C's Lack Consistency with ML and Antoine

Antoine Walker's Rookie Campaign
11/29/96

Ah, thank you for joining the program. Your timing is impeccable. In just a few seconds, we'll go courtside and ask the Celtics the most difficult question of their 12-game-old season.

Perhaps you didn't recognize the fellas on Wednesday night. They had the look of a solid, sixth- or seventh-seeded playoff team. The look was nothing that made you want to slide your Big Three videotapes back into their covers, but it was impressive enough to stop the Lakers, 110-94. More on that later. But now it's time for The Question. It is necessary to ask it before the Celtics play the Rockets at the FleetCenter tonight. So here goes:

``Can you guys duplicate what you did against the Lakers -- before 1997?''

Those expecting a stiffer query haven't been watching. These Celtics have shown the NBA that they are capable of doing some commendable things. What they haven't shown is an ability to maintain those things. In fact, a check of the log reveals that Wednesday night was the first Celtics game of the season in which terms like ``lapse'' and ``no energy'' (which they could copyright if they were in a John Calipari frame of mind) didn't apply.

``The guys who came in off the bench did a great job,'' Dana Barros said. ``Sometimes we'll sub in three or four people and it's like we never played together before. It wasn't like that (against the Lakers).''

Yet, The Question remains unanswered: Can it be done again? The seamless benchwork. The balanced scoring from the starters. The steady performance in the fourth quarter.

``That's what we're trying to do now,'' Antoine Walker said. ``The first thing we need to do is get back to .500. You know, we could turn this around real fast. We've got 70 games left.''

If the Celtics are going to win more than they lose, the pattern of those 70 games can in no way reflect the first 12. So far they haven't completed the simplest of tasks, which is to play solidly for two consecutive games. They may have beaten the Mavericks Sunday, but they faded in the fourth quarter, allowing a 25-point lead to be whacked at until it was only 6.

Against the Lakers, they let an 11-point fourth-quarter lead fizzle until it was only 3. Then Barros hit a 3-pointer and Walker hit another, ``the first big shot I've made since I've been here.'' And, for a change, the Celtics walked away talking about their fourth-quarter grip as opposed to their fourth-quarter slide.

Fans of the Celtics may have noticed that the team plays well when it isn't expected to. That has happened when there is an interesting sidelight to the game. They already have had Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal, and tonight Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon are in town. But this is where The Question becomes even more significant.

How will the Celtics play when they have to make a quick trip to New Jersey in December? Or Atlanta in January? There will be nights when they won't be able to feed off the energy of television cameras, an opposing star or rowdy fans. It will be just them and their coaches providing the push.