Full Court Press: 2/26/05 Celtics vs. Jazz
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.
