Banks tops Ford in rookie battle

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Banks tops Ford in rookie battle
By Steve Bulpett/Celtics Notebook
Saturday, November 29, 2003

Their names were read in close proximity on draft night, but since then rookie
point guards T.J. Ford and Marcus Banks [news] haven't been mentioned in the
same breath. Ford was starting for the Bucks last night at the FleetCenter,
and Banks has been taking smaller steps for the Celtics.

     Banks, however, had the better evening, scoring 11 points in 20 minutes
while Ford had six in 26 in the C's 106-96 win.

     ``I think Marcus really stepped up,'' Paul Pierce [news] said. ``I set
the challenge for him before the game because he was playing against one of
his peers, a guy who got drafted before him. I said, `Hey, man, you got to go
out there and get on him. Simple as that.' ''

     Ford, the eighth overall pick, came in averaging 27.5 minutes, while
Banks - taken No. 13 by Memphis before being dealt to the C's - was getting
17.0 minutes per night. Milwaukee coach Terry Porter, who broke in at the
point in Portland in 1985, thinks the knowledge-by-fire approach works best
with his rookie.

     ``I think, in anything, the easiest way to learn is by your mistakes,''
said Porter, who seems to be making few - if any - errors in his first season
in charge of the Bucks bench. ``You're not making any mistakes sitting on the
bench, so it's hard to learn. No matter if (Ford) would have started or not,
he would have been given enough time to mature and increase his progress.

     ``You get bumps along the way. You learn your lessons about veterans. And
veterans are going to go after a guy, because it's like fresh meat. They see
him coming.''

     Asked if he remembers his own baptism when he watches Ford, Porter smiled
and said: ``I nod, but I don't really remember.''

     Even with Ford's accelerated indoctrination, there still is a long
process before he gets the position down.

     ``If he happens to stay with the same system and the same players for the
most part (it probably will be) four or five years before he really gets
comfortable with everything,'' said Porter, who also called Vin Baker's
comeback ``one of the most touching stories of the year.''

     Truth hurts but shakes it off

     Pierce had the Celtics holding their breath less than two minutes into
the game when he drove into 7-footer Daniel Santiago and went to the bench
clutching his right shoulder. He was diagnosed with a stinger. Pierce went
right back into the game and proceeded to make five of his remaining seven
shots in the quarter. . . .

     Kedrick Brown [news] and Jumaine Jones did not play last night. It was
Brown's first DNP of the season.

     Learning by repetition

     The Celtics have to play back-to-back games 17 times this season, but
it's better for them to be playing the same team as they are in this weekend's
home-and-home series with the Bucks. Instead of preparing for a new club
today, the C's can just make adjustments.

     ``There's something to be said for that from the standpoint that you're
not taxed as much mentally as you would be if you were playing Milwaukee and
then flying out to play Indiana,'' said Jim O'Brien.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx