Pitino’s Celtics Stun The Champs

The Rick Pitino era began with a stunning win over the best team and best player in the NBA.

Pitino’s reconstructed Boston Celtics overcame a 20-point deficit after one quarter, kept Michael Jordan under control until the fourth and stunned the Chicago Bulls 92-85 Friday night.

The performance had a capacity crowd in Boston cheering with a volume rarely heard last season when the Celtics had a 15-67 record, the worst in their history.

Boston, which broke an 11-game losing streak against the defending champions, was led by Antoine Walker with 31 points and rookies Chauncey Billups with 15 and Ron Mercer with 11.

Jordan had 16 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, and Jason Caffey finished with 13.

Woman ref makes history

In Vancouver, British Columbia, acting businesslike and calm, Violet Palmer made professional sports history by becoming the first woman to officiate an NBA game.

Referee No. 66 walked onto the court at GM Place 15 minutes before tipoff between the Dallas Mavericks and Vancouver Grizzlies, the music thumping so loudly that she couldn’t have heard the crowd’s reaction had there been one. When her name was announced there was no response from the crowd.

Before long, the fans were booing her just as they would anyone else in stripes. Her first whistle came at 9:52 of the first quarter when she ruled that the Grizzlies had knocked the ball out of bounds after a rebound under the Dallas basket.

Let’s misbehave

Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal floored Utah center Greg Ostertag with an “open hand slap” between practice sessions Friday.

Ostertag was not hurt but the slap sent him to the floor near the basketball court at the Forum, said Larry Burnett of KLAC radio.

“I was shocked,” Ostertag said after Utah’s 104-87 loss. “It was in the heat of the moment.”

Charles Barkley, who met with league officials Friday, chose to keep playing. But the Houston Rockets’ star said he must make lifestyle changes, including hiring security guards, in order to avoid the type of situations like the barroom brawl he got into last weekend that had him considering retirement.

For openers

In Minneapolis, the $126 million man, Kevin Garnett, got 25 points to help the Timberwolves overcome a 45-point performance by Latrell Sprewell as they beat Golden State 129-113.

In East Rutherford, N.J., Larry Bird lost a chance to win his coaching debut with Indiana when Rik Smits missed two free throws with less than a second to play to give the New Jersey Nets a 97-95 win.