Knicks game

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

The Knicks-Celtics game was an entertaining one to 
attend, in part because there was little defense until 
the last five minutes. It had a 1970s flavour I thought.

My wife later told me her heart was racing at the end 
(she's a huge Pierce fan because he strongly resembles 
her kid brother). I should have noticed, because to me 
the outcome never felt in doubt despite the impressive 
decibel level of the home-opener crowd.

I guess you can say this game was kind of a 
belated "thank-you" gift to those Celtics fans who paid 
to see that 12-point fourth quarter against the Bulls. 
This time, the Celtics had enough controlled intensity 
and composure on every key play down the stretch, just 
like a quality team is supposed to play when they visit 
Madison Square Arena.

The Knicks fans are loud. When they took the lead with 5 
minutes left, it was deafening in my section. This was a 
home opener and the cheap seats fans are the diehard 
ones in a city of 12 million.  

I give the five Celtics who closed this game out great 
credit for their poise. The captains were freaking 
Maximus out there. They all upped the ante on defense 
too. The ball would rotate to the weakside, and we'd be 
right back in their shirts.

I felt the coach of the game was Don Cheney. The 
undermanned Knicks executed their screens and cuts in a 
crisp and professional manner, and did a great job of 
rotating the ball to the weak side. 

The number of uncontested shots allowed was extremely 
high again, for the obvious reasons but also because of 
commendable execution and play recognition by what is one 
of the least athletic but veteran NBA teams out there. 

If nothing else, the Knicks players make a lot of money 
and have been around the block. They looked "old school" 
on Saturday night and were efficient all the way up to 
crunch time.

But the outcome also illustrates how hard it can be to 
win in the last two minutes through the continuation of 
unselfish passing to the open man, even if you are a 
Sacramento (much less the Knicks). Players can clam up in 
those 5-passes-per-possession late game situations. Its 
almost better to leave the ball in one guy's hands.

Ultimately, the game came down to which side had the 
playmakers. The Celtics did Boston pround at the end, 
because they could isolate two clutch guys on one side to 
eliminate the double team on Pierce.

Meanwhile, Allan Houston went scoreless for 10 minutes in 
the fourth, and that's unfortunately becoming very 
typical of his reputation. I don't think he can 
consistently score versus double-teams, like the whirling 
dervish Pierce. His boxscore stats also are one-
dimensional in a Ron Mercer kind of way. It was a great 
game by an overpaid player.

Obie helped by sticking with his base defense, despite 
knowing that Houston was the only guy on the team he had 
to stop in order to win. Anytime you survive a 40 point 
night, its a good result.

Regarding the Celtics' continued embarrassing defense, 
Houston seemed hottest against the smaller guys like 
Delk, and he shot over Walker a few times too (a surprise 
assignment). Pierce was on him the most in the first 
half, and later in the fourth quarter, so it was a mixed 
bag. 

There may be insufficient data, but I see some evidence 
of a cause and effect between Walker's gross shot 
attempts and 100+ scoring by the team as a whole. 

The Celtics scored over 100 on most nights in the 
preseason, when Walker averaged 13 shot attempts. 

Against the Knicks, he was on his way to what I thought 
was a Triple Double, but it didnt show up that way on 
the boxscore. He seemed to be rebounding pretty well too, 
but I guess that wasnt the case. A number of his passes 
after the first period had the defense on its heels.