CBW review: Celtics at Washington Wizards, first quarter

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle]

Note: this review can be read in it's entirety tomorrow on the CBW.

CBW Review: Celtics at Washington Wizards, Sat., Nov 03, 2006

The Celtics came into tonight's game at the end of a very long 
week.  It was a week after the death of Red Auerbach, and they were 
playing in Washington, D.C., where Red lived for most of his 
life.  Boston had suffered two straight losses to start the new 
season, the first on opening night, where a moving tribute to Red was 
followed by a truly miserable excuse for a game as the visiting New 
Orleans/Oklahoma City hornets rolled over the Celtics. Two days 
later, the Detroit Pistons came to town, and while the Celtics played 
much better, the end result was still a tough loss for the Good 
Guys.  Now, they faced the second night of home/away back to back 
games, and this game was being broadcast on NBAtv, David Stern's way 
of generating extra revenue from fans who wouldn't pay to get the 
channel, except that it carried games they wanted to see.

This time out, NBAtv made us suffer through the Wizards feed, which 
meant that after sitting through the nattering nabobs of negativism 
at NBAtv give their dose of anti-Celtic "expertise", we get to hear 
the Wizards broadcast team do basically the same thing.  Then we got 
the starting lineups from NBAtv.  Boston would start Ryan Gomes, 
Wally Szczerbiak, Kendrick Perkins, Paul Pierce and Sebastian 
Telfair.  The Wizards would counter with Antawn Jamison, Caron 
Butler, Etan Thomas, Gilbert Arenas, and Deshawn Stevenson.  they 
rushed to end their pregame show so that we could see the team 
lineups given by the Washington Public address system--at least the 
Wizards, they apparently felt they could skip the Celtics players 
introductions.  In a new low of self-absorbed foolishness, Gilbert 
Arenas made his entrance wearing a boxing robe with his name on the 
back, slowly striding onto the court, and looking very much like the 
village idiot.  If a teammate of mine pulled that stunt, he'd need 
surgery to get that robe out of where I'd put it.  As everyone 
recovered from that slimepit of self-indulgence, they remembered to 
give the Celtics lineup...followed, of course, with Washington's 
lineup, again.  At long last, they decided to start the actual game, 
which was good, as I wasn't sure anyone there remembered the 
ostensible reason for the televised gathering also known as the 
Gilbert Arenas show.

1st quarter:

Washington took the tip, and immediately turned the ball over on a 
traveling call.  Pierce then drove the baseline at the other end and 
scored the hoop for the Celtics first lead, whilst drawing the 
foul.  When Paul shot the free throw, the ball bounced and clonked 
around before ultimately falling exhausted to the hands of Etan 
Thomas, who let Stephenson take it up the floor.  Caron Butler made 
the ball abuse the rim some more before falling through.

Boston played much as they had against Detroit, working the ball 
around before Telfair ultimately got a good look for two. I was 
cautiously optimistic about the Good Guys' chances to win, even as I 
was surprised at the sheer size of some of the Washington players. 
Some of those guys have arms as thick as my legs, and it all looked 
like muscle.  The Celtics players looked like small stick figures 
next to the Wizard players on the court.

Much as Gilbert Arenas annoyed me, the man knows how to score, 
nailing a three from a couple of feet past the elbow of the 
arc.  Pierce's attempt to feed Gomes at the other end resulted in a 
turnover.  Perkins fouled Thomas on his way to the hoop to make him 
earn it at the line.  Justice prevailed momentarily as the second one 
missed, but Wally lost the ball on a steal that ended up with a Caron 
Butler basket.  Telfair's shot bounced off the back of the rim and 
Gomes lost the ball on the rebound--his back blocked the play, but 
either it was slapped away by a Wizards player, or went right through 
his hands.  In the end, it was a turnover, and the only reason Etan 
Thomas didn't slam home a transition basket was he didn't handle the 
pass well, and lost control of the ball out of bounds.  That made me 
wonder if the compost ball was getting slick early.

Pierce twisted his way through the defense for two points. Butler's 
failed attempt at a three bounced into Wally's hands.  but when 
Perkins started backing into the hoop, he poked his elbow out a bit 
too far into the chest of Etan Thomas, and  was called for the 
offensive foul.  Somehow, Wally ended up with blood running from just 
above his right eye down the side of his face, and Doc was pointedly 
asking why the obvious foul wasn't called.  But when I looked at the 
replay--and the original in slow motion, nobody came in to that kind 
of contact with Wally on that possession. Wally was clearly moving 
alone the perimeter, positioning himself for a three point shot or a 
long rebound.

So I rewound the recording and saw that on the previous Washington 
possession, he was obviously wiping something off his face onto his 
shorts.  I'd ignored it previously, assuming it was sweat, but it 
clearly wasn't.  I went back a little further, to the Celtics 
possession with 9:32 left in the quarter.  In slow motion, I saw 
Wally moving up the side of the line moving away from the basket, as 
Kendrick Perkins was backing down the same side, facing away from 
Wally.  Wally was unable to change direction fast enough and his face 
caromed off the back of Kendrick's head.  Perk obviously hit hard, 
because he was holding the back of his head afterward, as Wally's 
head snapped back from the impact.  Perk never saw what hit him.

As play continued, with the Wizards possession, Wally was trying to 
unobtrusively wipe the blood away, but the cut was obviously bigger 
then he thought, because less than 30 seconds later, when Perk was 
called on the offensive foul, Wally went straight to the sideline, 
realizing the bleeding was worse, as trainer Ed Lacerte met him there 
with a towel.  By this time, his condition was obvious and Doc 
Rivers, unaware that the injury was caused on an earlier possession 
by a teammate, was complaining to the refs.  Someone, perhaps Wally 
or Perk, I'm not sure, must have spoken up as Doc stopped 
complaining, and Wally was led to the locker room by Lacerte as play resumed.

Washington got zip out it's trip down the court and Boston came back 
up, only to turn it over on a palming call, their fifth turnover less 
than four minutes into the game..  Jamison drew the foul as he scored 
the basket, but missed the free throw.  Pierce missed his shot and 
Etan Thomas actually jumped up and down and growled AFTER he caught 
the rebound.  that's a little scary, and I thought dark thoughts 
about rabies and tetanus shots.  Was Etan a fan of Tree 
Rollins?  Hopefully not.

Gilbert Arenas somehow managed to drove the lane, went behind the 
back in the midst of the defense, and still scored the hoop.  Butler 
then stole the ball when Jefferson made a careless pass and zipped up 
for another hoop.  Boston called timeout with 7:37 left in the first 
quarter and the Wizards ahead, 14-6.

Following the timeout, the C's did try to go to the hoop and did make 
a sincere effort to rebound, but the Wizards were just too tall for 
them to have any chance.  The only good part was the Wizards' 
transition shot didn't go in.  What annoyed me was that Boston was 
moving essentially the same way they had against the Pistons and with 
less success.  They weren't just walking around, but this was by no 
means a running offense.

Pierce did draw a foul from Arenas, but his first free throw missed 
badly.  Washington has this incredibly obnoxious sound system that 
played a silly sound effect when the C's missed a free throw. It also 
played loud music during the game.  If I ever go there, I'll have to 
speak to the sound guy, using the example of a hockey stick and a 
soundboard to explain the consequences of annoying Celtics 
fans.  Paul's second free throw dropped through nicely.

After a Piston miss, Tony Allen was hacked as he drove the baseline, 
but the refs called it a possession foul, not a shooting one.  As 
they set up to go inbounds, one of the Wizards announcers--Frick or 
Frak, don't remember which one--quoted Pierce as saying that you 
can't duplicate shooting a free throw in a gametime situation.

Paul Pierce, if you are reading this, that statement is a load of 
happy horseshit.  A free throw is an uncontested shot.  No one can 
block it, no one can foul you.  You stand the same distance from the 
same angle every time you are at the line.  There's no weather to 
affect the trajectory of the ball.  You can shoot it any you want, as 
players as diverse as  Rick Barry and Reggie Miller demonstrated over 
their careers.  At this point in your career, you should be able to 
hit those when you're asleep.

As far as crowd distractions go, baloney.  All they can do is 
yell.  Big deal.  You don't need to hear the ball go in.  At this 
level of the game of basketball, the worst free throw shooter on the 
team should be hitting 80% minimum, and the team average should be 
around 85-87%.  You, as an above average free throw shooter, should 
be closer to 90%, barring injury.

I'm well and truly tired of hearing people make excuses about how 
shooting 60-70% is ok.  It's NOT ok.  Shooting a free throw is one of 
the very first things you learn after how to dribble with your head 
up.  If you're injured, fine, I'm more than willing to cut slack for 
that.  But absent that, there's no reason not to routinely hit eight 
of every ten free throws, if you have trained yourself to shoot it 
the same way every time.  This goes not only for you, but your 
teammates.  Practice shooting free throws until they become "gimme" 
points every time you step up to the line.  I genuinely like and 
respect you as a player, but don't try to pass off that lame excuse 
as a reason not to make free throws, that's beneath you.

Ok, back to the game.  Pierce weaved through the defense with a lot 
more grace than I've seen out of the Moosiers, but Etan came up and 
blocked the shot.  Stevenson nailed the open baseline jumper to 
complete the transition run by Washington.  Could the Celtics please 
try to do some of that?  Pleeeeeease?

Gomes responded with a deep two of his own, and the Wizards were 
advancing once more.  A lose ball foul stopped them, and the C's 
regained possession.  Gomes then made a bonehead cross court pass 
that was VERY nearly stolen, but Pierce managed to snag the ball away 
and hit a three for good measure.  Gomes then got tangled with Arenas 
near midcourt as the C's nearly turned it over.  Telfair 
hippity-hopped his way down the bunny trail to make a basket.  How 
traveling wasn't called mystified me, but at least it went our way this time.

Etan Thomas missed, and Pierce got another defensive rebound, 
immediately dropping the ball off to Telfair and running up the 
sideline.  That was very pleasing to see, a marked difference from 
his old habit of dribbling the ball up himself.  Tony Allen drew a 
cheap foul off Stevenson, going to the line where he calmly drained 
both.  Gomes broke up the initial drive to the hoop, but after a 
scramble, Jamison slapped the ball to Etan Thomas, who slammed it 
down the hoop, but was called for a technical for hanging on the rim 
afterward in celebration.  Meanwhile, his teammate Jamison flattened 
a few photographers as he went flying out of bounds.  After Pierce 
made the technical free throw, they replayed Etan's rim grab, and 
there was clearly nobody underneath him.  For once, a silly mistake 
by the other team.

At the opposite end, Pierce got robbed of a basket when the late foul 
was called, supposedly before the shot, after the ball went through 
the net.  With the second free throw, Boston at last regained the 
lead, 19-18 with 4:12 left in the opening quarter.  Alas, Jamison 
immediately hoisted a three at the other end.  The C's kept pushing 
the ball in to Pierce and the whole building knew what was happening, 
allowing the Washington defense to collapse on Pierce, who had to 
take a shot which missed.  The Wizards turned it into a fast break, 
missing the basket but drawing the foul.  Stevenson went to the line, 
going one for two.  Of course, the aforementioned annoying sound 
system was curiously silent on the miss.

After a lot of running screens back and forth across the arc, Telfair 
took a deep jump shot that went in nicely.  A Washington miss at the 
other end led to the closest thing to a fast break the Celtics had 
run in three games, as Pierce drove in for two.   On the next 
possession, Arenas launched a three that had no chance of going in; 
then ran unopposed to the hoop to rebound his own miss for an easy 
layup.  When the Celtics went the other way, Tony Allen took a hard 
hit as he attempted a fadeaway--no flagrant was called, of 
course--but timeout was called with 2:18 left in the first quarter 
and Washington ahead, 24-23.

Following the timeout, Tony missed the first free throw, then Rondo 
came into the game, after which Tony somehow coaxed the second one in 
the hoop.  Davis then abused Gomes under the hoop, moving inexorably 
toward the basket, then spinning around and launching a shot for 
two.   Pierce then deliberately drew the defense,then made a nice 
pass to a wide-open Gomes...who promptly missed the shot.  The C's 
lost the rebounding battle to Haywood, who passed to Daniels to 
launch a fast break.  Daniels made the shot and drew the foul, and 
made the free throw.

While Boston marched the ball upcourt, we learned that Wally had 
gotten four stitches above his right eye, courtesy of his earlier 
collision with teammate Kendrick Perkins, and was expected to return 
to the game.  Tony Allen made a nice inside pass to Al Jefferson for 
an easy layup.  On the other end, Daniels moved so fast from the free 
throw line that he had to fire the ball up one-handed at a sharp 
angle to get the shot off, bouncing it off the backboard and into the 
hoop.  That's just not fair.

Back to the Good guys, where Delonte fired off a close pass to Tony 
Allen for a layup.  Arenas answered by weaving through the defense 
and rising up to score another hoop.  Delonte was robbed of an open 
jumper basket when Al was called on a cheap foul.  Washington held 
for the last shot, but Arenas missed.  Haywod rebounded and shot as 
time was about to expire, and of course, it went in.   The first 
quarter ended with Washington leading, 35-28.

I couldn't understand how, after the last game, the Celtics weren't 
making more of an effort to run.  There were no fast breaks to speak 
of.  There was no way the C's were going to beat this team in a 
halfcourt game unless Arenas left the building and his teammates 
forgot where the basket was.  Washington had the big men we so 
desperately needed, and the Celtics were in a lot of trouble as the 
second quarter got underway.

Next...the second quarter!

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
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