C's Even Series

4/21/1980


Yeah, maybe there might have been something worse than going down to Philadelphia trailing the 76ers, two games to none. The Celtics could have volunteered to shoot rapids in a plastic raft purchased at the church fair, for example.

Absolutely nobody in Boston wished to contemplate getting two-down in this series, and now the worrying has ceased. Bill Fitch attached his hopes, and those of 15,320 Garden followers, to a five-man nucleus yesterday afternoon, and Boston's answer to the Fabulous Five provided him with a 96-90 decision over the Philadelphia club. The Eastern Conference final series is now tied at one game apiece, with the third game coming up on Wednesday night at the Spectrum.

There can be no denying that the Boston half of the morning box score is an eyebrow archer. Boston substitutes accounted for a mere 28 of the 240 playing minutes. Fitch stayed with his five-man mule team, and nobody will ever be able to convince him he did not do the right thing. "If," he said, "I run into a carbon copy of this game anywhere along the line, I'll do it again. I think this team is as well-conditioned as any in the league. My players have the right to ask out for a blow, and the substitutes for each player can put themselves in for their man if they think they should. I may run a dictatorship, but it's with a diplomatic-democratic twist."

And so the starting five of Tiny Archibald, Chris Ford, Dave Cowens, Cedric Maxwell and Larry Bird did the job. Archibald rebounded from a wretched Friday night performance with eight assists; Ford played his usual brand of clever defense and scored 11 points; Cowens logged 46 intense minutes, during which he anchored the defense while contributing some timely baskets; Maxwell squirmed inside for 17 points and labored mightily for a game-high 15 rebounds; and Bird, well, Bird played like a drop-in from Mt. Olympus.

Larry Bird simply made the difference in this game. After missing his first three shots, he sank 13 of his next 15 attempts from the floor, and the variety of his offense suggested a man playing "Horse" with himself. The level of the 76ers' defense in this game matched their first-game effort, but this time The Rookie made shots no 6-foot-9 man has a right to make. It was that simple.

"He made some incredible shots," conceded Sixer coach Billy Cunningham. "There wasn't much you could do about it."

A sensational Bird streak propelled the Celtics, whose only deficit was 2-0, from a 12-8 advantage five minutes into the game to a 47-32 margin. Bird stuck in 21 of the 35 Celtic points in that 12-minute stretch, connecting on medium-and long-range jumpers (both in a transition game and coming off picks), along with a mixture of ambidextrous short-range stuff. Obviously fatigued, he would later miss seven consecutive shots. But he deposited a long jumper to break that spell midway through the final period, and he finished with 31 points.

The game wasn't put away until the final nine minutes, or until the Celtics, who had blown a 15-point second-period lead down to a tie at 62-all, answered the final Sixer thrust with big baskets by Cowens (14) and Bird. Philly was still hanging tough at 76-70 when Cowens responded to a delightful low-post mismatch with Steve Mix by swinging into the lane for a hook with 9:18 left. Bird then expanded the margin to 10 at 80-70 with a jumper from just inside the three-point arc. The 76ers were unable to reduce the deficit to less than 10 until garbage time, as the Celtics twice expanded the lead to 13, the second time at 90-77 with 3:41 to play.

The Celtics had to win this game twice due to the second-period heroics of the estimable Bobby Jones, whose disruptive defense and great offensive board play rescued the Sixers from a 15-point deficit. Boston had broken loose from a shaky 23-22 state of affairs to move into five different 15-point leads in the second quarter, the final one at 53-38 with 2:37 remaining in the half.

Jones and fellow sub Mix accounted for 18 second-period points as the 76ers creeped within four (54-50) at intermission, thanks to a 12-1 run in those final 2:37. And the signs for a Sixer comeback triumph appeared to be positive, since Julius Erving (24) had played only 16 minutes and Caldwell Jones had played only 14. Conversely, the Maxwell-Cowens-Bird combine had only missed a collective total of two minutes.

"Sure, we talked about that at the half," revealed Erving. "We should have taken advantage of the situation, if we had been able to establish anything on the boards. Then it might have worked in our favor."

That the Sixers did not control the backboards was the doing of Messrs. Maxwell and Bird. Each came down with a bundle of impressive traffic rebounds in the second half. Bird, significantly, really began boarding as soon as his shooting touch went out for a coffee break. There is just no end to the number of ways he can beat you.

The Celtics just played more generally aggressive defense than they had on Friday, and, in addition, they got a far better leadership effort out of Archibald. Their response to Philly's second-half incursion was professional. After the Sixers tied it at 62-all, the Celtics outscored them by a 12-2 margin the rest of the period.

The low score bespeaks sound defense and a seriousness of purpose associated with the playoffs. This series is off to an excellent start, and both teams are well aware that site is of no import. Execution is all that has mattered, and so it will remain.