C's Bench Impressive

November 1, 1982

C's Bench Impressive

Get used to it. Game night after game night we'll be listening to rival coaches talking about the Celtics' depth. Cleveland's Tom Nissalke moaned about it Friday, and Atlanta's Kevin Loughery drooled on Bill Fitch's lapels after Boston's monster mash comeback on Halloween Eve.



What's interesting about Boston's bench strength is the apparent lack of internal combustion accompanying the talent glut. In a league where minutes mean money, it appears that most of Boston's Pine Brothers are mature and selfless enough to put The Cause ahead of personal gain.

In Quinn Buckner, Kevin McHale, M. L. Carr, Rick Robey, Gerald Henderson and Charles Bradley, the Celtics possess the finest second unit in pro basketball. Since Fitch isn't worried about keeping people happy by sprinkling equal time on his troops, the harmony and satisfaction has to be built-in.

Carr, who played only 12 minutes of the 104-93 victory over Cleveland, didn't play a second against the Hawks, but says, "I've played a lot of minutes in this league. The main thing for me is to contribute whether I'm in there or not. I didn't play against Atlanta, but I feel I was in the game for 48 minutes.

"You've got to watch and help out the other guys with something you might see. That's the role I play when I'm not in the game."

Robey, who complained about his floor time after last season, played 31 minutes in the Celtics' weekend sweep.

"I've got to be realistic," he says. "I can understand why Bill does what he does. There are some teams I could play 35 minutes for, but I'd rather be on a winner.

"We kid about it sometimes now. We figure if Quinn, Gerry, M. L., Kevin and myself were a team we could win 45 or 50 games in this league."

Fitch says: "We're a unique group of people. It's a good example of doing what you have to do in order to win. If a guy's minutes are the thing he cares most about, chances are he's not going to be a success anywhere. If that were in Rick's mind now, I'd get rid of him.

"It's like with M. L., I told him that with McHale, Max and Bird, that's going to be 96 minutes and somebody has to get hurt or be playing badly for him to get minutes consistently."

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Robert Parish, who has 29 rebounds in two games, thinks Boston's board work needs improvement. "We were happy to start with two wins on the road," said the Chief. "But we're not rebounding as well as we should be." . . . Buckner must be a better shooter than everyone thought. He hit 25 of 51 in the preseason and is 9-14 in the first two games . . . Robey picked up a technical from Jack Nies Saturday night. "I knew it was coming," said Robey. "He called a bad foul on me and I told him he'd been reading too many newspapers."

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Atlanta guard Eddie Johnson has fallen on hard times. He's still 12 pounds overweight, went scoreless in the Hawks' opener and managed only five points in 17 ineffective minutes against the Celtics . . . The Celtics open at home with Indiana Wednesday night, host Washington Friday night and meet Erving, Malone and Co. in the Spectrum on Saturday night.