By Jon Duke
Celtics 109 - Jazz 102

At 3:15pm yesterday, February 25th, I was beginning to make plans for the afterlife. I mean what my ears were hearing on 1510 the Zone obviously had to mean that the apocalypse is near. As Ryan Russillo’s baritone came through my Polk speakers with the following phrase: “Antoine Walker is headed to the Celtics for Gary Payton, Yogi Stewart, and Tom Gugliotta”; I nearly drove off the road. 17 months ago, when Antoine was traded from Boston to Dallas, my reaction was pure unadulterated joy. Walker’s game had deteriorated over his time in the league, and after a disgusting performance against Kenyon Martin in the 2003 Playoffs, I was ready to drive “Ole Empty Trip” to Logan myself. Hell, I might have covered his plane ride to Dallas.

Needless to say, I was very skeptical what to expect from the Employee Formerly Known as #8 as Walker joined the Celtics in Utah for this evening’s match up with the Utah Jazz. Worst case, I expected 5-25 shooting from the field with 1-6 from the 3-point line. Best case? 20 minutes with 6/8 shooting and maybe 6 boards. So, “wha happened?”

Pure and simple, Antoine Walker played as well tonight as I have ever seen the man play. Toine did everything that the team needed to have done. He was aggressive on the glass, made some nice passes in the half court set, threw a handful of solid outlet passes off rebounds, and most importantly, a consistent and sometimes dominant offensive presence in the post. For those of you who unfortunately missed last night’s game, go back and read that last sentence again. Does that sound anything like the player Danny Ainge traded away all those months ago? I don’t think so either. 24 points and 10 rebounds in 37 minutes of action is certainly beyond what I expected from Antoine in his reappearance in Celtics green, but there were obviously a number of instances where Toine didn’t know where to be in the offense and the team defense struggled for stretches with him on the floor.

However great Walker was, the Celtics win tonight was truly a team effort with valuable performances everywhere on the box score. Most notably, Delonte West and Marcus Banks played above expectations and each was a significant contributor to the Celtics victory. West (16 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists in 39 minutes) and Banks (10 points and 3 assists in 20 minutes) controlled the pace well and often looked up the floor to advance the ball up the court with the pass. However it should be noted that no one is confusing either of Utah’s current point guards (Howard Eisley and Keith McLeod) for John Stockton.

For the third straight game, the officials called an incredibly tight ball game where foul trouble has plagued each team. I’m not sure if the defensive rotations are slow, the officials have been ordered by the league to call the games tighter, or if it is a function of both the officials and players receiving nearly a week off and becoming a bit rusty. Either way, the foul situation allowed Ricky Davis and Andrei Kirilenko to score double figures from the free throw line alone. Ricky was 2-10 from the field, but more than made up for his cold start by shooting 13-14 from the charity stripe. AK-47 did Ricky even better with 7-13 from the field and 14-15 from the line.

The downside of Antoine’s return is unquestionably the reduced minutes for Kendrick Perkins and Al Jefferson. Perkins received the dreaded “DNP-CD” in the box score, but one couldn’t tell by his body language how unhappy he was by his playing time tonight since Perkins wears a permanent scowl on his face. Jefferson, on the other hand, received only 11 minutes but was extremely active on the court. Wheezie was 4-4 from the field, including a very nice 3-point play, which pushed his game total to 9 points.

Overall, a Celtics fan couldn’t be happier after watching this evening’s contest. There was a greater sense of urgency as crunch time ticked closer, and the team showed great overall effort for 48 minutes. Though limited by foul trouble, Paul Pierce was able to hook up with his old running mate on a number of occasions in the first half that resulted in easy points. While the pair looked at times like they hadn’t missed a beat, there were several situations where Walker didn’t know where he should be. But that will be worked out over the next few days, and I fully expect to see an even more improved effort on Wednesday when the Celtics return home to face those hated L.A. “Fakers.” Until then, the C’s have a day off on Saturday before heading to the “Valley of the Sun” to face a Phoenix team that put a whuppin’ on the guys in green when they faced off a month ago.

The Celtics should feel very good about their team after tonight, but I’m still holding off on announcing a verdict on the Antoine deal. One night of the new Antoine Walker doesn’t erase 7 years of the old Antoine Walker, but it does go a hell of a long way to showing that Walker can still fulfill his potential in Boston. We’ll wait and see.

By Tom
Kings 104 - Celtics 100
February 13, 2005

It was as if it was a beach ball in the bleachers at Fenway and Chris Webber was Bob Stanley with the rake. With 15 seconds left, Webber corralled a Mark Blount missed 11 ft jump shot (after the ball was volley-balled for what appeared to be 5 minutes) and threw a perfect lead out let pass to some guy named Maurice Evans. Evans then iced the game with 2 free throws. This critical play exemplified what was Celtics fans biggest fear about losing Al Jefferson to an ankle injury. This game exemplified what this Celtics teams chances are without the young, athletic big man.

The Celtics had no answer for Webber (14 points, 17 rebounds, 12 assists) because they did not anyone on the floor that could match his size and athleticism. Webber is the type of player (minus the pot smoking, grand jury lying and total lack of heart in the big playoff games) that Celtics fans dream that Jefferson can become. On a night where Peja Stojakovic left in the first half with an injury, Webber provided the lift his team needed to end a season long losing streak.

I was fortunate enough to attend this game, sadly only my second of the season. This was a very entertaining game to attend for a variety of reasons. First, it’s always fun to see a crowd lined up outside the gate and hour before the game. This is a tell tale sign that a good team is in town, especially when it is a school night. Second, there is the Cougar Factor(and the comedy that accompanies) which seems to double in size whenever a good team from the West Coast makes its one visit to town. I can state will full confidence that the Cougar Factor was at an all time high last night. You always know when there are a lot of groupies at a game when other women in the stands are commenting about it. Lastly, Bob Cousy was providing color commentary for the television feed which is a sure sign that a very entertaining team is playing (or the Knicks).

There were a few factors that favored the Celtics going into this game. They have won 18 games at home which is only one off of the total wins they had home all of last year. This was the 3rd game in 4 nights for the Kings who had lost 4 straight. Those factors appeared to increase when Stojakovic left the game after only playing 5 minutes. Little did Celtics fans know that the Ghost of Vinnie Johnson would appear in the body of Maurice Evans, a player who has averaged 6 points a game coming off the bench. Evans kept the Kings in the game in the 2nd period, hitting consecutive 3 point shots and being active on both ends of the floor. Evans would end the game shooting 5-9 from the floor, 3-4 from 3 point land while making all 4 of his free throws. It was the type of game that one would expect from Stojakovic and it was the type of game the Kings desperately needed from their bench.

The game was tied at 54 at halftime when the Celtics opened up the 3rd period on a 10-0 run, highlighted by a Raef LaFrentz (25 points, 9 rebounds) 3-point basket. It would be careless not to point out how well LaFrentz has played for the Celtics lately. He has shot the ball extremely well and his rebounding has been surprisingly superb.

This was the highlight of the night for the fans in attendance especially myself. The team had played a little defense and also attacked on the offensive end. During the timeout, my friend and I debated who the real winner of the little kid slam dunk contest that was held on the court. I went with the 4 year kid who did a 360 and then dunked while my friend felt the 9 year old girl that cart wheeled before getting the ball and dunking was the winner. This concluded with my friend challenging me to a postgame cart-wheeling contest which luckily we never did.

The Celtics extended the lead to twelve before the Kings climbed back into it. Once again it was Evans in the middle of things hitting another 3 point jumper while noted Celtics killer Cuttino Mobley tied the game with a driving dunk. The interesting (or maddening) aspect of this run was that Doc Rivers did not call a timeout to try to stop any momentum. The fourth quarter featured the outstanding play of Mike Bibby, who along with Webber, Stockton and Malone’d the Celtics to death.

The key to this game was bench points, which Sacramento won 23-19. This is
usually the key stat when attributing a team playing 3 games in 4 nights and winning. The Celtics had chances in the 2nd and 4th quarter to build momentum with their stronger bench and did not.

The night ended for us with a quick stop at the Fours to check out the Manning Bowl capped off with a half sprint to the car to avoid the tow truck. In all, it was a good night for basketball despite the outcome of the game.