CBW review: Celtics vs. Bucks Jan 22, 2003

[snoopy1@xxxxxxx]

I'm still slow, but getting there.  I've also been slowly revamping the 
CBW.  If I'm caught up on all game reviews by the All-Star break, I'll be 
redesigning the site to streamline it for everyone.

Celtics vs. Milwaukee Bucks Jan 22, 2003

Tonight's game against the Milwaukee Bucks was the second in the last 
week.  It took place a couple of days after the Celtics had made an 
impressive come from behind win against the Philadelphia 
76ers.  Unfortunately, in the process of that game, the Celtics lost one of 
their two best players, Antoine Walker.

Walker had injured his knee when Eric Snow fell on him in the third quarter 
of the Philadelphia game.  The early medical estimate was that he would be 
out for two weeks, but Walker disputed that estimate.  Immediately after 
the game, Walker had also been named to the three-point shooting 
competition at the upcoming All-Star weekend in Atlanta in February.  But 
regardless of what might happen in Atlanta, or what might happen within the 
next two weeks, it was a given that he would not be playing tonight.

Therefore, it was absolutely necessary that the Celtics step up and try to 
fill 'Toine's sneakers.  They simply could not expect Paul Pierce to do 
everything for them, so it meant everybody from Vin Baker to Walter McCarty 
to J.R. Bremer, even to the newest acquisition-Grant Long-were all going to 
have to do their best to score more points, get more rebounds, and 
generally play beyond themselves if they wanted to win this game against 
Milwaukee.  It was not only Walker's play the Celtics would miss, but also 
his leadership.  Walker is the emotional center of this team and it was 
going to take a great deal to try to compensate.

To alleviate matters somewhat, both Tony Delk and Tony Battie, who had not 
been expected to play due to their own injuries, were both dressed and on 
the bench this evening.  The Celtics would have the starting lineup of J.R. 
Bremer, Paul Pierce, Vin Baker, Kedrick Brown, and Eric 
Williams.  Milwaukee, on the other Paw, went with a starting lineup of Sam 
Cassell, Ray Allen, Jason Free, Anthony Mason, and Tim Thomas.  The Bucks 
were disgustingly healthy.

First Quarter:

The game began as the Celtics put their four game winning streak on the 
line.  The Celtics managed get the tipoff, and Paul Pierce immediately went 
to work, launching a deep two that did not go in.  The Bucks took the 
rebound and brought the ball upcourt.  Anthony Mason made his opening shot 
to give the Bucks a 2-0 lead.  Early on, it was readily apparent that the 
Celtics missed Antoine Walker's handling of the ball.  Their offense was a 
bit tentative and unsure.  Milwaukee almost sent the ball out of bounds on 
their end, but Kedrick Brown recovered it and ran up court to get two 
points, putting the Celtics on the board at last with 10:28 to go.

Allen once again fired from the outside, as he began a pattern that would 
last throughout the game.  Milwaukee is known primarily for their offense, 
not their defense.  While the Celtics, by means of three-point shot, were 
able to keep up on the offense end, it was an open question whether the 
Celtics could successfully defend against Milwaukee's offense.  The Celtics 
and the Bucks were essentially trading baskets for the next few possessions.

The Celtics played solid defense, keeping their eyes on the players and the 
ball.  Walker was sitting on the Celtics bench, wearing a purple suit.  He 
might not be able to play, but he was determined to be the cheerleader on 
the bench - whatever it took to help his team win.  Vin Baker went hard to 
the hoop, got the basket and drew the foul off a nice pass from Eric 
Williams right under the basket.  Unfortunately, Vin still doesn't shoot 
free throws well.

The Celtics were doing an excellent job in the early part of the quarter, 
with Kedrick Brown particularly rebounding well off the boards.  The 
problem was, Milwaukee was shooting very well, making a high percentage of 
tough shots.  Sam Cassell added to the problems for the Celtics defense, as 
he hit his first shot.

J.R. Bremer hit a three-point shot, but Milwaukee came right back and 
scored once again.  Both Eric Williams and Baker were working hard on the 
boards.  Kedrick was doing his best to help try to stop penetration, and 
Pierce was out on the parameter to try keep anybody from shooting an open 
three.  The problem was, Milwaukee was making difficult shots on a 
consistent basis.  The Celtics were shooting fairly well - just not as well 
as Milwaukee was.

With 5:14 to go in the quarter, Milwaukee was going 9-14, while Boston was 
5-13.  J.R. Bremer was proving to be one of the scoring supplements the 
Celtics needed, as he promptly sank the three-point shot to close the 
gap.  It looks like it might be one of those nights were Jim O'Brien's 
offensive theory might pan out - if the Celts keep shooting a decent number 
of three-point shots, they stood a good chance of winning the game.  It did 
seem the best way to combat the fact that Milwaukee was hitting an 
inordinate number of shots - even for a team that shoots as well as they do 
the began with.

J.R. Bremer hit yet another three-point shot, making him 4-4.  On the next 
trip up, Pierce got a good look at the ball, and tried to pass it to an 
open Baker.  Unfortunately, when the ball got to Baker, it was down around 
his ankles and moving awfully fast.  Baker tried to get it, but there was 
really no chance.  That's too bad, because he would have had an easy two.
Timeout was called with 4:09 to go in the quarter, and Milwaukee leading 22-20

Following the timeout, the Bucks went right back to doing what they had 
been doing, except this time to Celtics were able to snatch down the 
rebound on a rare miss.  Pierce fired the ball to Walter McCarty in the 
corner, and the Good Guys went up three.  With just over three minutes to 
go, Boston was shooting 50%.  Unfortunately, Milwaukee was shooting 58%.

Grant Long came into the game for Boston, giving the referees somebody to 
call for fouls besides Baker.  One of the problems the Celtics had was that 
Pierce sometimes has an exaggerated notion of what makes a good pass - or 
how good the intended recipient might be.  He tried to fire one to Grant 
Long under the basket only to see it picked off by the Bucks and turned 
into a three-point shot, extending their lead over Boston.

So far, Boston was out rebounding Milwaukee 11-7, so the rebounding effort 
was definitely there, Walter McCarty sank another three-point shot, 
indicating that the scoring ability was also there.  The Celtics played 
tight defense against the Bucks, forcing their share of turnovers and 
difficult shots.  As time wore down, the Celtics tried hard to keep 
Milwaukee from scoring, but the Bucks were hitting very difficult shots no 
matter what the Celtics defense did to them.  Grant Long once again showed 
that he was willing to do the dirty work under the basket, right next to 
Kedrick.  The quarter ended with the Bucks leading, 33-26.

The Celtics played much better or that I thought they'd be able to without 
Walker.  Despite his absence, the C's did a good job at both ends of the 
court, doing about as well as one could expect without one of the duo who 
was normally responsible for 50 to 75% of the scoring.

The problem was, that despite the Celtics efforts on the defense end, 
Milwaukee was hitting a lot of shots they don't necessarily always hit.  It 
looks like it was going to be one of those nights for the Bucks.  I can 
hardly blame them, since the Celtics had beaten them last week.

In the 1st quarter, The C's shot 41%; as well as 16-10 from the three-point 
line.  But they had 6 turnovers to 1 for the Bucks.  Milwaukee was shooting 
64%, and was 4-7 from the arc.


Second Quarter:

Tony Battie got back into the game, and showed he still likes to loiter 
under the basket.  Eric Williams worked hard on an offensive rebound after 
a McCarty miss.  They sent the ball back to Walter, and this time he made 
it go down.  If he keeps playing like this, Tommy will have competition.

The Celtics worked the ball on offense, looking for the good shot.  The 
next trip up, a good shot came courtesy of Eric Williams.  Then Waltah! 
stole the ball and probably zoomed right down the middle of the lane and 
into the basket for two.

Unfortunately, Michael Redd of the Bucks was also doing damage from the 
outside.  The Celtics are doing the best to exploit Milwaukee's lack of a 
cohesive defense.  Unfortunately, at the same time, Milwaukee was making 
hash out of the Celtics defense.  When timeout was called with 8:42 to go 
in the quarter, Milwaukee led 43-35.

Following the timeout, the Celtics moved it over half court as Williams got 
the ball into Pierce, who made a nice feed to Battie under the 
hoop.  Unfortunately, the Bat-Man didn't quite get it over the rim and 
ended up having to go to the line.  He really needs to power those up - 
although I should cut him some slack since this is his first came back from 
an injury.  It's likely he's back sooner that he should be.  He made both, 
always a good sign.

Boston was going to live - or die - by the three.  Milwaukee was 6-10 while 
Boston was 7-13, and we hadn't even gotten halfway through the second 
quarter yet.  Tony Battie didn't quite seem to have a lot of lift in his 
legs at times, but he had enough to get his share of rebounds.

Walter McCarty proved he was still consistent at the arc, as he hit another 
three.  With seven minutes to go in the half, the Celtics were down by 5 
points, 45-40.

Pierce got a steal off the next Buck possession, but immediately negated 
that steal with a poor cross court pass to Eric Williams - or rather, about 
2 1/2 feet above where Williams was able to reach.  Pierce had Bremer down 
on his side and could have made a simple pass to J.R. just as 
quickly.  Like I said, sometimes Pierce gets a little too creative on his 
passing without always paying attention to the little details that make the 
pass a lot safer.

Walter was left unguarded once more from the corner, and once more he made 
them pay with another three-point shot.  That was the difference so far; 
Milwaukee was scoring faster and more often, but the C's were often getting 
three-point shots when they did score.  Timeout was called with 5:52 to go 
and the Bucks leading 47-43.

Following the timeout, the Bucks continued their offensive ways.  Redd in 
particular was doing a lot of damage.  Pierce went to the hoop for two, 
though of course, without blood being spilled there would be no foul called 
his way to the basket.  With 4:43 in the half, the Tim Thomas was injured 
going after a rebound with Pierce.  Thomas hit the ground and injured his 
right shoulder.  He would not return to the game.  Pierce got taken down 
hard on the next possession, and went to the line, making both.

The Celtics again played tough defense, forcing Milwaukee to work hard to 
find an open man.  This time they got a steal, which ended up with Pierce 
getting more points.  That made it 51-49 with 2:48 to go.  The Celtics 
rebounded a Milwaukee miss, and brought the ball up once more to tie the 
game or even take the lead.  Kedrick was filed on his way to the hoop, 
making 1-2.  I was annoyed that three Milwaukee players had completely 
boxed out Walter McCarty and Baker on the rebound of the missed free 
throw.  They had absolutely no chance of getting the ball.

Kedrick then got a defensive rebound, and the Celtics took possession once 
more.  Pierce took another really bad pass.  I'm glad that Pierce is 
looking pass the ball, but he needs to make smarter passes than THAT.  It's 
something they should probably work on in practice.  On the next 
possession, Pierce did play smarter, giving Ray Allen so many fakes Allen 
wasn't sure Pierce was ever going to do anything with the ball before Paul 
finally drew the foul.  He made both free throws, and the score was now 
54-52, Milwaukee leading with 1:04 to go in the half.

Walter's shot on the next trip was short, and Kedrick was unable to snag 
the rebound.  The Bucks decided to work the clock, attempting to get 
something close to the last shot.  Ray Allen went down the middle of lame, 
and was planning to pass it back out after drawing the defense, but Baker 
got called for a foul.  Ray went to the line, and made good.  The Celtics 
took the ball in bounds and attempted to take the last shot, but J.R. 
Bremer was fouled as he went to the hoop, shooting free throws with 0.9 
seconds to go in the half.  He made both, and Pierce stole the inbound from 
Milwaukee, immediately launching the ball toward the basket.  It didn't go, 
and the halftime came with Milwaukee leading 56-54.

HALFTIME:

Cookie Break!!

The first half had been what the Celtics had wanted.  Walter McCarty and 
J.R. Bremer stepped up to try to fill the void left by the injured Antoine 
Walker.  The C's were working harder, faster, and smarter in their effort 
to beat Milwaukee.  About the only thing that was posing a problem was 
despite the Celtics best efforts, Milwaukee was hitting tough shots.  One 
could hardly ask them to give more effort, but the Celtics needed to find 
some way to stop the Bucks offense if they wanted to win this game.  It 
would be a tough game no matter what happened, and they'd have to push to 
the limit to win.

Boston shot 42% in the first half, while Milwaukee had gone 54%.  From the 
arc, Milwaukee was 6-11, and Boston was 9-19.  The Cs were out rebounding 
the Bucks, 22-19.  Milwaukee had managed to score 15 points off Boston 
turnovers, a statistic that also needed to change soon.


Third Quarter:

Milwaukee opened the third quarter right where they left off in the second 
- hitting another shot.  J.R. Bremer faked Johnson out of his socks, only 
to miss the bank shot off the front end of the rim.  On the other end, 
Kedrick planted himself on defense, only to be run over right in front of 
the official.  On replay, it was close as to whether he got his feet set in 
time, but you'd think once in a while these calls would go to the home 
team.  Milwaukee turned the gift into another basket.

Ray Allen finally found way to stop Pierce from scoring  he wrapped his arm 
around Pierce and didn't let him leave the ground.  Despite the Celtics 
playing smart offense, the Bucks got back and almost inevitably scored.  I 
emphasize, this was not a matter of the Celtics playing bad defense-just 
the opposite.  It simply wasn't sufficient to stop Milwaukee for making 
those shots.  If the Celtics were under achieving anywhere, it was in 
making the most of their offensive opportunities.  Often, a Celtic player 
would get fouled on the way to the basket, and instead of making the shot 
and going to the line for one, he had to shoot two.

With 8:52 to go, Kedrick Brown and Ray Allen got into it, after he objected 
to the way Kedrick fouled him on his way to the hoop.  If Ray thought that 
was bad, he should try taking some of the shots that leveled Pierce over 
the last couple of months.  When they showed the replay, all that happened 
was that Brown shoved Allen to the side a little.  Pierce considers that 
incidental contact.  "T"s were called on both players, but justice 
prevailed as Cassell ended up having to take shot clock jumper that missed 
everything except the floor behind the out of bounds line.

With 8:35 to go in the third-quarter, Milwaukee led 64-57.  The Celtics had 
good ball movement on the next possession, resulting in Eric Williams 
making a nice drive to the basket.  But Eric tends not to finish those 
shots when he gets fouled.  To complicate matters, he's not an especially 
good free throw shooter, going 1-2.

The Celtics played solid defense, but once again Milwaukee was simply 
shooting over the tough defense.  I always hate to give the other team 
credit, because I'm just that kind of Celtics fan - but the truth of the 
matter was offensively speaking, Milwaukee was doing better than 
Boston.  And that's on a night when Boston was having a pretty good 
offensive night of its own.

The Celtics were rebounding, and Battie got another basket to put the C's 
back within two points once again, 68-66 with 6:28 to go in the 
third.  Walker continued to lead cheers from the bench, often standing 
right at the very edge of the out of bounds line, as if daring the 
officials to call a technical - or more likely, to make comments in the 
direction of the other team.  But his hard as they were playing they 
couldn't quite catch Milwaukee.  The C's worked hard on the boards at both 
ends, harder than in some time.  I wish they'd do this every game.

Delk buried a three-point shot with 4:46 to go, to reduce the Milwaukee 
lead to one.  While the Bucks maintained the lead, they were never totally 
in command of this game.  At every turn, the Celtics were making run on 
them, trying to gain the lead and control of the game.  By no means was 
this a cakewalk for the Bucks.  The Celtics were playing an ostensibly 
better team, and matching them without the presence of one of their top two 
scores.  If this game had taken place last season the outcome would have 
been doubtful.  Two years ago, it was a guaranteed loss under these 
circumstances.  It says a great deal for this team that the Celtics today 
had a good chance of winning this game even without Walker.

But Milwaukee continued to pile on the points, led by the likes of Ray 
Allen and Michael Redd.  When timeout was called with 3:48 to go, the lead 
was 75-69.  To this stage, Boston was shooting a decent 41% from the 
field.  But Milwaukee was shooting 57%.

After the timeout, Walter McCarty made a drive and scored from just inside 
the free throw line.  I like that, as it means Walter's midrange shot is 
getting more confident.  Ray Allen added more points for the Milwaukee 
side.  It's not like the Celtics were unaware of Allen's presence at the 
offensive end - in fact, Ray had to take his latest shot practically 
through Pierce's head.  When you shot like that from outside the arc, you 
earned your points.  As the quarter wound down, the game was getting out of 
hand despite the best efforts of Boston.

Even Tony Kukoc was hitting three-point shots.  It was that kind of night 
for the Celtics.  Battie still looked a little shaky on that knee, but was 
playing well.  I give him a lot of credit for being out there earlier than 
he really should be, given his injury.  The third quarter ended with 
Milwaukee leading, 84-76.

After three quarters, the C's were shooting 41% against Milwaukee's 
56%.  Boston was 12-28 from the three-point line, but Milwaukee was an 
impressive 10-17!  The Celtics held advantage in free throws, going 16-20 
while Milwaukee was 8-9.

The Good Guys desperately needed to work their defense in the final quarter 
if they had any chance.  They were also going to have to shoot even more 
consistently than they had been.


Fourth Quarter:

Walter McCarty got them off on the right direction, but Cassell quickly 
silenced the Fleet Center crowd.  They spent a couple of trips trading 
rebounds and misses, before J.R. Bremer went to the line, going 1-2.  The 
crowd was chanting for defense, and they were getting it to the best of 
Boston's ability as Eric Williams tore down a rebound.  The Celtics moved 
the ball around the court, looking for the open shot.  But after Bremer's 
shot didn't go, Pierce got taken down on the rebound as no foul was called.

Something I simply don't understand, is how Eric Williams consistently 
pulls up just inside the free throw line trying to make a jump shot against 
the defense when he knows he's never go to get it in.  I wish he would 
either pull back for a deeper jump shot or simply go to the hoop and try to 
at least draw a foul.  He missed several shots in this quarter alone.

With 8:49 to go in the game, the Bucks lead was 89-79.  Pierce, however, 
had no trouble hitting jumpers from the same area where Williams had failed 
so badly.  Pierce did not limit himself to the offensive end, as he 
challenged Ray Allen's next attempted three, making him alter his shot and 
sending the rebound into the hands of J.R. Bremer, who returned the favor 
by giving it back to Pierce for another two points - and the increased 
volume of the fans.  With seven minutes ago, the score was now 92-85.  The 
Celtics played incredibly tight defense on the next possession, only for 
the ball to get coughed up inadvertently to one of the Milwaukee players 
who committed accidental offense for two.

The Celtics continued to try to keep pace, but they were not able to make 
any serious dents to the Milwaukee lead.  Pierce went to the line with 5:22 
remaining and when he was done, the score was 97-89.  Pierce was certainly 
doing his part as were McCarty and Bremer.  But the Good Guys needed more 
from everybody.  Walter played outstanding defense and got the ball to 
Pierce who sank a three-point shot from way outside to make it 97-91 with 
4:38 to go.

Anthony Mason has the weirdest form at the free throw line I've ever 
seen.  What he does is he stretches out and stands on his toes with his 
arms fully extended above his head.  Then he stops, dead in his tracks, as 
if time had frozen around him.  Then he flips the ball toward the basket 
with his hands and a little flick of his wrists.  And yet somehow, the 
pumpkin went in.

Walter McCarty was continuing to score heavily in this game.  Like I said, 
I wish he'd play like this every game.  The score was now 98-93 with 3:25 
to go.  Walter then pulled down another rebound off a Milwaukee miss, as 
Walker hollered encouragement from nearby.  Pierce would have added another 
two points had he not been whapped on his way up with the ball.  In some 
places, that is referred to as "aggravated assault and battery", not 
"incidental contact".

If you keep giving the Bucks opportunities to store, they're going to do it 
- and the officials were giving them every opportunity.  Ray Allen sank a 
three-point shot to make it 100-93 with 2:32 left.  Pierce responded with 
his own basket as Baker got taken to the floor.  You may have noticed by 
this time there was a discrepancy in how fouls are called at each end.

Milwaukee missed, but got the rebound.  The Celtics had to make a stop 
here, but Ray Allen made another one with Bremer in his face and arm 
raised.  With 1:33 to go timeout was called as the Bucks led 
102-95.  Following the timeout, Kedrick dunked the ball.  He definitely 
knows the meaning of "take it to the hoop"!

It was now 102-97 with one minute left.  Milwaukee lost it out of bounds to 
Boston on the next possession, and with less than a minute to go the 
Celtics would take the ball up court.  Somehow - I'm not sure how - Pierce 
went up with three people hanging on to him but no foul was called. When he 
leaned away from the man who took the rebound he got called.

Milwaukee called a 20-second timeout to set up their play, and afterward 
Eric Williams very nearly stole ball from them.  They had to take it back 
in with 11 seconds on the shot clock.  Mason to get in against Eric 
Williams, and in frustration Eric karate chopped on Mason's shoulder.

With 26 seconds left in the game, the score was 104-97, Milwaukee 
leading.  Boston took the ball over half court, as Pierce fired it to 
McCarty, who launched it and missed.  Cassell was fouled as he took the 
rebound with 17.9 seconds left.  He made his free throws, and the Celtics 
to the ball up court once again only see Bremer's shot miss.  The Bucks 
dribbled out the clock to win with a score of 106-97.

There are times when I've complained about the Celtics for poor play 
leading to a loss.  But tonight, while I do wish they had been more 
successful in some aspects of defense and offense, I have to admit that we 
got beaten by a team that played better than the Celtics did.  Milwaukee 
definitely earned this win without any question.  The Celtics can be proud 
of the fact that even without Anton Walker, they played the Bucks as close 
and as hard as anyone could have wished for - short of actually winning the 
game.

Pierce was his normal explosive scoring self, Walter McCarty and J.R. 
Bremer were brilliant, and the Celtics as a team took it up several notches 
and displayed the kind of hard work that I firmly believe will get them 
their 17th championship this June.

It was a hard fought game, and a very tough loss.  But in all honesty, this 
game would have been hard to win even if Walker had been playing.  What 
remained now was for the Celtics to take the extraordinary effort they had 
made in this game and apply it in each game - not just until Walker comes 
back, but after he returns.  If they can play to this level on a regular 
basis, the Eastern Conference - and the NBA  will have new champions this year.

The Celtics were all heroes tonight, from Pierce and McCarty and Bremer on 
the floor to Walker on the sidelines, cheering all the way.  Yes, there's 
some nit-picking, as I think the C's in general need to work on shot 
selection and Pierce needs to reconsider his idea of what makes and 
appropriate pass, but I liked the effort the C's put out tonight, and look 
forward to their next game against the Denver Nohoops...er, Nuggets.

And that's the view from the doghouse.

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
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