For C's, nothing but Nets

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For C's, nothing but Nets: Finish off Pacers, get set for Jersey

by Steve Bulpett
Friday, May 2, 2003








The Celtics were completing the task of kicking the Pacers to the curb last
night when the chant began rolling down from high in the FleetCenter.



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``We want Jersey,'' said the crowd. ``We want Jersey.''

Notwithstanding the question as to the wisdom of that wish, the Celtic players
were in agreement as they saw the Nets take care of Milwaukee. As long as
they're exorcizing demons, they might as well take on the club that eliminated
them in last year's Eastern Conference finals.

``We came into the locker room and the game was on,'' Eric Williams said after
the 110-90 dispatching of Indiana in Game 6. ``We just had to look at the
score. That was the team that knocked us out last year, and it's a brand-new
season. We're just going to go out there and play hard and win the series.''

Easier said than done, of course, but the Celts believe they are going in
better prepared.

``It will be nice to go out and play New Jersey,'' Paul Pierce said after
throwing 27 points at the Pacers. ``We feel like it was a series we could have
won last year.''

Said Antoine Walker, who added 21 points last night: ``Well, obviously we know
New Jersey poses a problem because Jason Kidd had a tremendous series against
us last year. I think their confidence is going to be way high because they
were really dominating in the four games we played. We were able to win one,
but they really took it to us.''

Kind of like the Celtics did to Indiana last night, leading by as many as 27.
With 4:43 left in the third quarter, Walker rolled to the left baseline past
Jonathan Bender and jammed the ball through the rim emphatically. Walker then
turned, paused and gave a wiggle. Without Red Auerbach in attendance, this
would have to stand as the victory signal. There was no cigar involved, but
the Pacers were certainly smoked.

The Pacers came in as the third seed in the Eastern Conference bracket, but
they fell hard to the sixth-seeded C's, going without a fast-break point
against a team with an admittedly shaky transition defense.

It was former Pacer Chuck Person, now a scout for the club, who upon falling
behind the Celts 0-2 in the 1992 first round, uttered the immortal line, ``If
I'm going down, I'm going down standing up.''

Because of their abominable shooting and strange inability to gather their
game in times of stress, these Pacers were forced to take this one lying down
. . . on a psychiatrist's couch. (Bet your house that Pacer president Donnie
Walsh will add some leadership to his talent this summer.)

The visitors hit some treys in the last quarter to keep the local gin mills
from an early rush, but the sound and fury signified only some extra court
time for Pierce and Walker. And with Game 1 of the East semifinals not until
Monday in Jersey, this wasn't such a bad thing.

Pierce and Walker had games one would expect from co-captains in a close-out
situation, but Tony Delk had 15 and JR Bremer 12 apiece to offer a needed
counterpoint from the point. And with Walter McCarty tossing in 13 and Eric
Williams 10, there was support aplenty.

Jermaine O'Neal was your run-of-the-mill monster with 25 points and 19 boards,
and Ron Artest had 20 points, but Indy shot just 28 percent from the floor
through three quarters when it was still a game, sort of. Its 25 second-chance
points ultimately served only to mask the odor of its shooting.

The turnabout from Game 5 was striking. The C's had just two points in the
last 9:27 of that one, missing 16 of their final 19 shots. They went 0-for-6
from the floor and 0-for-2 from the line in overtime.

Last night they hit 16 of their first 19 shots to essentially let the Pacers
know they weren't in Indiana - or even on the same planet as the C's.

The C's made 14 straight shots from the floor, the last 11 of the first
quarter and first three of the second. Thus, from Pierce's miss at 9:01 of the
first period, they went 11:31 before failing to find the strings again (a
Bremer miss at 9:30 of the second).

``We were feeding off emotion,'' said Walker. ``Guys were looking for one
another. Guys were taking open shots. Nobody was forcing anything.''

So the Celtics will now be forced to face their nemesis. They can only hope
they execute as well as they did last night.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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