Ainge Debuts with Celtics

(actual picture from debut)

1981-82 Boston Celtics

In between standing ovations for Danny Ainge, the Celtics played a little basketball at the Garden last night. The result was a methodical, early-December, 109-100 victory over the New Jersey Nets.

Ainge, making his first appearance for the Celtics (and his first professional effort since he fielded grounders against the Oakland A's three months ago), played 10 minutes, made one of four shots, dove for a couple of loose balls and handled the post-game media blitz with the courtesy and aplomb of Henry Cabot Lodge. It certainly wasn't like this when a flat-topped John Havlicek banked home his first shot during the second year of the Kennedy Administration.

Meanwhile, there was another guard in the opposite corner of the Celtic locker room who started his first game of the season last night, scored a career-best 27 points, made 11 of 16 floor shots and played a team-high 43 minutes. His name: Gerald Henderson. That's right. Gerald Henderson.

While the soft-hearted were saying, "Tracy, We Hardly Knew Ye," and the enthused masses were on their feet for a guy who scored two points, Henderson cranked up his game and gave the home team 43 minutes of All-Star leadership in the absence of the ailing (flu) Tiny Archibald.

"I felt like I was gonna play a lot of minutes," said Henderson. "And when coach (Bill) Fitch told me I was gonna start, I went home and did a lot of homework. I went over our scouting reports and prepared. That was my job tonight. I wanted to make sure everything was taken care of."

In the course of the evening, Henderson teamed with Chris Ford, Terry Duerod (only three minutes), Ainge and Larry Bird in the Boston backcourt. In the second quarter, the Celtics ran a 1-4 offense with Bird (30 points, nine rebounds, six assists, ho-hum) doubling as the shooting guard.

"Talk about everybody being ready to do a job," stated Fitch. "Well, we lost our most important person (Archibald) in terms of our tempo. And Gerry took that responsibility and said, I'll be ready. He was ready."

It took Henderson a few minutes adjust to his starting role. Still reeling from Saturday's 20-point loss in Madison Square Garden, Boston fell behind by 11 (24-13) in the first quarter. Otis Birdsong (28 points) and Buck Williams (20 points, 10 rebounds) exploited the Celts out top and underneath.

But with Henderson penetrating and dishing off to the sequoia front court of Kevin McHale (17 points, eight rebounds in 28 minutes), Rick Robey and Robert Parish ("It was a football team out there," - Fitch) the Celtics surged ahead and led, 57-53, at intermission.

Henderson turned to his jump shot in the second half and the Celtics moved ahead to stay (63-61) with 9:25 left in the third quarter. Henderson and Bird combined for 22 points in the third period.

"In the first half, they were letting me penetrate," said Henderson. "In the second half I didn't do much penetrating, but they were leaving me open so I started to go with the jump shot."

With seven minutes to go in the final quarter Henderson put the victory stamp on the game. In a span of 40 seconds, the Celtics scored six points and turned a 97-87 "you never know" contest into a 103-87 "let's beat the traffic" decision.

Henderson started the spurt with a 13-foot banker off a feed from Ainge. Then Childe Danny (a Celtic who was actually born on St. Patrick's Day?) stripped the ball from Ray Williams at midcourt and with Ainge sliding head first toward the foul line, Cedric Maxwell scooped up the loose ball and laid it in. Seconds later it was Henderson hitting from the right baseline.

This has been a funny year for Henderson. He's a three-year veteran who's scored in double figures seven times, but seems destined to get burned as the torch is slowly passed from the 33-year-old Archiblad to the 22-year-old Ainge.

"I don't think I surprised our fans or my teammates any," Henderson said after last night's career game. "They know I can play. Maybe I surprised the other team a little.

"I don't feel forgotten, really. This is my third year and I've been able to adjust to the profession. Right now I just want to keep the green machine running real smooth."