C's Too Close Too Sun: Phoenix 112- Boston 108

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	The Celts played a spirited game, pushing the now 9-2 Suns to
overtime, before the veteran Phoenix club could put Boston away.  The
Celts best chance to win the game, was on the final play of regular
time, when Tyus Edney drove to the basket, but was unable to convert
from about 5 feet (with 3 Suns draped all over him).  The Suns got
some huge three's from Rex Chapman to take control of the overtime.
Pitino shook up the starting lineup, putting in Edney, Greg Minor and
Pervis Ellison for Billups, McCarty and Knight.

	The new Celt's lineup got off to a good start as they scored
the first 6 of the game (nice shooting by Mercer).  It took the Suns
halfway through the quarter to tie the C's, as they were either losing
the ball to the C's press or converting for very easy shots.  The
Celts fell behind a couple of times by 2 points, but scored the last 7
of the quarter to take a 27-22 advantage.
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	The Suns were hot at the start of the second and outscored the
C's 14-6, on their way to a 36-33 lead.  The Suns got the lead as high
as 47-39, before the C's outscored Phoenix 11-2 to take a 1 point lead
into the half.

	As the two teams traded baskets early in the 3rd, Minor got
nicked with the score at 54-53 (C's) and went to the locker room.  He
had a mild hamstring pull, and did not return to the game (not sure he
would have the way Mercer was playing anyway).  The Suns made a bid to
gain control of the game with a 6-0 run to put themselves up by 8 at
66-58.  The Celts came back with 7 straight of their own (66-65).  By
the end of the quarter, though, the Suns were up 6 again, 79-73.

	At the start of the 4th, both coaches had settled on very
small lineups.  The Celts played the entire 4th (and all of the O/T)
with Dana and Tyus at the points (to match up with KJ and Kidd), while
Mercer and Chapman manned the 3guard position (invented just for this
game).  The clubs traded basket for the first half of the period, and
the score stood at 92-85 halfway through.  Antoine, who had been
relatively quiet for most of the game, scored 8 points in about 2
minutes to pull the C's to within 3 (96-93), but Danny Manning replied
with a drive to put the Suns up 98-93 (3:50) left.  Mercer and McCloud
each scored a hoop, and then Pitino expended his final timeout of
regular time, with 1:57 to go (100-95).  On the next play, Dana drove
the baseline, and hit Walker with a pass in the paint.  Walker hit a
lay-up and drew the foul, to pull the C's to within 2 points (100-98).
Cliff Robinson turned the ball over, and Dana drove the baseline
again, but took (and made) the shot himself, tying the game with 1:08
left.  On the next play, Dana stole the ball, but the Suns fell back
quickly and he had to pull the ball back out.  The Celts settled for a
Walker jumper which missed.  The Suns had a chance to break the tie,
but a Chapman 3 missed also.  The Celts got the ball, with 18 seconds
to go (they couldn't call timeout, of course).  They held the ball for
the final shot, and gave it to Edney at the top of the three point
arc.  Knight came out and gave him a pick, and Tyus drove the lane.  3
(at least) Suns converged on him, but Walker and Barros, ran away from
the play (towards midcourt), so that Edney had no one to throw the
ball to (if he wanted to).  Edney's shot missed (certainly he was
fouled, but we all know how that goes) and the only Celtic around to
contest the rebound was Knight, who followed Edney down the lane (and
there may not have been enough time, anyway).  The Suns secured the
board, and the game went to overtime.

	Walker tried to do to much early in the overtime, and missed 2
shots, committed 1 turnover and a foul, helping the Suns to a 105-100
lead.  Finally Edney retrieved a Walker miss and fed Barros for a 3,
but Chapman immediately responded with a 3 of his own to put the Suns
up 108-103.  With 1:18 left Walker partially redeemed himself with a
3, and after Robinson hit a free throw, Travis Knight took a 3 to tie
the game.  Travis missed and on the next Suns possession Chapman hit a
very tough jumper to put the game out of reach at 111-106 with 21.0
left.   The final score was 112-108.

	Most of the stats were pretty close, as you would expect in an
overtime game.  The Suns shot .506 (at one point, the SportSchannel
statisticians reported that 25 of the first 40 Suns baskets were
layups), while the Celts shot .489.  The Suns out rebounded the C's
slightly, and the C's had a small edge in turnovers.  The Suns hit for
8-20 on treys while the C's were 7-22.

Lineups:
Celts: Edney, Mercer, Minor, Walker, Ellison
Suns: Kidd, Chapman, McDyess, Manning, Robinson

Players:=20
Mercer: Ron's best game yet, as a pro.  He scored 26 (12-21), and had
4 boards and 3 assists (also 3 turnovers).  Played for 46 minutes, but
didn't contribute much offensively at the end of the game.  His jumper
was extremely effective for most of the game.  Only got to the free
throw line once, though (not that any of the C's got there much).
Over the final quarter and the OT, Ron only scored 4 and you have to
wonder if 46 wasn't a bit much.

Walker: Antoine had a quiet game  up until the 4th quarter, where he
scored 11 points in the last 5 minutes.  He added another 3 in OT,
though he really didn't play that well in the final period.   Had 27
points (11-25), 11 boards, 5 assists, 2 assists and  relatively low 3
turnovers.=20

Barros: Another great game shooting the ball at 7-10, and he also had
9 assists, 7 boards and a couple of steals (all that and only 1
turnover, to boot).  Very active and just had a knack of being in the
right place at the right time.  Of course, none of the Phoenix guards
tried to post him.=20

Minor: played well early, but with Mercer shooting the ball so well,
he never got back into the game after his early starting stint.  Had
points in just 8 minutes of playing time.  The SportsChannel folks
thought that his hamstring pull was minor, although given Greg's play
of late, he's right on schedule for some kind of injury.

Edney:  Got the start but got into early foul trouble and didn't play
much in the first half.  got almost all his minutes in the 4th quarter
and the OT.  Scored 7, had 5 assists, 3 steals and 1 turnover.

McCarty: I was surprised to see that Walter had 13 points , as most of
his scoring was very quiet.  Did have a big three in the third
quarter, but spoiled the effect by immediately throwing up 3 bad shots
behind it.  Scored 13 (4-10), had 3 boards and 2 turnovers in 26
minutes.

Knight: If he was upset by not starting he didn't show it.  Scored 8
points and had 8 rebounds in 22 minutes.  Pitino said after the game
that he thought that Travis would have a hard time matching up.

Ellison: Got the start, but then didn't play.  I assume that with
Cliff Robinson being the biggest Sun to play all night long, that
Pitino didn't see a matchup for Pervis.  Scored 4 points in 15
minutes.

Brown: High energy, but less effectiveness than in the last game.
Scored 2 points in 23 minutes (he only tried 1 shot).

Billups: only played for about 5 minutes in the 2nd quarter.  missed 1
shot.  I couldn't help but notice that on the big Chapman jumper in
the OT, that probably decided the game,  Jason Kidd left his feet to
make the pass to Rex out of the paint.  Heinsohn, who has killed
Billups for doing the same thing, praised Kidd for making a great play
(which it was, by the way).  That's not to say that Billups should
leave his feet all the time, but I think that a lot of Chauncey's weak
play over the last week has to do with him trying not to leave his
feet (that's why he looks so bad when he penetrates).  I just don't
think you can ask Billups to change a fundamental part of his game, at
this point in his rookie season.

Thomad/DeClercq: I was surprised to see Thomas get 10 minutes in
tonights game while DeClercq got a DNP.  Thomas must be impressing in
practice, because he sure isn't doing anything in the games to warrant
a promotion.

Coaching: I thought that Pitino coached this team as though he
expected them to lose in regulation, and was more interested in
teaching them the right lesson out of a loss, than in winning the
game.  He barely substituted at all in the 4th quarter, and then used
his  final timeout with 1:57 to go.  He was also surprised when Ainge
went big(ger) at the start of the overtime.
	After the opening moment of the game, when they had some
success, the Celts didn't use the full court press, much, and when
they did it was halfhearted.  The Suns are such a strong ball handling
club that pressing played into their hands anyway.

The Celts are now 7-8,  They travel to Cleveland for a game tonight
(Saturday).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com=20
=09