C's Win Third Game in Three Nights

February 5, 1980

Larry Bird scored 24 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to lead the Celtics to a 119-103 come-from-behind victory over the Washington Bullets last night.

Bird broke open a tight game in the third quarter by scoring five points and dishing off two assists in a two-minute span as the Celtics scored 11 straight point. The win was the fourth straight for the Celtics, their third in three nights.

The Celtics failed to score in the final 2:18 of the half, negating what had been a good second-quarter bench effort and allowing the Bullets to slip into a 50-46 halftime lead.

Washington had led by six points, 38-32, three minutes into the second quarter, and Rick Robey was on the bench, having picked up his second personal foul late in the first period. But Eric Fernsten would come in and play 12 adequate minutes in the middle to give Boston a chance to stay in the game.

It was a quintet of Fernsten, M.L. Carr, Jeff Judkins, Gerald Henderson and Cedric Maxwell that outscored the Bullets, 12-4, in the prolonged stretch of 5:04 to give the Celtics a 44-42 lead with 3:40 remaining in the half.

Neither club was shooting particularly well, but Boston was surviving by virtue of some aggressive offensive-board work and a couple of dazzling plays by Henderson, who continues to impress. Among his contributions, Henderson scored five points and drew charges on Kevin Porter and Larry Wright.

Wright had been a particular nemesis in the first period as he took advantage of Tiny Archibald for 11 points. When Wright went out for a blow early in the quarter, he had shot five for five. Fitch sent in Henderson to cool Wright off after a fast-break explosion that gave the Bullets a 34-30 lead, but Dick Motta responded by inserting Porter for Wright on the same possession.

A buzzer-beating leaner by Chris Ford had given the Celtics a tie at 30-30 in the first period, a quarter that the Bullets threatened to dominate several times without succeeding, thanks, in part, to Maxwell (10) and Bird, who shot four for five for eight points.

The Bullets enjoyed the biggest first-quarter lead at 17-11, but the Celtics came back with an 11-4 run to assume their first lead at 22-21 on a pair of Maxwell free throws. That represented the first of eight consecutive lead swaps in the quarter. The string was broken when Elvin Hayes hit only one of two foul shots with 23 seconds left and Ford came through with his only basket of the period.

That the Celtics, down to their third-string center, could still function so well for so long, was certainly heartening. And they entered the second half with nobody in real foul trouble. Robey never did pick up his third, and Bird, who also had two in the first period, also avoided number three.

Bill Fitch used all 10 of his available men, and among the second-quarter contributors was Jeff Judkins, who stuck in a long jumper on which he was fouled for a three-pointer and also hit on one of his patented lane-leaners.

The major first-half difference between the clubs was shooting. Bird was five for 10, but none of the others came close to matching that and the team shot 35 percent. Washington, by contrast, shot 47 percent from the floor, led by Wright (five for seven) and Bob Dandridge (six for nine). That the Celtics were simply not into their offense was evidenced by their assist-basket ratio of under one to two (eight of l7).

A spectacular 27-7 run over the final 7:49 of the period carried the Celtics into a commanding 86-70 three-quarter lead.

Bird was sensational in the period, scoring 10 points (including a pair of three-pointers, one in Dandridge's nostrils), rebounding strongly and feeding Rick Robey for three fast-break dunks, which accounted for six of Robey's 12 points in the period.

The Bullets began the final period without Hayes. After being removed for treatment of a bruised right shoulder, the Big E returned to the game long enough to commit offensive fouls for elbowing on consecutive possessions within 24 seconds of each other in the final minute of the quarter. They were personals Nos. 5 and 6.

For the record, Bird had 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the third period. That means that in two nights, Bird had scored 23 points and had grabbed 16 rebounds - in the third period of those two games.