Bill Fitch Bringing Poise to Team Green

February 8, 1980

There is no doubting his purpose in life. Celtic coach Bill Fitch wants to win - and spends most of his time finding ways to do just that. But you also get the idea that even he is surprised how the Celtics have displayed poise and skill, which made their stirring 125-110 victory over the 76ers Wednesday night almost routine.

"I like to think about the confidence factor," Fitch said yesterday after practice at Hellenic College."I look at what happened in the third quarter of that game and have to feel pride. Every guy who has ever preached or heard of the words Celtic Pride' has got to understand it after seeing us play that period. I mean the way we won has got to be encouraging to every man on this team."

Aside from tonight's game at the Garden against Indiana (7:30 p.m., WBZ- radio), Fitch also was thinking about how the Celtics showed while overcoming a 59-47 halftime deficit that, even without Dave Cowens and Pete Maravich, they are a team built a basic premise - if they execute on offense and defense, they will win more games than they lose.

The Celtics' record is 29-3 in games in which they have been ahead or tied after the first quarter and 35-2 when ahead or tied after the third period. Statistically, the second quarter has been their worst. In 54 games, Boston has been tied or outscored 31 of 54 times. However, Fitch thinks his club can improve that record.

"We're lucky in that we're blessed with a team that has some smarts and have players who can communicate with the coach and each other," he said. "Make no mistake, we're a dictatorship. I've been known to raise my voice from time to time to get a point across. But the last six to seven minutes, the players can speak up and make a contribution, if they feel like it.

"It's important that you can have this type of atmosphere. It is hard to be a Hindu snake charmer with a deaf cobra. But we found out that a 15-minute halftime break can be just a valuable as a 23-minute delay (vs. Chicago on Jan. 16). Now if we can just get it down to a 90-second timeout."

Fitch said the reason for Boston's third-quarter success is hard work in practice and superior conditioning.

"I had them in solitary confinement in training camp," said Fitch, "and very little has changed for them since that time. We work at practice now just as hard as we did then. We ask some guys to do extra since you can't cover all the necessary things an individual needs during practice and he must do it on his own."

A case in point this week was center Rick Robey, whose strength has been a power game consisting of hook shots and second-effort baskets. Fitch asked Robey to shoot 100 jump shots after Tuesday's practice off feeds from Maravich. Robey received some much-needed practice from 15-18 feet out, but also got a tip from Maravich which Robey feels may make him a better shooter.

"I was pretty tired after that practice," said Robey. "But I know I needed the work and Pete showed me two things. He had me shooting the ball off my fingertips and not the palms, and shooting on the way up instead of going down. I had a very good touch that day and in the game Wednesday night (10 of 17 from the field, 22 points)."

Chris Ford said the Celtics' ability to play tight defense in the third quarter is not only a key to their recent performances but also a motivating factor.

"Against the 76ers, the one thing we were supposed to do was get up on our man and deny him or force him into doing things he might not want to do," he said. "That's what we talked about at halftime, and all we did was execute during the game.