Last night

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

On the one hand the Hornets were still an .800 team at 
home this year, and close to that head-to-head against 
Boston over the span of the past three years.

But for once the Celtics ran into a team that wasn't red 
hot coming in, with 10 Hairnets losses in the past 13 
games. Its about time that momentum broke our way.

Two things impressed me. First was how well the Celtics 
battled through an off night by one of the captains, 
something we haven't done lately. 

Antoine threw up sub-NBA junk all night long, didn't 
rebound, and didn't show a hint of passing ability or 
court sense, much less "point forward" skills. If last 
night's nationally televised game was the first time you 
ever caught a glimpse of Twan, you'd think his main 
strength was defense. 

He seemed pumped up from the instant the Hornets advanced 
the ball past center court. The Hornets big forwards were 
completely shut out of this game.

The second thing that impressed me was how Boston 
overcame the Hornets' 8-10 shooting to start the game.

Rather than a psyche out ("here we go again") and trying 
to just trade 3-point attempts against the best (in terms 
of 3pt%) perimeter shooting team in the league, the 
Celtics upped the pressure on defense by making the right 
personnel moves. 

For instance, Kedrick Brown came in at the 4 minute mark 
(first player off the bench I think) and stayed out there 
the entire period despite not scoring. Mashburn went from 
hitting nothing but the bottom of the net to being taken 
out of the picture completely by spirited defense the 
rest of the way. Kedrick nearly gave up one layup to Mash 
(help came), but after that he showed he was quick enough 
to play the kind of in-your-face defense where his 
sneakers are almost touching the other guys.

The Hornets were held to nearly 30 percent shooting for 
the rest of the night, after that perfect shooting start 
for them. This was a reflection of a defense dictating 
the flow of the game, with more Celtics deflections and 
near shot clock violations than we've seen in awhile.

To state the obvious again, that's why the Celtics win 
games, if they win at all this season. Its guys like 
Kedrick or McCarty changing the flow of the game without 
scoring a single point. That's happened three times this 
year. The complexion of the game turns on a dime.

Obie/Harter defense means it doesn't matter that Pierce 
and Walker shoot 11-32 from the field in a critical game. 

It doesn't matter that our bench is good for only 10 
points last night, all from perimeter shots. 

It doesn't matter that the opponent had won something 
like 12 of the last 16 games against Boston, and had 
blown out McGrady (40 points) abd Orlando in their last 
home game coming in to last night. 

It doesn't matter that the Hornets are well-coached and 
swing the ball around the perimeter like out of a 
textbook.

When the Celts play consistent defense they'll win 
without counting on an "A" game from the offense (which 
alone is rarely enough as we saw in the past two games). 

It inspires confidence to see that defensive consistency 
is going to be there like last night. 

When the 4th quarter started, I said I bet we could hold 
these guys to 12 points the way we are playing. With four 
minutes of garbage time left in the game, the Hornets had 
scored all of 6 points. It was a furious defensive effort 
by the entire Celtics team, as if they all had the same 
goal in mind. They weren't even thinking about offense as 
much as making defensive stops. I think they could throw 
some of the Texas teams way out of their usual comfort 
zones if we can bring that intensity. 

The Celtics were facing the spectre of a six-game losing 
streak and back down to .500 if we lost in New Orleans 
ahead of the Texas trip. But they didn't worry at all 
about it, or panic about it. To their credit, they just 
went out and overcame a blistering start by the Hornets 
to win the road game.

Joe H.















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