Celts lose to Bucks Again!:Milwaukee 105-Boston 96

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	It seems as though the Celts have been playing Washington
Generals to the Buck's Globetrotters for the whole season now.  This
is the third time, counting 2 exhibitions that the C's have lost to
the Bucks in Rick Pitino's brief tenure.  It looked as though the
Bucks were hoping to win tonight's contest with a minimal effort,
perhaps figuring that they had handled the C's easily in preseason,
and that the Celts had played the previous night.  The Celts pressed
the Buck's hard though, and held an 11 point lead early in the third
quarter.  The Bucks finally bore down, and behind Glenn Robinson's
superb shooting, were able to outscore the C's 40-16, over about 12
minutes, to take an 86-73 lead, and effectively put the game out of
reach.  Tyus Edney and Greg Minor, were added to the active roster
today as John Thomas and Dante Jones went on the IR.
=09
	In general the 2 teams traded baskets back and forth, for most
of the 1st period.  Ron Mercer made a gorgeous drive, beating Ray
Allen to the baseline, and then going under the basket for a reverse
layup to tie the game at 9 each.  The Bucks outscored the C's 5-2 in
the last minute to take a 25-20 lead to the 2nd.

	The Celts started the second period with Edney and Brown in
the backcourt and Mercer at the 3 spot, as they scored 8 unanswered
points to take a 28-25 lead.  This unit continued to play effectively
throughout the period.  With Billups back in at the point, the Celts
outscored the Bucks 13-6 over the last 3:00 of the half to take a
51-44 lead.

	The C's continued their strong offensive play, at the start of
the third and outscored the Bucks 6-2, to take their largest lead of
the game at 57-46.  Chris Ford called a timeout, and suggested to his
guys that if they didn't get their act in gear, they were going to
lose the game.  The Bucks responded with increased defensive pressure,
and Glenn Robinson responded with incredible shooting as he went 7-9
over the rest of the period.  The Bucks outscored the C's 24-14, as
the C's headed into the 4th with a slim 71-70 lead.

	Not for long though.  The Bucks decisively put the game away
with a 16-2 run to start the 4th, leaving them leading 86-73.  The
Celts tried to claw their way back into the game with shear
determination, and they got to within 6 at 91-85.  The Celt's offense
betrayed them in the end, though, with too many turnovers, missed
shots and free throws.  The Bucks got the victory at 105-96.

	The Celts forced an enormous number of turnovers by the Bucks
early, but as the game went on things turned around, and by game end
the C's had committed 24, while causing 20.  The Celts scored exactly
the same number of baskets as the Bucks at 40, on just 2 more shots.
The major cause of the Celts lose was an old nemesis from the last
couple of season, as the C's went 15-27 at the charity strip while the
Bucks were 22-27 (I guess we can't blame Violet Palmer and her male
associates for this one).  All of that disguised the Celts best
shooting effort of the season as they went 40-77.  Once again they
were terrible from behind the arc at 1-9 (you know what that means
though: they were 39-68 on 2's:  .573!).  Rebounding was extremely
even.

Lineups:
Celts: Billups, Mercer, McCarty, Walker, Knight
Bucks: Brandon, Allen, Robinson, Hill, Johnson

Players:
Edney: The return of Tyus gets top billing tonight.  Tyus was very
effective especially in the second quarter.  He was a gnat on defense
and he used his penetrating ability on offense.  He was responsible
for much of that gaudy Field Goal percentage.  Had 11 points (4-10),
10 assists and just 1 turnover in 26 minutes.  He also helped the
Celts get some easy baskets in transition for what seems like the
first time all season.  And, in Brandon and Elliott Perry, he wasn't
doing this against chumps.  I don't know if Edney is the long term
answer at point, he is very small, and lacks an outside shot, but he
is a huge improvement over what the C's have been using.

Walker: his shot selection was much better tonight, as he shot 8-17.
Unfortunately he gave away most of that improvement, by going 5-11 at
the free throw line and committing 8 turnovers.  He did come up with
21 points and 12 boards in his 40 minutes. =20

Mercer: looks solider every game he plays.  Hit the jumper tonight,
and had a couple of awesome drives to the basket.  Shot 7-9, had 17
points, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 turnovers in 37 minutes.  Got quite
a bit of playing time at the small forward spot, as McCarty's begun to
lose playing time.  Committed a couple of silly fouls down the
stretch.

Billups: 10 points, 4 assists, 3 steals and 3 turnovers in 22 minutes
of playing time.  I'm not sure the reemergence of Edney will be good
for him, as it will probably increase the pressure on Chauncey to plsy
like a "real" point guard.  Certainly was not embarresed by Brandon.

Knight: Poor shooting night at 2-9, as he missed some jumpers and also
some relatively easy inside shots.  Got 7 boards and 3 assists.  Got 2
blocks also as he did a nice job on the defensive end.  Got switched
over to Glenn Robinson a couple of times and did a decent job one on
one.  Very few open looks at the basket,as the word is clearly out to
get up on him.

McCarty: I guess someone has begun to rein in Walter's wild shooting
ways.  Only took 7 shot tonight, and most of them were going to the
basket, as he got several nice drive-jam combinations.   Also had 5
boards and 2 blocks in 28 minutes, as well as 3 tunrovers.

Brown: continues to play well as he shot 4-7 and got his hands on
several balls on defense.  The Edney, Brown, Mercer combo seemed to
give the C's a nice balance of defense and shooting when Walker wasn't
on the court.

Ellison: another active night without much to show for it in terms of
stats.  Scored 2 points and had 2 boards in his 13 minutes.

DeClercq: Now I see it!  Andrew is no good unless there's a
penetrating point guard on the court with him.. DeClercq was a major
beneficiary of the Edney largess, as at least 4 of his 5 baskets came
off feeds form Tyus.  Delercq just hung arond the basket until his man
went help on Edney, and then Andrew just manuevered himself into
position for a pass or offensive board.  Had 10 points on 5-7 shooitng
in 10 minutes.

Bowen: seems to be losing playing time to Brown and Mercer. Only got
12 minutes tonight.  I think Brown is improving in Pitino's defense
faster than Bowen is picking up NBA offense.

Barros /Minor: DNP- It looks as thought Dana will be the big loser
with the emergence of Edney.  Except for outside shooting, Tyus does
everything better than Dana (By the way, if you combined Dana's
outside shooting with Edney's game you would have a hell of a player).

Coaching: You certainly can't say that Pitino lacks a sense of
urgency.  Edney got back to the roster (I'm still not clear if he was
ever really hurt) and Rick rode him for all that he's worth.  I
wouldn't be surprised to see Tyus starting in a couple of games at
this rate.
	I continue to be impressed with the improvement in the C's
offense over the last couple of games.  .519 shooting is nothing to
sneeze at, although they paid a price in turnovers to get it.  Now if
they can just get the aggresive press and the offense working in the
same game.

Oppostition Teams of Note: I'm still not sold on the Bucks:  Cousy was
saying that he thinks they will be one of the best 5 teams in the
league this year, but I think it will take longer than that to figure
out how to play together.  Brandon, Allen and Robinson are all fine
players, and Ervin Johnson and the bench are serviceable (but no more
than that).   If Tyrone Hill can get back to his all-star form of 2
and 3 years ago, though, all bets are off.

The Celts record now is 1-5.  They play next this Wednesday, at home,
agasint Denver.=20

Bill Cooper

PS. This was the first time that we've seen Violet Palmer as a ref (to
the best of my recollection).  As with Dee Kantner, there seems to be
no noticeable difference, though I thought  Violet called traveling a
little closer than most of the veteran NBA refs (which I imagine will
be regarded as an improvement in most quarters).