Shira - Celts 90, Nets 75????????

[Eggcentric@xxxxxxx]

Geesh, I knew Shira was a Homer but ...

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CELTICS 90, NETS 75
Celtics run out of gas in New Jersey

Walker and Co. didn't have much left in the tank vs. Nets

By Shira Springer, Globe Staff, 3/14/2003

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - There was some early jawing between Antoine  
Walker and Kenyon Martin and one late physical exchange between the two  
power forwards. But by the fourth quarter last night, Walker was on the  
bench with four fouls and Martin was helping New Jersey to a 90-75  
victory over the Celtics.

If Walker got within earshot of Martin, all he could have said was  
''wait until next week.'' The Celtics will meet the Nets Tuesday at the  
FleetCenter and, once again, try to gain some ground on the Atlantic  
Division leader.

Instead, Walker left the bench and headed to the visitors' locker room  
at the Continental Airlines Arena with about 17 seconds left as the  
Nets ran out the clock. It was clearly a frustrating loss for Walker,  
made even more so by the fact he did not play in the fourth quarter and  
went just 3 for 15 from the floor for 10 points. Martin felt he got  
''underneath his skin'' with a physical defensive effort. Near the end  
of the third quarter, Martin stole the ball from Walker, who then  
proceeded to try and claw it back. In the process, Martin and Walker  
became entangled and Walker was called for his fourth personal.

According to coach Jim O'Brien, he planned to insert Walker with six  
minutes left if the Celtics cut the Nets' lead to single digits. That  
never happened, though Boston did close within 10 (81-71) when Tony  
Delk hit a 3-pointer with 6:19 left.

''I was trying to play a little chess match with our energy level on  
back-to-back nights,'' said O'Brien. ''I wanted to save Antoine for the  
last six minutes and have it down to single digits and go and try to  
pull out the game. But by the time we got to six minutes, it was a  
little larger margin than that.''

Walker was clearly bothered by the strategy after the game. Asked how  
frustrating it was not to play the fourth quarter, Walker said, ''Ask  
Coach O'Brien. That's the end of that.'' Paul Pierce, who was left to  
engineer a fourth-quarter comeback without his constant on-court  
partner, was not sure why Walker didn't see some time in the fourth.

In his postgame comments, Pierce fueled speculation there might be some  
momentary friction between Walker and O'Brien.

''It's tough when you don't have your second-leading scorer out  
there,'' said Pierce (22 points, 9 rebounds). ''I don't know what  
happened between him and Coach O'Brien, if there was a reason he didn't  
play the fourth. That's not my decision. All I can do is go out there  
and play.''

When Walker's close friend and business partner Eric Williams was told  
about the comments, he downplayed any rift between O'Brien and Walker.  
He chalked the comments up to the frustration of an All-Star who wanted  
to help his team win. Williams was right behind Walker as the cocaptain  
left the court.

''It might look awkward, but to him it's just the way he reacted and  
the way he is,'' said Williams. ''There's no bad blood. I ain't seen no  
bad blood. You got to understand that the team that was out there made  
a run and cut the lead to 10. Listen, Antoine is a veteran player, an  
All-Star player in this league. If we're down by [17], our All-Star  
should feel as though he needs to be out in the game.

''This is basketball, man. You've just got to play through it.  
Sometimes teams lose and teammates aren't going to be happy. That's the  
goodness of this game, that we get to play another game and you'll see  
that everything is fine. He left at 17 [seconds to go] and I left at 16  
[seconds left]. This is just like we want to get the hell out of here  
because we just got our [butt] kicked on this floor. He wanted to do  
more, but there's nothing else we can do as a team.''

Despite all the comments about the fourth quarter, the Celtics let the  
game slip away at the end of the first half. Boston kept the contest  
close until New Jersey staged a 9-0 run over the final 2:07 of the  
second quarter. Jason Collins scored 5 points on free throws, which  
pointed out the foul-shooting discrepancy. The Nets got to the line 22  
times, twice as many times as the Celtics in the first half.

But Boston also had itself to blame. The Green turned the ball over 11  
times in the first half and shot just 30.8 percent. And the Celtics  
allowed the Nets to get an easy basket inside and on the fast break, as  
the visitors were outscored, 20-14, in the paint and 17-3 in  
transition. The Celtics also went for long stretches without Tony  
Battie, Williams, and Pierce, who found themselves tagged with two  
personals apiece. Battie played only four minutes in the first half.  
Walker was the only starter who played more than 20 minutes in the  
first half, though by the break he had three fouls.

''We didn't take care of the two areas we talked about before the game,  
to keep them out of transition and to keep our turnovers low,'' said  
Pierce. ''I thought we played them well in the half-court set  
defensively, but we couldn't control their fast breaks and our  
turnovers were just way too high to beat a team like New Jersey.  
They're an explosive team. When you're on the road against a great home  
team, you've got to keep the game close. You've got to grind it out to  
the fourth quarter and find some way to pull it out.''

The Celtics spent much of the third quarter trying to cut into their  
10-point halftime deficit. Instead, Boston almost unraveled, allowing  
New Jersey to increase its lead to 15 (68-53). But that was before Delk  
started to heat up on offense and hit two consecutive 21-footers that  
brought Boston back within 10 (68-58) with 56.3 seconds left in the  
third. The Nets countered with Lucious Harris, who was just getting  
started at the end of the third and scored 13 of his team-high 24  
points in the fourth.

Walker had the chance to keep it a 10-point deficit heading into the  
final quarter, but that was when Martin stripped the ball from the  
Celtics cocaptain as he drove to the basket through traffic. From that  
point on, Walker's frustration got the better of him.

''It was a big game,'' said Pierce. ''Unfortunately, we didn't take  
care of business, but there's still 17 games left and we've still got a  
shot at winning the division. We play them one more time and we'll see  
what happens.''

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 3/14/2003.
) Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.