Celts come undone: New Jersey 108-Boston 100

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	For the first 2 and a half quarters this game looked like a
performance by the offensively smooth, defensively impregnable Celtics
we've been admiring over the last 4 games.  But, midway through the
3rd quarter, with his team trailing by 12, John Calipari, called his
troops to the sideline and explained to them that unless they came
with their A+ game, they were going to lose to the Celtics.  The Nets
responded with vastly increased defensive pressure, and the Celts, to
be frank, just wilted under it.  In frustration (both with the C's
performance and the officiating), Rick Pitino picked up 2 Technical
fouls in a span of 5 seconds, and Antoine Walker, picked up his 2nd
technical of the game a few minutes later, to join Pitino in the
locker room.  At no time did the young Celts stop battling, but even
when they increased their own defensive pressure to match the Nets,
the superior offensive ability of the Nets won out.  Bruce Bowen has
been placed on injured reserve and John Thomas was activated in his
place.

	Early on, though, things were very good.  Both teams were
playing well, but behind another fine shooting night by Dee Brown, the
Celts were able to build a small lead at 18-15.  Tyus Edney came into
the game, and had a positive effect as the Celts built their lead up
to 6 at 30-24.  The C's led 30-26 at the end of the quarter.

	The 2 teams continued to battle in the 2nd quarter.  Antoine
stepped forward in the 2nd quarter and helped propel the C's to a
49-39 lead.  The Nets were staying in the game at the free throw line,
taking many more "throws" than the C's (though they weren't converting
them at an especially high rate).  The Nets began to eke their way
back into the game and trailed at the end of the half 56-52.

	The Celts came out of the gate strong  at the start of the 2nd
half.  After Jersey had closed to within 3 at 67-64. the C's scored 9
unanswered point to take a 76-64 lead.  After a timeout the Nets
defensive pressure increased noticeably.  At the same time, Pitino
replace Edney with Billups, who had a very hard time with the
increased pressure (not that Edney would do that much better when he
returned).  The Nets held the C's to just 1 basket and 5 points over
the remaining 7 minutes of the period, while scoring 20 points
themselves.  Most of the Nets points came from Chris Gattling or from
Celtics mistakes.  With the score at 81-79, Pitino exploded over
something the refs did (I really couldn't tell what it was: maybe
Pitino just wanted out of there?).  The Refs pitched Pitino in no
time.  And the Celts trailed after the third 84-81.

	After Jason Williams scored a basket to make the score 86-81,
on the next Celtics possession Antoine had the ball at the top of the
key against strong offensive pressure from Chris Gattling.  Antoine
just whacked Gatling, right across the nose with his elbow (it looked
pretty viscous on the replay: even Tommy H. couldn't say much about
that).  I think that the refs tossed him right away, or maybe it was
after he protested overmuch at the call (it happened very fast).  In
either case, after the Nets had built their lead to 89-84, Assistant
Coach Jim O'Brian really got the C's to up the defensive pressure.
The Celts held the Nets without a point for about 4:00 minutes.
Unfortunately for the Celts they were only able to score 4 points
themselves in the interval, but they did cut the lead to 89-85.
=46inally Xavier McDaniel was able to break the ice for the Nets.  With
just 4 minutes in the game, Knight hit 2 free throws to pull the C's
to within 6 at 95-89.  As the Celts ratcheted the pressure up even
more the Nets began to find holes in it and went on a 9-2 run to
finally put the C's away, building a lead of 13 at 104-91.  The Celts
took to fouling the Nets, and as they had all night long the Nets shot
their free throws poorly.  The Celts did manage to get back a little
closer, but at no time were close to closing the gap.  The game ended
with the score 108-100.  All good things must come to an end.

	There might be a tendency to attribute this win to the huge
free throw discrepancy as the Nets shot 56 charities to the C's 25.
The Nets really didn't take advantage of the extra free throws as they
hit just 12 more than the C's.  After a first half in which they shot
53% and had 7 turnovers the Celts came back and shot 30% in the second
half and had 15 turnovers, as their offense fell flat against the Nets
strong defense.  To their credit the Celts did manage to almost hold
their own against  one of the best rebounding teams in the league,
though they did allow the Nets an unconscionable number of offensive
rebounds off of missed free throws.  After a period in which the Celts
bench has been very productive, the C's bench only scored 22 points
tonight.

Lineups:=20
Celts: Billups, Brown, McCarty, Walker, Knight
Nets:  Cassell, Kittles, Gill, Gatling, Williams=20

Players:

Billups/Edney/Dana: There might be a tendency to blame this loss on
the play of the point guards.  That view is certainly justified by
their combined total of 4-23 from the field, 15 points, 5 assists and
6 turnovers.  And it's certainly true that when the Nets responded
with their increased defensive pressure in the 2nd half that neither
Chauncey or Tyus handled it well (Dana didn't play in the 2nd half so
he doesn't get any blame).  It seemed to me, though that the Nets
smothered the other Celtics like a blanket, and the point really
didn't have anyone to pass the ball to.  When they tried to take it on
themselves to break the pressure and drive to the basket, they were
unsuccessful (Billups was especially guilty on this count).  Cassell
really put a hurting on Billups at the start of the second half,
scoring 10 points in about 2:30 and forcing Chaunce out of the game.

Walker: played pretty well before he got tossed.  Shot 10-16 on some
nice low post moves, though he was frustrated by the lack of calls
going his way.  Has a uncharacteristically poor rebounding night with
3, but had 4 assists , 2 steals and 4 turnovers.

McCarty: Third strong game in a row, as his teammate continue to find
him for much better shots.  7-11 tonight, for 18 points, 10 boards (5
offensive), but 4 turnovers. =20

Knight: Seems to be the most emotional of the Celtics.  After Pitino
and Walker got tossed Travis got really jacked up and started running
all over the court, and crashing the boards.  He also did the same
thing after Mercer and Bowen got knocked out of the game against the
Raptors last week.  Travis had a nice game, as he hit for 5-9 from the
field, scored 16 points, had 7 boards, 6 assists and 3 blocks in  24
minutes.  He and McCarty were both limited in playing time as they
each ended the game with 5 fouls.  Travis (and Pervis) did have their
hands full with Jason Williams, who was a real force for Jersey.

Brown: had the jumper working early as he scored 13 points in the
first quarter.  But he lost his touch after that, and may have hurt
the Celts down the stretch (of course, no one else was doing anything
either).  Scored 16 points on 6-13 shooting in 35 minutes.

Pervis:  Played well. but got into foul trouble quickly with 5
personal fouls in 17 minutes.  Scored 5 points and had 2 blocks.
I seem to remember him making a number of nice passes though he only
got credit for 1 assist.

Mercer: I'm not convinced that Ron is recovered form his injury.
After he played well in his first 5 minutes of the game last night, he
has been terrible.  Tonight he shot 1-7, and committed 5 turnovers in
26 minutes.  Not like Mercer at all.

Minor: didn't seem to be able to get his shot like he has the last
couple of games.  Scored 4 points in 13 minutes as he only attempted 2
shots.

DeClercq: scoreless in 10 minutes, but he did have 4 boards (and 3
personals).  Got burnt several times by Gatling in that 20-5 run that
put Jersey in control of the game.

Thomas: this guy is invisible.  Someone will say he's in the game, but
I just can't see him out there.

Coaching: I'm not sure how Pitino should take this game.  His guys
were playing their second night in a row, on the road (usually a very
bad thing) against a much better team than the ones they've been
beating, and they still put out a great effort under difficult
circumstances.  I think the way they lost will leave a bitter taste in
his mouth, though.  The Nets just overpowered the Celts with
aggressive, pressuring defense in the 2nd half, and the C's really
didn't know how to respond (and probably don't have the one-on-one
offensive skills to get themselves through a stretch like that).  To
be honest, though, to go into Jersey and win this game under these
circumstances would have been beyond any but the best teams in the
league (after all the Nets are 6-3 for a reason).  And we all know the
C's aren't there yet.

Notable Plays:  One play, I can't let go without commenting on, not
because it was especially significant, but because it was so fun.  In
the latter stages of the 2nd quarter, Declercq made a nice play to get
the ball of the defensive boards and outlet the ball to Edney, who
after a dribble, spotted Mercer free up court.  Edney got the ball to
him, but led him just a little too much (or maybe Mercer isn't
completely recovered from that blow to the head).  In either case,
Mercer caught the ball, but fell and landed in a sitting position.
=46rom the floor he spotted Walker flashing into the post and got the
ball to Antoine.  By this time Edney has run down court and cut to the
basket.  Walker hits him with a beautiful, hip level, behind the back
pass (reminiscent of Arvidas Sabonis, Bill Walton, Sam Lacey, Tom
Boerwinkle and probably George Mikan, if you go back that far).  Tyus
caught the ball, and laid it in, pretty as you please.  Sort of a Give
and Sit and Post and Go play.

The Celts are now 5-6.  They get the Nets for a rematch on Friday
night at the Fleet Center.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com