Robey Fights Gilmore to Standstill in C's Win

January 30, 1980

The message was scribbled on coach Bill Fitch's play sheet. Time had been out for 23 minutes in the third quarter because clock had broken.

The message said all Fitch wanted his troops to think about: "13 minutes left. Ten versus 20,002".

If you're looking for a key to the Celtics 103-99 victory over the Chicago Bulls last night at the Stadium, it had to be the effect Fitch's message, along with his plan for a wide open offense that picked the Bulls apart in the fourth quarter.

In the last 13 minutes, the Celtics (led by rookie Gerald Henderson who was filling in for the flu-ridden Tiny Archibald) ran their patterns as though they were in a 2-minute football drill. The 10-man concept also came into play. For when Boston pulled away from the Bulls in the fourth quarter, Larry Bird, Chris Ford and Archibald were on the bench.

"After the problem with the clock," said Fitch, "we regrouped and told them that it was just a 13-minute ball game. We wanted everybody to go at them as hard as they could. And when they got tired, we'd go to the bench. We did go to our wide open offense. But we won the game mainly with our defense. This was a big, big victory."

To win the game before the 18,508 at the Stadium, the Celtics played physical, bruising basketball. After the game, Rick Robey had a dark spot over his left eye, the result of an elbow by Artis Gilmore, who scored 17 points while bullying his way through the middle.

"If you look at the lineup for most of the fourth period," said Robey, who fought Gilmore to a standstill most of the night and lead the Celtics with 23 points, "you'll see Gerry Henderson, Don Chaney, M.L. Carr and (Cedric) Max(well). That's not only our quickest lineup. But it is also our best defensive one."

When the fuse blew on the scoring clocks, there was 1:14 left in the third period and Chicago had a 77-76 lead. Bird had five fouls and was to be no factor, and Robey had four fouls and Gilmore was coming right at him.

But the game changed dramatically with 8:01 left. With Boston trailing, 87-85, Fitch brought in Henderson and Chaney to run the offense. Henderson scored two layups and a 10-footer. It was give and go time. Maxwell fed Chaney for a basket, Robey for another. By the time Henderson sank a pair of free throws with 3:12 left, Boston had a 100-91 lead and school was out.

Bulls coach Jerry Sloan blamed his team for the loss.

"Boston didn't even have its best player (Bird) much of the final period, and we didn't even do much about it. We couldn't even run up and down the floor.

"I thought we were getting fired up in the third quarter and you can think of a million excuses for what happened. But there is no excuse for not being able to run up and down the court, said Sloan."