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7 November vs. Cleveland



Joe wrote to me saying that reading about Celtics losses, even ones we
already know about, leaves him with a bad taste in his mouth, a migraine,
and a severe case of the heebie-jeebies. Fair enough, I can appreciate
that. Maybe for the moment I'll limit myself to posting those of Bill's
articles which deal with victories, or reasonably close losses. So without
further ado I whisk you all back to November 7th. After suffering a loss to
Miami and a hammering to New York...

Celts come a lot closer: Cleveland 96 - Boston 92

       The C's put out a much stronger effort than in any of their
last 3 games, and had a real chance to win this one.  After a Dee
Brown lay up on the first Celtic possession of the 4th quarter the C's
had a 5 point lead (69-64).  As late as 4:22 to go in the game they
led 81-80. But the Cav's scored 9 straight, topped off by 2 Wesley
Person three's, to effectively put the game out of reach for the
Celts.

        Billups came out driving to the basket and dishing and played
a far more positive role than he has recently.  He scored 8 of the C's
first 11 points (and assisted on the other basket), as the C's took an
early 11-7 lead.  A couple of minutes later, though, Chauncey picked up
his 2nd foul and had to leave the game.  The Celts shot considerably
better (except for Walker) and managed to hold the lead for most of
the quarter.  The Cavs took a brief lead at 22-21, but Dee Brown came
in and hit 2 straight baskets to help the  C's to a 28-26 lead at the
end of the period.

        Both teams were cold at the outset of the 2nd period, but, as
has been the case recently, the Cavs thawed out first.  The Cavs got a
6-0 run to take a 35-31 lead.   The Cav's rookie backcourt of Brevin
Knight and Derrick Anderson combined to dominate the C's press, as
Cleveland pushed out to a 47-41 lead at the end of the first half.

        The Celts came out and scored the first 6 points of the 2nd
half to tie the score at 47.  But the Cavs put together an 8-0 run of
their own to take a 57-49 lead.  Pitino put a unit of Dana, Dee,
Walker, McCarty and Pervis on the floor and they played very
effectively together as the C's went on a 12-4 run to take a 67-64
lead at the end of the quarter.  This group was especially impressive
for it's passing, as it was one of the few moments of effective
offense in the entire (young) season.  The Celts scored on 10 out of
the last 11 possessions of the period.

        The Cav's came out charging to start the 4th, and after that
intial Brown layup, scored 9 straight to take a 73-71 lead, and caused
Pitino to take a time-out.  Rick got the C's back on track and they
outscored the Cavs 12-7 over the next 4:30 of the game to get a lead
at 81-80.    After Brevin Knight hit 3 free throws, Wesley Person got
free on the perimeter on 2 consecutive possessions and banged home 3
pointers to give the Cavs an 89-81 lead with 1:31 to go.  The two
teams combined for 19 points over the last 1:30 as the C's got a
little closer, but were unable to seriously threaten to tie the game.
The score stood at 96-92 after all the dust had settled.

        Lo and Behold, the Celts actually had a higher FG% than the
Cavs at .420-.418.  And the Celts scored more field goals 34-28.  But
the Cavs went to the free throw line 46 times (35) to the C's 31 (22).
That 13 points edge, plus 3 more 3 pointers was the difference.  The
C's had a slight edge in rebounding 41-38 and caused 3 more turnovers
than they committed 20-17.  The Celts continued their deplorable
shooting from the 3 points arc at 2-17 (hey, but that means they were
32-64 on 2 pointers: that's not bad).

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, Knight
Cavs: Knight, Anderson, Person, Kemp, Ilgauskas

Players:
Walker: He started out the game mired in his slump, but again,
improved his shot selection in the 2nd half and looked to be regaining
some confidence.  Scored 22 points on 9-21 shooting (I think he was
2-11 or 2-12 in the first half), had 11 boards, 3 assists and 4 T/Os.
For those of us who were boosting Toine for the All-Star team, though,
Kemp's performance was a little sobering as he had 28 points, 15
boards and took 19 shots to Walker's 25.

McCarty: was a whirling dervish in the first half.  Played 43 minutes
in the game, and scored 13 points (4-11), had 6 boards, 4 assists, 4
steals and 2 blocks (also 3 turnovers).  Had a huge jam off an
offensive rebound in the second quarter.  Although he had a couple of
really strong defensive rebounds he still only had 3 (I mean, heck,
Dana had 3 in 24 minutes).

Billups: very strong out of the gate, though he cooled off as the game
went on.  Had 14 points on 4-8 shooting, 3 boards, 3 assists and only
1 turnover.  Had a little trouble keeping Brevin Knight from
penetrating.  Chauncey is so much better when he's heading towards the
basket, as opposed to waiting on the outside for one of his teammates
to make something happen off the ball.  Pitino should just realize
that Billups is going to make a bad play going to the basket once in a
while, and accept it as the cost of Billups' style.

Knight: Someone's been watching films of the Celtics.  Until the
closing moments of the game, Travis did not get an open look at a jump
shot the entire night.   TK found other ways to be effective as he
scored 9, had 9 boards, 3 assists and 2 blocks in 26 minutes.  The 9
boards are a little misleading as Travis had 3 or 4 of them on one
offensive rebounding sequence, retrieving his own shot (I think) 3
times before he was able to get it into the basket.

Mercer: Got matched up against his old college teammate Derrick
Anderson, and maybe, slightly outplayed him.  Ron scored 16 points
(5-11) in 23 minutes, while Anderson, put up 17, but played 43.
Mercer's jumper continues to look sharper and sharper every game, and
tonight he still got involved enough to get to the foul line 8 times.


Dee: this was a good night for the veterans from last year's team as
Dee, Dana & Perv all made nice contributions.  Dee scored 6 points and
had 4 assists in 27 minutes.  He is slowly getting into the press as
the season goes on.  Also had a couple of nice hoops going to the
basket, but was 0-4 on threes.

Dana- Didn't look for the three much tonight, but he was active on
defense, and occasionally pushed the ball hard upcourt.  Cleveland did
a nice job of covering the C's effective 3 points shooters, while
leaving the unreflective ones free to shoot (Are you listening,
Antoine and Walter: a combined 0-4).

Pervis- nothing special statistically, but played nice D and made some
good passes.  Also moved up and down the court in the press better
than he has.  Had 4 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists in 17 minutes.
The difference between Pervis's and Travis's offensive games will be a
real problem as the season goes on (I'm pretty sure that DeClercq will
be equally ineffective from anywhere).  Travis is a classic high post
center, while Pervis needs to be within 12 feet of the basket to be
effective.

Bowen: Only got into the game for 9 minutes, and collected 4 fouls.

DeClerq/Thomas: totaled 6 minutes.

Jones: DNP?

Coaching: Heinsohn said that, for virtually the first time this
season, Pitino spent time on the offense in practice.  If you believe
that, it's kind of encouraging, as the Celts improvement over the last
few games was dramatic.  If the Celts had just settled for the 3 a few
less times in this game, they might well have won.  It actually
appeared, for a few minutes in the 3rd that they had an offense,
rather than a bunch of guys going one-on-one or just launching.

Opposition player of note: Person and Kemp combined for 54 points in
the game, but I thought the real hero for the Cavs was rookie Brevin
Knight, who started his first NBA game, scored 9 points, had 11
assists, and only 3 turnovers.  I think, he only lost the ball to the
press once all night, and all the Celts period of effective pressing
occurred when he was out of the game.  Now, this guy is a point guard!
Unfortunately he's a very short point guard, and I'm sure will have
tremendous problems on defense.  Even Chauncey scored over him a
couple of times.

The Celts are now 1-4.  They are traveling to Milwaukee to play this
evening.

Bill Cooper

P.S. I've received some very kind notes about my efforts over the last
couple of weeks, and I just wanted everyone who sent them to know that
I appreciate them very much.  I'm just so busy these days, that I
haven't had a chance to respond.