No Subject

The Nets, led by Jason Kidd's superb triple-double (18, 13, 11) simply played their game
without opposition from the C's. The Celtics, known for their stellar defense, never
showed up on that end of the court. It's pretty easy to see why they lost when you look at
the stat line. The Nets outscored the Celtics on the fast break 19-10. They outscored them
48-20 in the paint. They out rebounded the Celtics 49-38. The Nets shot 89.3% form the
free throw line, while the Celtics managed to shoot 65.5%. But really, you didn't even
need to look at the box score if you just watched it. 

There were tons of missed assignments on defense. There were too many players worrying
about Kidd simultaneously. There were the missed free throws that felt like that punk in
grade school scratching his fingers on the blackboard. If you knew anything about NBA
basketball, you just knew Game 1 was going to the Nets. But with all that, the final
margin was only seven points. 

It took a triple-double from Jason Kidd, the poorest defensive effort of the year, and
horrible free throw shooting for the Nets to win by seven, at home, playing the way they
wanted to. The Celtics should feel ok about this one simply because they played like
absolute crap and still had a chance to win. 

With Paul Pierce getting in foul trouble early (I seem to write that quite often), the
Celtics seemed lost at times on offense. Pierce was able to match the Nets first quarter
offensive explosion seemingly by himself, but he could only sustain it for so long. Pierce
was accused of some questionable calls, but got his due eventually. Unfortunately he could
only connect on 7 of 13 free throws. But that was just one of the many problems the
Celtics have to deal with between now and Game 2. 

If nothing else, the Celtics simply played matador style defense. There was no transition
defense, and Kidd blew by Kenny Anderson a number of times. The Celtics need to realize
that the Nets are a much better team than the Detroit Pistons. At least offensively. But
if they can go back to the defense that they are used to, they should bounce back strong
on Tuesday. Otherwise, they could be in a 0-2 hole real quick. As a team, they have
bounced back from tough defeats pretty well. Now it's time to revert back to the team
defense. Enough talk, just play your game. 

Random Ramblings 

-To me, it just seems like Steve Javie has it in for the Celtics. 

-Not that I'm a big fan of superstar treatment from officials, it seems like it takes 3
quarters and 6 beating later until Pierce gets his. Then again I am a Boston fan, so I
could be wrong. 

-Could someone please tell P.J. "probe" Carlesimo that he doesn't need to scream on every
play? Ugh it is beyond annoying at this point. 

-I'm not sure that NBC told the television audience enough times how bad these two teams
were last year compared to this year. I think for every game this series, we should all be
reminded of it since nobody knows. 

-I'm still waiting for the Celtics defense to show up 

-How clever are the Home Depot commercials? Did you ever notice how the name on the Home
Depot card reads: "Homer D. Poe?" Ok, I know who cares. Can you tell that I don't like to
leave my seat during games? 

-Whoa, I just saw another dunk by the Nets 

-Game 2 will be this Tuesday at 8 p.m. on both TNT and Fox Sports Net New England. It will
be the season finale for both networks. 

-Speaking of FSNE, Mike Gorman was sitting behind the Celtics bench for Game 1. 

-The Celtics would serve themselves best by taking Game 2 and stealing the home court
advantage. 

-Bill Russell was at Game 1. Andrea Joyce seemed to ask him the same questions everyone
asks him. 

-Speaking of her, did anyone else notice how she cut off Todd MacCulloch's answer to her
last question. He just looked at her, smiled and walked away. Strange. 

-After the game, the Celtics players were saying all the right things. They all focused on
the defense (or lack thereof). Tuesday will be a great opportunity to back it up. 


Jason Ouellette can be reached at jayhbk10@yahoo.com. Feel free to email your questions,
comments, etc.


SPORTS

PRO HOOPS: Nothing but Nets - N.J. catches Celtics off their game


Coach Jim O'Brien and the Celtics watch Game 1 go down as a loss. (Associated Press) 
By MIKE FINE
The Patriot Ledger
He came into the game saying he didn't think the New Jersey Nets could stop him.

Paul Pierce was one hundred percent correct. 

It wasn't the Nets who stopped him. It was himself - and the referees - who took him right
out of the ballgame, and when Paul Pierce is not in the ballgame, well, neither are the
Boston Celtics. 

So, saddled with his fourth personal foul early in the third quarter, Pierce sat and the
Celtics might as well have called in sick. In what they hoped would be a rousing opening
to the Eastern Conference Finals, they went down the tubes, 104-97, in Game 1 last night
at Continental Arena. 

''I was happy,'' said Nets coach Byron Scott, asked how he felt when Pierce took number
three, which looked like a clean block on Kerry Kittles with 7:26 remaining, then picked
up an offensive foul 16 seconds later by running into Jason Kidd and earning himself a
seat on the bench until the start of the fourth quarter. ''It took a lot of their offense
out of the game.''

Funny thing is, Pierce and teammate Antoine Walker both scored 27 points, but it appeared
Boston's offense was stuck in the mud once Pierce went down. When you've got a player who
averaged 37 points against one team during the regular season - as Pierce did against the
Nets - 27 just seems so miniscule. 

Pierce hit six of his first nine shots for 14 first-quarter points, and though the Nets'
offense was shredding the Celtics' interior defense, there was always hope that the
co-captain would shoot his team back into the game. 

Pierce did, after all, torch this team during the regular season, scoring no fewer than 32
points in each of his four outings. In a Dec. 1 game here, he missed 15 of his 16
first-half shots, scoring only two points, yet still came back to score 46 in the second
half.

It would stand to reason, then, that the Nets would be keying in on the Celtic superstar,
who led his team to a 3-1 regular-season advantage over New Jersey. 

No such thing happened, though. While the Nets did run several people (Kenyon Martin,
Kittles, Lucious Harris, Richard Jefferson) at Pierce, they mostly played him straight up,
with barely a hint of double-teaming. 

''You've got to give our guys credit on the defensive end,'' said Scott. ''They were
making Paul do things he didn't want to do.''

Pierce didn't quite see it that way. The only thing they did was get him so fired up that
he took himself out of the game, a common problem throughout these playoffs. 

''I thought they played normal defense,'' said Celts coach Jim O'Brien. ''If I'm not
mistaken, he had 27 points. I think he did a pretty damned good job.''

Yet, Pierce was already starting to have trouble long before he picked up those third and
fourth personals. He managed only one field goal in each of the second, third and fourth
quarters. Worse, he missed six of his 13 free-throw attempts, which might have boosted his
scoring total further. As it was, he was limited to 38 minutes and made nine of 19
attempts from the field. 

''He got in foul trouble, and that helped us a lot,'' said Martin. ''He hit a couple of
shots late and got to the line in the fourth quarter. But he didn't score 37 points.''

He certainly started out that way, looking every bit on fire as he has been so often this
season. With 20,049 booing and razzing, Pierce calmly hit several omigawd first-quarter
shots that had no business going in. 

''It's the Eastern Conference Finals. You're psyched up, ready to go,'' he said. ''Coach
got me involved early. I hit a couple of shots and got it going.''

Pierce's power failure, however, wasn't the story of Game 1. 

Boston's normally solid defensive unit and unselfish offense unit both went kablooey. The
Celts were outscored, 35-15, by the Nets' bench. In such situations in the past, either
Pierce or Walker have rescued their teammates. Not this time. 

The Celtics trailed by five points when Pierce was pulled from the game. Within six
minutes, New Jersey lead's was 15, forcing a massive comeback effort by Boston that did
close the gap to six, but too little, too late. 

''Our objective was not to shut him down,'' said Scott, who had to answer questions about
Pierce's boast Thursday that nobody could stop him. ''That's not going to happen. We won't
exert all our energy doing that.''

Besides, if the Nets can do the defensive job they did as a whole, shutting down the
ancillary Celtics scorers, what's the sense of expending so much energy on one player? 

''They played me with a lot of different people,'' Pierce said. ''They played me pretty
much straight up most of the game. I saw double teams a little bit, but I think they
played me pretty much the same.''

Pierce felt his problems had nothing to do with defense, or his own inability to put the
ball in the hole. 

''I wasn't really out on the court to take advantage of opportunities,'' he said,
''because I was in foul trouble.''

That's the only thing that stopped the 37-point-per-game man in Game 1. He anticipates a
different outcome in Game 2. 

''I was disappointed in those fouls,'' he said. ''When you're in the heat of battle, in
the third quarter, with the game like it is, you're hurting your team by getting in foul
trouble because you know you're coming out. So I cannot be getting in foul trouble. I will
have to make a concentrated effort to control my fouls. 

''When I'm in the game, it gives us a chance to win.''

In this case, there was little chance. 

Mike Fine may be reached at mikefine@ledger.com


SPORTS

CELTICS NOTEBOOK: Nets still not confident after their quick start


New Jersey point guard Jason Kidd's 18-11-13 triple-double was the first in the limited
playoff history of the franchise. (Associated Press) 
By MIKE FINE
The Patriot Ledger

E. RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The team that took the court against the New Jersey Nets last night
was not even a reasonable facsimile of the one that beat the Nets three out of four times
during the regular season.

In losing Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics not only put
themselves in a hole (something they also did in the semifinals against Detroit), but also
appeared to set their own cause back 10 years.

That's the bad news. 

The good news is that the Celtics believe their 104-97 loss is fixable, and they seem to
have scared the swamp gas out of the Nets.

''These two teams like to get up and down, and we look to put points on the board,'' said
Nets point guard Jason Kidd, whose 18-11-13 triple-double was the first in the limited
playoff history of the franchise. ''I think for us to execute our offense, we need to be
patient.''

Patient? The Nets were shredding the Celtics' defense with back cuts, lobs and
misdirection, and they fired away almost at will in the paint, where they took a 48-20
advantage. Still, Kidd and his teammates came away almost shaken.

''It could have been easy to hang your head because of (Paul) Pierce and (Antoine) Walker
and those guys (who) were making 3's, and we felt we were playing our best and we look up
at the board and they were still right there,'' Kidd said. ''I think that just shows as a
team we're growing and maturing and staying positive. We really executed our offense.''

Don't think the Celtics didn't notice. The team that shut down Dikembe Mutombo of the
Philadelphia 76ers in the first round and Cliff Robinson and Ben Wallace of the Detroit
Pistons in the second ceded a career-high 14 points to unheralded New Jersey center Todd
MacCulloch, and the Nets ran roughshod through the paint almost all evening.

''We did not stop transition,'' said Celtic Eric Williams. ''They got a lot of easy
points. They got a lot of layups. We just have to come back next game and make the
adjustments. 

''They're the same team, same players. We just did not execute. They were red hot and we
still had a chance to win the game. They did not stretch the lead that much. They just
played a great game. It took them playing a great game to beat us.''

In fact, the Celtics are feeling pretty good about themselves today. They were trailing,
87-70, with 9:58 remaining when Williams keyed a 14-4 run with a 3-pointer, and they
narrowed that Nets' lead to only six with 1:21 remaining before they ran out of time.

The Celtics know what they did, and think they know how to fix it.

''We feel good about this game, to tell the truth,'' said Pierce, who scored 27 - his
lowest point total in five tries against the Nets this season. ''Even though we lost, we
know we did not play our best basketball. We did not defend them tonight and we had our
opportunities. We kept it in range for a comeback the whole game and we didn't even play a
lick of defense.

''I know when this team shows up to play defense and not allow them to get easy buckets,
back-door layups, we are a different team and we will win this thing.''

After saying he was trying to get his knee back in playing shape, Celts center Vitaly
Potapenko underwent arthroscopic reconstructive surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament
Saturday at New England Baptist Hospital. The surgery was performed by team physician
Arnold Scheller. 

Potapenko was expected to begin rehab today, with a recovery time of six to eight months
potentially delaying his start to the 2002-03 season.

Potapenko injured the knee during the final game of the season, Apr. 17 against Atlanta.

''Generally with an ACL you don't operate right away,'' said Celts coach Jim O'Brien.
''What you do is try to give the swelling a chance to go down. We wanted to see if he
could progress to the point where we could use him in this series.''

Kidd wasn't getting a swelled head over his triple-double. 

''As long as we win, I don't care too much about my stats,'' said the point guard, who
missed four of 10 shots from the field. ''I'm just happy we came out with the 'W'. Stats
are secondary.''

What impressed the Celtics most about Kidd's performance were the career-high 13 rebounds,
made possible by the Nets' big men boxing out.

''When Kidd rebounds the basketball, they're as good as there is in getting from one end
to the other,'' said O'Brien. ''Their speed and quickness was an issue for us ... They
have the best rebounding point guard in the game. We are not a dominating rebounding team.
We are not a dominating offensive rebounding team.''

''The series just started,'' said Kidd. ''You don't win the series with the first game. We
know we'll have our hands full in Game 2.''

Copyright 2002 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Monday, May 20, 2002

Monday, May 20, 2002  


The best article in the Sunday Globe sports yesterday probably belonged to Bill Griffith
in "Sport View" he had an lengthy conversation with FSNE's Celtics broadcaster Mike
Gorman, who had some really interesting things to say. Among them: Kedrick Brown is going
to be a force in the NBA, he thinks (As does Tommy Heinsohn) that the Celtics are playing
their best defense since Bill Russell was playing, and that Antoine Walker has matured
more in the past eight months than in the past six years combined. The article has many
other points from Gorman, as well as extensive Boston Sports Media notes. 

   Posted 5/20/2002 02:10:53 PM  


Chris Ford on WEEI, mentioned the three big areas that NJ beat the Celtics yesterday,
Rebounds, Points in the paint and Points off the bench. Ford was impressed with Todd
Mcullough. The Nets bring their big guys up often 15-15 feet, which leaves the backdoor
and underneath open and vulnerable to easy buckets. The C's have to tighten up their D and
may have to resort to more focused one on one defense. They've got to stay in front of
Kidd, but when the other guys are hitting the deep shots like Van Horn and Harris were
yesterday, it makes it extremely difficult to adjust defensely. Ordway agreed with the
increased man to man theory. Ford talked also about Pierce and foul trouble. That he needs
to needs to not pick up the cheap foul...give up the 2 points rather than take the foul.
Let someone else foul the man, so that Pierce can stay on the floor. He said that it
wasn't necessarily the intensity of the Celtics that was a problem, but perhaps their
concentration. They need to focus more on the game. He thinks O'Brien and Harter will turn
to a more individual style of defense for the next game. Offense isn't too much of a
problem. The pressure is still on the Nets to take game two at home. The Celtics win this
second game and the series swings. Told all the Celtics fans to not panic yet. 

   Posted 5/20/2002 12:28:20 PM  


A nice feature from WHDH channel 7 is that the Sunday late night sports show "Sports
Extra" is archived on its web site, and you can watch it at a later time without having to
tape it or stay up until midnight. It seems to be a high quality stream, with good video
and clarity. Jackie MacMullan was on last night's show, talking about Nets/Celtics game
one. There were clips from Bill Walton, Bob Cousy, KC Jones, and Chris Ford talking about
the resurgence of the Celtics. 


On the NBC pregame yesterday, Peter Vecsey dropped a rumor that Larry Bird and M.L. Carr
are attempting to bring an expansion franchise to Charlotte to replace the Hornets.
Commisioner David Stern confirmed there is interest to do such a thing, but that is not
past the expressed interest stage. 


WEEI's Glen Ordway says it's a good sign the Celtics played so badly yesterday, and
"didn't get smoked". He says there is a lot of adjustments that can be made against this
New Jersey team.


John Molori's latest "Media Blitz" column is up, and talks more about the racism debate on
D&C that was chronicled here as well. 


NESN has Red Sox/White Sox with Derek Lowe going for win number seven tonight at 7:00. TNT
has game two of Lakers/Kings from Sacramento at 9:30. You might want to also check out the
terrific "SportsCentury" profile on Bobby Orr at 8:00 and 11:00 tonight on ESPN Classic

Nets can paint an ugly picture 

Monday, May 20, 2002
By JEFF THOMAS 







Celtics notebook 



EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.   -  The Boston Celtics entered yesterday's NBA Eastern Conference
Finals with the New Jersey Nets as the top team in the playoffs in terms of interior
defense. 

That statistic was crushed by the Nets, as they nearly doubled the average the Celtics
were allowing in the paint in their 104-97 Game 1 victory. 

Boston gave up 48 points in the lane. Through the first two series, the Celtics had
allowed 24.8 points per game, the fewest in the playoffs by far. The Minnesota
Timberwolves, who lost in the first round, was second in the postseason by allowing 30.4. 

"I think we came into the game knowing that they were going to sag off of us a little bit
like they had in the regular season," Nets forward Keith Van Horn said. "I thought we did
a much better job of countering that . . . finding back doors, getting guys moving and
getting layups instead of relying so much on jumpers like we did in the regular season." 

Fast-break points (19) and passing out of double teams to the open man for layups
accounted for most of the Nets' scoring in the paint. 

"That had a complicated offense with a lot of movement," Celtics forward Paul Pierce said.
"We just got to stay home on defense and contain the basketball." 

LINE WOES:

The Celtics were also doing a great job at the foul line before yesterday, and that area
of production also suffered a setback. 

Boston shot 76.4 percent from the line in the regular season, but through the first two
postseason series, the Celtics bumped that percentage to 82.8. 

Last night, Boston hit only 19 of 29 free throws, including Pierce's 7-for-13 performance.

"It's not a concern because we shot close to 84 percent in the playoffs," Celtics coach
Jim O'Brien said. "It was just one of those games that they didn't fall." 

The Celtics were 11 for 17 from the line in the fourth quarter, yielding six points in a
seven-point game. 

VITALY DONE:

The hope of having center Vitaly Potapenko back for the playoffs ended Saturday when he
had arthroscopic surgery to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. 

Team physician Arnold Scheller and assistants Lampros Minos and Julie Gill performed the
surgery at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston. 

Potapenko, who averaged 4.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in 79 games this season, injured the
knee in the final game of the regular season against Atlanta. 

Because the team expected to get him back, Potapenko was placed on the playoff roster, so
the Celtics cannot add activate another healthy player. Jeff Thomas can be reached at
jthomas@union-news.com 


Celtics: New Jersey prevails 

Monday, May 20, 2002
By JEFF THOMAS 




Nets 104 Celtics 97 





EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.   -   Allen Iverson and his soon-to-be Hall of Famer coach Larry
Brown couldn't do it. Jerry Stackhouse and NBA Coach of the Year Rick Carlisle couldn't do
it. 

But second-year coach Byron Scott and the man-who-should-have-been MVP Jason Kidd found a
way to break down the Boston Celtics' defense as the New Jersey Nets won Game 1 of the
Eastern Conference Finals yesterday at Continental Airlines Arena. 

The Celtics held their previous two playoff opponents to 84.2 points per game and less
than 40 percent shooting from the field by double-teaming the ball and forcing teams to
beat them from the perimeter. 

New Jersey and Kidd had other ideas. The Nets crisply passed out of double teams and found
the open player   -   who was more often than not in the paint   -   for easy baskets. 

"Their offense was better than what we had to offer on the defensive end," Celtics coach
Jim O'Brien said. 

Four of the five Nets starters scored in double figures, and three players off the bench
-   Aaron Williams, Richard Jefferson and Lucious Harris   -   each scored 10 points. 

The Nets hit 38 of 77 field goal attempts and were 25 for 28 from the line as they led
from the start. 

Paul Pierce, who was roundly booed by the 20,049 fans in the building every time he
touched the ball or had his name announced, was hot early, scoring 14 points in the first
quarter. He cooled off in the second quarter as he added only three points, then caught a
lot of pine time in the third when he picked up two fouls   -   his third on the defensive
end and fourth on a charge   -   in 9 seconds and went to the bench. 

"I was happy because it takes a lot of their offense out of the game," Scott said of
Pierce's foul trouble. "But you got to give our guys credit for stepping up and taking
charges." 

Pierce sat out the final 6:33 of the third quarter, and the Nets took advantage by pushing
the lead to double digits for the first time, finishing the third quarter with an 81-68
lead. 

"I can't get into foul trouble, that's something that plagued me the last series," Pierce
said. "I was disappointed in the fouls. I'm hurting my team by getting into foul trouble."

Pierce and Antoine Walker finished with 27 points each, while Kenny Anderson chipped in
with 12, and Eric Williams had 10. 

And while the Celtics were able to chip a 17-point Nets lead down to six points in the
fourth quarter, poor free-throw shooting (11 for 17 in the fourth, 19 for 29 for the game)
kept the Celtics from seriously challenging the Nets lead. 

At least, not the way Boston was playing defense. Jason Kidd, who had a triple-double with
18 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, said it was just his team's normal offense. 

"We really executed our offense, although we probably had too many turnovers (15), but it
was less than 20, which is in the right direction," Kidd said. "We tried to play inside
and out. We tried to be aggressive and take the ball to the basket. We did have a lot of
backdoor cuts." 

Center Todd MacCulloch, who entered the game averaging 5.1 points in the playoffs, had 14
points as he was received many passes out of double teams. 

As soon as Tony Battie or Rodney Rogers would leave MacCulloch, the second-year pro would
cut to the basket for easy layups. 

"The emphasis today was to try and attack the second side because they were defending the
first side well," Scott said. 

The Nets were also running well, scoring 19 fast-break points to the Celtics' nine. 

It came down to the fact the Nets dictated the tempo and exploited Boston's help defense,
a new experience for the Celtics in this postseason. 

"I think their half-court offense and movement were great," O'Brien said. "I thought they
were very crisp, great passes, great speed and change in directions. They just got the
better of us. Our defense was just not up to the standard that New Jersey set with their
offense." Jeff Thomas can be reached at jthomas@union-news.com 




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