Strong effort snaps 3-game losing skid

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ltics defense brings mighty Kings to knees: Strong effort snaps 3-game losing
skid
By Steve Bulpett
Monday, November 10, 2003

The Patriots were off this week, but their local basketball brethren didn't
want the Flying Elvises' Sunday script to go to waste. So, after surrendering
a couple of early touchdowns, the Celtics used a strong defense to hold the
fort until they could make enough plays for a 91-82 victory over Sacramento.

     Hopefully Bill Belichick got his head out of Cowboys video long enough to
appreciate the fact the C's held the second-highest scoring team in the NBA to
just 35.6 percent shooting. The Kings came in averaging 106 a game and scored
just 67 in the last 44 minutes.

     ``You've got to defend,'' Celtics coach Jim O'Brien said. ``If you don't,
a team like this embarrasses you.''

     You mean like allowing the Kings to hit their first seven shots and score
15 of the game's first 17 points?

     ``We decided to get tougher on defense,'' Paul Pierce [news] said. ``We
got off to a slow start, but once we started getting hands in their face and
challenging shots, the game came easy. Plus Vin (Baker) played sensational and
guys off the bench played sensational.''

     Baker was the indispensable man with 18 points, a Celtics career-high 13
rebounds and two blocks in 38 minutes.

     ``I didn't recognize him,'' Kings center Vlade Divac said. ``What
happened?''

     What happened has been well chronicled, but the 2003-04 version of Baker
wrote a new chapter on a night when Pierce struggled through a 2-for-8 first
half before finishing with 17 points on 7-for-19 shooting. (Pierce did help
hold Doug Christie to seven points.)

     ``I think we learned a lot about ourselves tonight,'' Baker said. ``We're
trying to build our identity and trying to build character, so I see Paul not
having a huge night scoring and us beating a quality team like Sacramento as
huge for our confidence.''

     Mark Blount contributed a key 10 points off the bench, and Eric Williams
remained undefeated in sneakers this season, coming back from a hyperextended
right knee for 12 points and six boards. He has played in all three Celtics'
wins and sat out all three losses.

     Raef LaFrentz had nine points and nine rebounds, and Kedrick Brown [news]
had eight and eight and a strong defensive effort on Peja Stojakovic, whose 13
points were 14.8 below his average coming in.

     ``Kedrick's a guy that we had always hoped would be a really fine
defensive player opposite Paul,'' O'Brien said. ``He did a nice job tonight
and we hope that this is a sign of things to come, because he needs to be a
stopper for us.''

     The Celtics were down by six entering the third quarter, where they
turned the corner on the evening's flow. Nine of their 20 fast-break points
and 34 of their take overall came in the frame as the tempo became more
favorable.

     Pierce went to the basket on the first possession of the third quarter,
scoring the first of his eight points in the period. LaFrentz converted a
rebound and hit a trey, and Marcus Banks [news] scored the Celts' last five
points of the frame on a trey and a last-shot drive to give the hosts a 73-69
lead to start the fourth quarter.

     Williams opened the fourth-quarter scoring, and the teams then combined
for a scoreless 3:20 until LaFrentz converted a fourth-chance tip to put the
Celts up 77-69. A Doug Christie trey was just a short interruption, as Brown
scored to open a quick 6-0 burst. Sacramento hit on just two of its first 15
shots in the last period - a nasty turnabout from their night's beginning -
and never found the groove again.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx