first preseason game

[Steve and Michelle Ouellette <redsox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My impressions of the opener, watched via MSG, the enemy's channel:

1) Vin Baker looked fit and happy and was reasonably effective. Last 
night he actually looked like the Celtics best passer. Didn't realize 
that was in his repertoire. I think he's going to be in the lineup 
instead of Battie, fairly soon.

2) Paul Pierce was completely out of control. Even though it was just an 
exhibition game, he was dribbling into double and triple teams and 
refusing to give the ball up on the fastbreak. The fastbreak, by the 
way, showed no improvement over last year's ineffective mess.

3) I was worried about the Celtics not having a point guard who could 
handle the ball against the press. I'm not that worried anymore. Still 
concerned rried whenever Tony Delk dribbles, but Shammond Williams and 
JR Bremer both seemed to have a pretty good handle on the ball.

4) Shammond didn't do anything to lessen my enthusiasm about him. He 
seemed reluctant to shoot early on, then forced a few later, but the man 
has a great stroke. At one point they had him set up with Antoine with a 
two-man game on one side. Ball goes to Antoine, he gets doubled, 
Shammond drills the three. That never worked with Kenny. Shammond also 
blew past a few people with the dribble. Seemed to work hard on defense 
too, though he did get posted once by Howard Eisley. I'd love to see him 
start, with Delk providing instant offense off the bench. Think Shammond 
would be worth 13-14 ppg .

5) Bruno Sundov sure wasn't shy. When he gets the ball, he's chucking. 
Shots weren't really falling, but does seem to have good form.

6) I though Kedrick looked pretty good. Still doesn't know how to finish 
(when he can't dunk), but he seemed more confident, really went after 
some rebounds and his threes looked smoother than before. He's certainly 
better than Eric Williams at pretty much everything.

Enough for now.

STEVE O