Sixer's Down Celts: Philly 80- Boston 78

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

	Live by the jump shot, die by the jump shot.  The Celts really
searched for offense in the second half in this one (they scored 34 in
the 2nd), but managed to stay in the game, thanks to four 4th quarter
3's from Paul Pierce (a couple of them rather improbable).  Pierce,
though, who seems to take the "you're the man" hype too seriously,
forced up a couple very tough shots, late, making neither, as the
Sixers took the game 80-78.  Kenny Anderson went on the I.R., and Eric
Riley was wisked back from the Island of Lost Boys.

	The Celts got off quickly, as Pierce and Potapenko combined
for 7 points on the first 3 C's possessions.  P.P. and V.P.,
apparently still swell headed from their combined 56 points in the
last game, were a little piggy at the start.  The Sixers took
advantage to work their way back into the game, taking their first
lead at 12-11 halfway through the period.  Iverson was having a
dreadful shooting night, as Barros did a pretty good defensive job,
despite a nagging groin injury.  Potapenko drew Ratliff's first foul
of the game with a clever upfake (Vitally missed the throws though).
With 2:47 to go, Pitino got Minor and Barros back into the game and
they led the C's on a 10-2 run to close out the period with a 23-19
lead.

	The Celtics got a conventional three point play, about 4:00
into the second period, to push their lead up to 7 (35-28) for the
first time.  A few plays later, Jones did a really nice job on the
break, faking to Pierce and then laying down to Battie for a major
jam.  Then Ratliff picked up his third foul.  Pierce tried to take
advantage by driving to the basket, but got walloped, and fell very
hard to the court.  He had to leave the game (temporarily).  The Celts
had a couple of chances to take a ten point lead, but couldn't quite
make it.  The Sixers  scored the last 4 of the half, to cut the C's
lead to 5 (44-39).  Iverson was a mind boggling 2-14 in the half.

	Greg Minor scored the first 6 points of the 2nd half for the
Celts, and pushed the C's margin up to 7 at 50-43.  The Sixers upped
the defensive pressure, and ran off 8 straight to take the lead 51-50.
Pitino replace Minor with Garnett, and the Celts came back with 7 of
their own (5 by Garnett).  The Sixers came back again, as Pierce
pretty much shorted out the Celts offense with forced drives, to tie
the game, 59-59 at the end of the period.

	The Celts were only able to score 1 point over the first 5
minutes of the 4th (an Eric Riley free throw) as the Sixers built a
67-60 lead.  The Celts were down 5 with 4:54 to go, when the first of
Pierce's three dropped through the twine.  Iverson Immediately
answered with a 3 of his own, but one the next play, Barros drove and
dished to Pierce for another bomb, to pull the C's to within 2
(74-72).  Both teams were having trouble scoring, but McKie hit a
jumper with 3:00 to go to put the Sixers up by 3 (76-72).  On the next
play Pierce kind of head faked like he was going to drive, and rose up
with McKie no more than a foot from him, and dropped home another trey
to get the Celts to with 1.  2 possessions later, Pierce gave the C's
their only lead of the 4th, with another three, as he came around a
screen, turned and hit again (78-76).  McCarty rather foolishly fouled
Iverson on the nest play (78-78).  Pierce really forced the next
possession and ended up with a very tough turn around from 16 feet.
Iverson responded with a force of his own, but Ratliff rescued him
with a great put back with 7 seconds to go (80-78).  Pitino put all
his three point shooters on the floor (I guess he didn't want the game
to go to overtime).  Didn't make any difference, though, as the ball
came into Pierce, who had no intention of giving up the ball to
anyone.  He dribbled up to the three point line and took the shot
surrounded by three Sixers.  It didn't go in, and the C's went down to
defeat 80-78.

	Looking at the stats, it's a little hard to see how the Celts
made the game as close as they did.  They had 10 more turnovers than
the Sixers, and a couple less offensive boards.  Overall the Sixers
attempted 12 more FGA and 4 more FTA.  The Celts shot slightly better
(.397-.376) and hit reasonably well on threes (8-17).

Lineups:
Celts: Barros, Minor, Pierce, McCarty, Potapenko
Sixers: Snow, Iverson, Grant, Ratliff, Geiger

Players:
Pierce: I was a little hard on Paul above.  Pierce was the only Celts
to score over the last 6:00 of the game, so it's a least a bit
understandable why he forced so much.  Anyway, he had 20 points
(7-18), 4 boards, 0 assists and 5 turnovers (well on second thought,
maybe I had it about right).  I thought that Hughes made him look a
bit silly a couple of times.

Barros: Dana actually had a gutsy game for himself.  9 points, 7
assists and 6 boards in 36 minutes, while guarding Iverson most of the
time.  Dana was in pain for much of the game, as guarding Iverson is
no job for a player with limited lateral movement.

Minor: Greg made a lot of nice plays, and good decision, but his shot
just didn't drop quite often enough.  14 points (6-15), 6 boards, and
2 assists in 34 minutes.  The improvement in the intelligence of
Minor's play over the last 3 years (especially considering how little
he's actually been on the court) is remarkable.

Potapenko:  Amazing how may expectations change from game to game.
Based on his last few performances I was actually disappointed that
Vitaly had only 8 points and 8 boards in 31 minutes.  He definitely
did not play with the same vigor he displayed against Indiana.  He
couldn't drive past Gieger and Ratliff, and didn't go to the boards
hard.

Battie: on the other hand played one of his better games in April.  he
had 13 points, 12 boards and 2 blocks in 32 minutes.  He made some
nice moves into free space to get open for both jumpers and slams
going to the basket.

McCarty: At least he's realized that he won't hit a jump shot this
season, and has stopped taking them. He was just 0-3 tonight in 25
minutes and chipped in with 6 boards and 3 assists in 25 minutes.

Garnett: Had 5 points and an assist in 14 minutes.  Looked good in
stretches.

Jones: 3 points and 4 boards in 12 minutes.  We've seen him the
equivalent of a whole game now, and he's got what: 3 assists?

Riley: maybe Eric is just better when he's rusty.  Anyway, he had 4
points and 5 boards in 15 minutes.

Coaching: Pierce's last 3's saved the Celt's from a 2nd half debacle.
Pitino was really searching for some offensive combinations in this
game, but really couldn't come up with much.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.net