points in the first quarter, but only five over the next two. He
played only 38 minutes because of foul trouble and hurt the Celtics by making just 7 of 13
free throws.
     "They played me with a lot of different people," Pierce said. "They played me pretty
much straight up for most of the game. I wasn't really out there on the court to take
advantage of opportunities because I was in foul trouble."
     "He didn't have the type of flurry that he had in the previous four games and that is
the one thing that we really wanted to take away, the fact that all of a sudden he hits
for 20 points in one quarter," Nets coach Byron Scott said. "He never did get to the point
where he was just coming down and scoring at will."
     Antoine Walker also scored 27 points, but made only 9 of 23 field goals. Anderson had
12 points and Williams 10. Rodney Rogers made only one 3-pointer off the bench and scored
just seven points before fouling out.
     Kidd led seven Nets in double-figure scoring and Kenyon Martin came within a point of
making it eight. Todd MacColloch tied his career playoff-high with 14 points. Kerry
Kittles and Keith Van Horn also had 14. Aaron Williams, Lucious Harris and Jefferson each
scored 10.
     New Jersey shot 49.4 percent despite making only 8 of 20 shots in the fourth quarter.
Boston had limited opponents to 84.2 points and 39.7 percent shooting prior to last night.
     At times, the Celtics didn't load up on Kidd when he drove and he made them pay.
     "Usually we're good at that, but tonight we were just awful," Anderson said. "Taking
nothing away from Kidd, but I could do that against Chucky Atkins. We got to load because
everybody in the league can penetrate. You got to load. They load to me when I penetrate."
     On other occasions, the Celtics paid too much attention to Kidd.
     "They have a complicated offense, a lot of motion, a lot of movement," Pierce said.
"You get so concentrated on Kidd coming off pick and rolls and guys slashing that we
forget our principles. There were a number of times we let them cut backdoor because we
were focused in on Kidd and we can't do that."
     The Celtics also lost the opener of the previous round in Detroit, 96-84, and allowed
the Pistons to shoot 50.6 percent before sweeping the next four games and holding Detroit
under 40 percent in each. The Celtics had less than 48 hours to prepare for Detroit after
eliminating Philadelphia, however. They had five days to get ready for New Jersey. They
certainly didn't make very good use of them. 




Napping Vs. Kidd
 Jason Rules Opener

May 20, 2002 
By JEFF GOLDBERG, Courant Staff Writer 

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- After his team finished practice the day before eliminating the
Pistons from the playoffs, Celtics coach Jim O'Brien said the one thing he would never
tolerate was allowing an opponent easy looks in the paint.

Detroit never got those looks, and the Celtics won the Eastern Conference semifinal series
in five games. But on Sunday, the New Jersey Nets became O'Brien's worst nightmare, and
the Celtics came to realize very quickly that they weren't in Auburn Hills anymore.

Taking their lead from a spectacular performance by Jason Kidd, the Nets shredded the
Celtics defense, leading by as many as 17 in a wire-to-wire 104-97 victory in Game 1 of
the conference finals at Continental Airlines Arena.

It was the first conference final game played in New Jersey, and the crowd of 20,049
roared with approval after each of the many pretty plays executed by the Nets, who host
Game 2 Tuesday.

"Offensively, we probably played one of our better games all season long," Nets coach
Byron Scott said. "I thought we ran our offense extremely efficiently tonight. Our guys
were loose, and ready to play."

Kidd posted a triple-double with 18 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists as the Nets shot
49.4 percent from the field and outscored the Celtics 48-20 in the paint. In 10 previous
playoff games, the Celtics had allowed an average of 24.8 points inside. The Nets had 28
at halftime.

The Nets had 23 assists on 38 field goals and placed seven players in double figures.
Keith Van Horn, Kerry Kittles and Todd MacCulloch each had 14 points. Aaron Williams,
Lucious Harris and Anthony Johnson had 10. It was only the second time in the playoffs the
Celtics allowed their opponent to break 100 points.

"Their offense was certainly better than what we had to offer at the defensive end,"
O'Brien said. "When Kidd rebounds the basketball, they're as good as there is in getting
from one end to the other. It hurt us. Their speed and quickness was an issue all game for
us."

Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce each had 27 points to lead the Celtics, but for Pierce, the
total provides little insight into his struggles.

Pierce averaged 37 points against the Nets in the regular season and led the league in
fourth-quarter scoring. Sunday, Pierce had 13 points after the first quarter and played
just 17 minutes in the second half because of foul trouble.

Pierce had eight points in the fourth, but missed five free throws in the final 7:37. The
misses proved costly as the Celtics, who trailed by 17 with 9:58 left, closed to six with
1:21 remaining, but got no closer. The Celtics shot 19-for-29 from the free throw line,
11-for-17 in the fourth.

Walker hit a three-pointer to cut New Jersey's lead to 99-92 with 1:41 left. Pierce made
one of two free throws with 1:21 left, and after a New Jersey miss, the Celtics had a
chance to cut it to three. But Walker missed an open three-pointer with 40 seconds left,
and Richard Jefferson tracked down the rebound and was fouled with 37.5 left.

"We made the run," Walker said. "We just didn't make shots when we had them. We missed
some timely free throws that could have easily closed the gap and made it easier for us,
but that happens sometimes."

Kidd set the tone for the game from the outset, collecting assists on the Nets' first
three field goals, including a pair of fastbreak dunks, as New Jersey took a 6-0 lead 1:21
in. From there, the Nets continually found cutters behind the defense for backdoor layups
and slams.

The most emphatic example came with 1:58 left in the third, when Kidd started a fastbreak,
pulled up at the top of the key and fired a no-look, alley-oop pass to Jefferson for an
easy dunk. The hoop made it 79-66 and two free throws completed an 8-0 run.

"We did not stop the transition," Celtics forward Eric Williams said. "They got a lot of
easy points. They got a lot of layups. We got out of stride a little bit on defense. We'll
make the adjustments, and it will be different next game."

Potapenko Out 6 Months

Celtics center Vitaly Potapenko is expected to be out at least six months after
arthroscopic knee surgery Saturday for an ACL injury sustained in the last game of the
regular season.

Potapenko averaged 4.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 17 minutes in 79 games.

Wire report included

Pierce, Celtics Let Nets In The Backdoor

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - His game was short-sheeted by fouls and foul shooting. His team
was sliced and diced in transition, beaten badly in the paint and off the boards and just
as badly off the bench. Not since, well, not since Tennessee's Pat Summitt was turned into
Orange Julius by Geno Auriemma in the 2000 NCAA women's final have we seen a team so
exploited by backdoor plays in such an important game.

If the Celtics played any worse in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals,
particulary at the defensive end, Paul Pierce evidently would have been downright
ecstatic.

"We feel good about this game, to tell you the truth," Pierce said Sunday night after the
Celtics fell 104-97 at Continental Airlines Arena. "We know we didn't play our best
basketball. We kept it within range of coming back the whole game and we didn't even play
a lick of defense tonight."

Heading into The Qualifying Series To Get Bashed by Shaq and Kobe, there were so many
questions about how the Nets will stop Pierce that we forgot how to ask two important
questions.

How will the Celtics stop the Nets?

And how will Pierce stop himself?

By the time they had finished with the Detroit Pistons, so much glory was being heaped on
the Celtics defense, you would have thought they were dressing a backcourt of Ty Law and
Lawyer Milloy. And by the time Pierce had finished talking the other day, one would have
thought he was only warming up with his 37-point average in four regular season games
against the Nets.

"They don't really have anyone that can defend me," Pierce said. "I think I'm one of the
toughest players in the league to stop when I get going and there is nothing really
anybody can do about it."

Oh, yes there is. Pierce can do something about it.

He proved he could stop himself with two fouls within 16 seconds in the third quarter. He
proved he could kill any chance of a dramatic comeback by missing five foul shots. Pierce
came out and scored 14 points in the first quarter. There was one step-back three-point
bomb over Lucious Harris that looked so much like Larry Bird it was frightening. He was on
his way to 40 and there wasn't a thing the Nets could do.

"We're not going to expend all our energy on trying to shut Pierce down, it's not going to
happen," Nets coach Byron Scott said. "Pierce is going to get his 27 points every night,
because he's the type of guy that can go off for 40. He didn't have the type of flow he
had in the previous four games against us. That's what we wanted to happen. He never got
to the point where he was scoring at will."

Celtics coach Jim O'Brien shrugged and said, good grief, he did get 27.

Twenty-seven is a giddy total for most athletes, but Pierce isn't most athletes. He's the
man who the Nets cannot stop. Not to mention that on the other end, Jason Kidd, the man
who the Celtics cannot stop, produced the Nets' first-ever playoff triple-double. He had
18 points and 11 assists to go with a career-high 13 rebounds. As Keith Van Horn says,
Kidd gets a rebound and starts a fastbreak all by himself.

The Nets ran Kenyon Martin, Harris, Richard Jefferson, half of Jersey at Pierce. But, sure
enough, it was Kidd who stepped in and drew an offensive charge on Pierce. That changed
everything. Pierce had just picked up his third foul on defense and was still stewing when
he drove to the basket.

"My thing was to get over there, help, and maybe he kicks it out," Kidd said. "I stepped
up to try to take the charge and got the call. It was probably him being a little
frustrated with the call just before and being at the right place at the right time."

"I was happy," Scott said. "I'm not going to be mad when a guy fouls out or sits down for
an extended period of time. It took a lot of their offense out of the game."

How much? That can be documented. When Pierce took a seat, the Celtics were down by five.
Within five minutes, they were down 15.

"You don't want to hurt your team and I hurt my team," Pierce said. "We're definitely a
better team with me in the game. I can't be getting into foul trouble. That's something
that plagued me the last series, too.

"They played me pretty much straight up most of the game with a lot of different people. I
only saw double teams a little bit. I just wasn't on the court to take advantage of it,
because I was in foul trouble."

The Nets beat the Celtics 48-20 in the paint. They beat them 19-10 off the fastbreak.
Their bench outscored the Celtics', 35-15. The Celtics were outrebounded, 49-38. The
score, closed by a fourth-quarter flurry, doesn't do justice to how lousy a job the
Celtics did defending. The Nets destroyed them on the weak side.

"When we try to attack them on the first side, we turn the ball over," Scott said. "They
do a great job loading up when you're trying to post up. Tony Battie is an excellent
defender, extremely quick and fronts the post well. Antoine Walker and those other guys do
a great job of help defense. So the emphasis was to reverse the ball and go to the second
side."

The result was layup, layup, slam dunk.

"They have a complicated offense, a lot of motion," Pierce said. "You get so concentrated
on Kidd coming off pick and rolls and guys flashing that we forget our principles. A
number of times we let them cut backdoor. We can't do that. We've got to stay home on
defense. Me and Antoine did a poor job rebounding. If we rebound better we win this game.
Saying all that, we were still in it, so we feel good."

Don't feel too good, Paul. Don't feel too good.



E-mail: jjacobs@courant.com

E-mail: Jacobs@courant.com

Defense Nonexistent, Kidd Leads Nets to 1-0 Series Lead