Knicks KRUSH celts: New York102-Boston 70

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts abandoned the full court press in tonight's contest,
and tried to play the game largely in half-court.  The veteran Knicks,
were pleased to see the C's trying to beat them at their own game.
New York utilized their superior outside shooting and excellent shot
selection to thoroughly dominate the young Celtics.  Chauncey Billups
got his first start as a professional and distinguished himself by
racking up more turnovers than points (7-5).

	For a little while, though, things looked like they might work
out for the Celts.   The C's started out the game by hitting their
first 5 shots (interspersed with 3 turnovers by Chaunce), as they
grabbed a 12-7 lead.  The Knicks began to hit some of their shots and
pulled even midway through the period at 13 each.  The Celts were
trying to utilize half court pressure and traps, rather than the full
court pressure that they have been using.  It seemed at first that the
Knicks were a little jittery at the prospect of the Celt's pressure,
but once they realized that they wouldn't get the full treatment,
settled down and played well.  Meantime, the Celtics were settling for
outside jumpers, and not hitting after the first few minutes.  The
Knicks led at the end of the first half, 23-22.

	The 2nd quarter saw the entry to the game of John Starks and
recent ex-Celtic Chris Mills, who helped to get the Knicks going in a
very streaky period.  The Knicks scored the first 6 points of the
quarter to take a 29-27 lead, but the C's came back with a 7 point run
of their own to tie the game at 31-31.  Mills got hot and the Knicks
scored 9 straight and outscored the C's 25-8 over the remainder of the
period to take a 56-39 lead into halftime.

	The two team traded baskets for much of the third quarter,
with little of interest happening, except the continuing quest of
Chris Dudley to hit a free throw.  With 4:00 minutes to go the Knicks
lead was still 17 at 74-57.  The Knicks then scored 8 straight and
took an 83-59 lead into the 4th quarter.

	Both teams played with intensity in the 4th period,
considering that it was obviously garbage time.  Unfortunately for the
Celts, at this stage playing with intensity does not include taking
good shots.  The Knicks built up their lead even more as the Celts
continued to settle for outside jumpers.  The game ended with the
Knicks leading 102-70.  New York outscored the C's 81-48 over the last
three quarters.

	This was one of those "What went right?" games.  The Knicks
outshot the Celts .485 to .351.  They did take more shots than the
Knicks, but that advantage was more than offset at the free throw line
44-16.  The Knicks earned that big advantage in overall shots taken by
getting 13 offensive rebounds to the Celts 5.  Overall the Celts were
horribly outrebounded 54-29.

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, Knight
Knicks: Ward, Houston, Johnson, Oakley, Ewing

Players:
Knight: Earned the Celtic's leading scorer mantle with (gulp) 13
points.   Unfortunately he only added 2 boards in his 21 minutes of
playing time, and had little idea what to do with Ewing.  Knight did a
good job of shooting form the outside, hitting on 6-10, and was
coaxing Ewing out from under the basket.  It's unclear what the rest
of the Celtics could do to exploit that advantage, though.

Walker: Horrible game.  Reminiscent of his early rookie year.  He
score 9 points on 2-15 shooting, had 1 rebound and 4 assists in 28
minutes.  Interestingly, he did play the game without committing a
turnover.  Wonder if Pitino had gotten on him, in that regard.  Walker
was being played by the Knicks power forwards, Oakley and Willaims.
Rather than play in the medium outside (15-20 feet) where his
quickness and ball handling would be an advantage he alternated
between trying to post from very deep inside and launching from behind
the 3 point line.

Billups: Probably a bad game to choose for Chaunce to make his first
start.  Ward just saw raw meat in Billups and played him very tough,
stealing the ball from his in open court several times.  Billups
scored 5 points (1-5), had 3 assists and 7 turnovers in 31 minutes.
He didn't seem to be playing his own game, as he was trying to yo-yo
the ball outside while he waited for the Celts half-court offense to
get set up.  This was a long wait as the Celts's don't have a half
court offense at the moment.  I don't think he made a forceful drive
to the basket, the whole game.

Mercer: showed well early, but then got lost in the shuffle.  Scored 5
points (2-6) in 28 minutes.  Did a solid job on Houston.

McCarty: Continues the poor shooting, with a 3-11 tonight.  He did do
a decent job on the defensive boards with 7 in his 31 minutes, but
also had 4 turnovers.  Although, McCarty thinks he has a jumpshot, he
seems to be more effective when he turns before he shoots the ball
(something you frequently see in ex-post players trying to make the
transition to playing facing the basket).

Dana: Probably his best game of the regular season.  Had 9 points
(3-4), 3 assists and 3 steals in 19 minutes. =20

Pervis:  I thought he played much more than the 14 minutes listed in
the boxscore.  Actually looked active and played well, scoring 4
points and picking up 5 boards.  But he also got 6 fouls.

Bowen: 2nd on the team in scoring with 11 points (4-7), 3 assists and
3 steals in 22 minutes.  Played well and his midrange jumper continues
to be serviceable.

Dee: got 15 minutes tonight, as it seems that Pitino puts him into the
games as a professional courtesy, not because Dee really does
anything.  Dee scored 4 points, had 3 boards and a steal.

DeClercq: Almost matched Pervis's pace with 5 fouls in 13 minutes.

Jones: Would some one tell me why Dante in thought to be an offensive
player?  In fact, he seems like a really good athlete, who just took
up the game last June or so.

Thomas: got another 6 minutes tonight.  The announcers will say that
he's in the game, but I just never see him do anything.  Of course he
has a right to be invisible, with his second team in his first month
as a professional.

Coaching: If Pitino's point was to prove that the Celts have to play
the full court pressing style, or risk getting embarrassed out of the
league, he certainly proved it.  Although the Celts continued to play
intense defense, and they did get 14 steals, they clearly decreased
their own comfort level by abandoning the full court press and
increased the Knicks.  And without the press the Celtic's just have no
offense.  They can't generate any layups off the turnovers they cause,
and rarely get anything better in the way of a shot that a long
jumper, or some kind of crazy inside shot.
	As far as Billups goes, I approve of him being in the starting
lineup, but only if Chauncey is allowed to play his game, which is to
say, drive to the basket.  Good NBA point guards usually arrive in the
league with the ablility to direct the team, and if they don't, have
to find some other way to be successful.  Billups may become adequate
as a John-Stockton-wannabee, but he'll never be any more than that.
Chauncey's ability to penetrate into the lane, and break down the
opposition's defense is what's going to make him, or break him, in the
NBA.

The Celts are now 1-2.  They host the Heat at the Fleet Center
tomorrow evening (Wednesday).

Bill Cooper.