Walker hears boos

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Walker hears boos

by Mark Murphy
Thursday, March 27, 2003








He checked out for good with 4:57 left, and the evening's heaviest share of
boos followed him to the bench.



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Antoine Walker wasn't the only Celtic booed down the painful stretch of last
night's 107-95 loss to the Warriors. Every turnover and unguarded miss,
especially the 3-point attempts, drew an expanding chorus of sourness.

But Walker, while struggling through his second two-point second half in the
last three games, seemed to wear the biggest target.

And yet he seemed surprised at the suggestion that the negativity, triggered
by the team's first six-game losing streak since Jan. 8, 2001, would bother
him.

Walker broke into a half-smile and shook his head.

``No, man. You think it bothers me? It doesn't bother me. I've been around too
long for that,'' he said. ``We would love it as a team for them to be
completely behind us, but that has to come.

``But we're going through a tough time right now.

``I'm a player, the captain of the team, and it's my job to get this team into
the playoffs,'' said Walker. ``If people can't get behind us and jump on the
bandwagon right now, that's unfortunate.

``But our goal right now is to get into the playoffs.''

Now that the Celtics have dropped to a precarious 38-34 mark on the season,
this goal has become a tough sell for a particularly vocal segment of Celtics
Nation.

After watching Walker shoot 6-for-19, including 1-for-9 in the second half, in
addition to a 2-for-10 second half from Paul Pierce, disbelief took over.

But Walker, ever the optimist, is simply looking for the next win, a process
that has become admittedly tougher as the streak has built.

``I think we pressed tonight,'' he said. ``Everyone wants to make the
spectacular play instead of grinding out to get stops. But against Cleveland
(tomorrow night in the FleetCenter) we want to come out and get out to a good
start. And just remember, that was an unbelievable (shooting) display that
(the Warriors) put on tonight.

``This is a good test for us. The playoffs are going to be tough like this,
where things aren't going to go your way. You have to be mentally tough to
fight back, and we just have to continue to work to get better at this.

``We have 10 games left, and we just have to make some strides. First, we have
to make the playoffs, though.''

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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