Green monster

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Green monster

Fired-up Celtics get hot hands, oust Pacers

By Shira Springer, Globe Staff, 5/2/2003

ate in the fourth quarter, Paul Pierce became a fan and started singing ''Na
Na Hey Hey Kiss 'Em Good-bye.'' The familiar chorus echoed through a soldout
FleetCenter, an impolite, yet traditional, send-off for the Pacers.



In last night's 110-90 Game 6 victory, Pierce, Antoine Walker, and their
teammates could enjoy the final stages of a hard-fought, first-round victory.
Jim O'Brien even made sure his All-Star cocaptains were treated to standing
ovations as the coach substituted for them in the closing minutes.

The Celtics wasted no time erasing the memories of the scoreless overtime in
Game 5 by taking an 18-point lead at the end of the first quarter. It was all
the advantage Boston needed. With the unexpected upset, the Celtics became the
first Eastern Conference team to officially advance in the playoffs, beating
their second-round opponent, the Nets, by about an hour. Round 2 starts Monday
night at the Continental Airlines Arena, with tipoff set for 7.

''We were just anxious to get out there,'' said Pierce (27 points, 8
rebounds). ''We should have had this series the other day in Indiana and we
wish we could have had that one back. You just had that feeling all along, you
know the crowd screaming from start to finish. We just fed off their
adrenaline. Everybody just came out ready and it carried on to the court. It
will be nice to go out and play New Jersey, the team that put us out a year
ago. It will be a good series.''

While Game 6 will be remembered for the Celtics' early offensive display (they
shot 81.3 percent in the first quarter, at one point hitting 14 consecutive
shots), the Green also managed to shut down the Pacers. Sure, Indiana missed
open shots and Boston allowed too many offensive rebounds (24) and
second-chance points (27). But the Celtics deserve credit for holding the
Pacers to 29.4 percent shooting and preventing the visitors from scoring a
single point in transition.

Throughout the series, ''getting stops,'' as O'Brien always says, was
essential. The offense came and went, Pierce had a couple of 21-point
quarters, Walter McCarty and Tony Delk assaulted the Pacers from 3-point
range. But without defense, Boston would not have been able to engineer
successful, 16-point comebacks in Games 1 and 4. Last night, the defense
demonstrated a heightened state of determination with seven blocks, including
four by Tony Battie.

Good quarters won games, whether it was the fourth quarter of Game 1, the
third quarter of Game 3, the third quarter of Game 4, or the first quarter of
Game 6. From O'Brien's perspective, defense was responsible.

''If you would look at those quarters, there's several things in common,''
said O'Brien. ''We got stops. And stops allowed us to push the tempo and get
them in the open court. They're such a big, physical team that if you grind
out your halfcourt offense against them, they can make life miserable on you.
But we got stops and were able to create a tempo that we thought would be
advantageous to us.''

In the first quarter last night, everything worked to the Celtics' advantage.
Strong start would be an unqualified understatement. Impressive. Dominant.
Downright demoralizing if you were wearing blue and gold. The first quarter
was so close to perfection that Boston extended a 33-15 lead to a 50-34
halftime advantage.

Less than 48 hours after the Celtics set an NBA playoff record by going
scoreless in overtime, they, almost literally, could not miss. Boston shot 13
for 16 in the first quarter, including 5 for 6 from 3-point range. The Green
went to the locker room at the break shooting 50 percent. Every player in the
eight-man rotation scored before the break.

It was a good sign when McCarty (13 points) started the game with consecutive
3-pointers. It got better. McCarty and Delk (15) hit 3-pointers, Pierce scored
3 points the old-fashioned way, and Walker went in for hook shots. The
catalyst was ball movement, resulting in nine assists on the Celtics' first 13
field goals.

''Walt hit the first couple of threes and that was pretty normal,'' said Eric
Williams. ''But when everyone was hitting them and the guys were passing the
ball [it seemed special]. It was the way we were passing the ball that made it
look good. You don't shoot 81 percent without having good ball movement and
giving people open shots. We had a lot of wide-open shots and guys knocked it
down.''

After the first quarter, the Pacers would draw no closer than 13 points, which
happened three times in the final period. The first time, Ron Artest (20
points) hit a 3-pointer with 7 minutes 56 seconds remaining. Pierce responded
with a 17-footer, followed by a 3-pointer from McCarty. The second time,
Jermaine O'Neal (25 points, 19 rebounds) hit a free throw with 6:04 to go and
Pierce answered with a driving layup on the break. The final time, Artest went
in for the layup and Mark Blount came through with a pair of free throws
followed by a 20-footer from Pierce with 4:39 left. The game was never in
doubt.

''To be honest, we were upset with ourselves,'' said Walker (21 points). ''We
let Game 5 slip away from us. We were upset with ourselves that we gave
Indiana life. We had a lot of emotion. We looked at the film. We knew exactly
how they were going to play us, how they were going to defend us. And we just
found open guys.''

The Celtics hope to be equally prescient against the Nets

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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