Tiny Leads Way in 47-26 Closing Run

October 31, 1982

CELTICS WORK HARD FOR WIN OVER HAWKS

Make no mistake about it. They're going to have some fun down here before the season is through. Tree Rollins, George Johnson and Dan Roundfield are going to open a facial salon in the Omni mall, Dominique Wilkins is going to scrape his kneecaps on the backboards, and Ted Turner, as soon as he gets through trying to oust Bowie Kuhn, is going to be watching a lot of Atlanta Hawk blowout victories.



But not last night. Not against the Boston Celtics. Not as long as Bill Fitch has the kind of depth that coaches everywhere dream about.

Trailing by six late in the third quarter, Celtic quarterback Tiny Archibald took over and Boston roared to a hard-earned, 112-97 victory over the Hawks last night. The Celtics outscored Atlanta, 47-26 in the final 16:12 and outrebounded the Hawks, 37-18 in the second half. As Tree Rollins put it , "They just keep coming at you in waves. How can you fight that?"

It was a tight game for three quarters. Boston led by a point after one, but trailed by four at the half. Cedric Maxwell (21 points) kept the C's in it early, but the offenseive flash of Wilkins (22 points) and the all-around play of the estimable Roundfield (22, 15 rebounds) enabled the Hawks to hold a six- point lead late in the third period. It was then that we were reminded once again how important a 34-year-old guard from Texas El Paso (nee Texas Western) is to this Boston team.

With the Celts trailing, 71-65, Archibald (17 points, eight assists) orchestrated a run of 26-10 which took the Celtics to an 91-81 lead with 9:19 left to play.

The winning surge started with eight straight points: Robert Parish (17 points, 17 rebounds) started it, taking a backboard pass from Archibald and dropping it in. Larry Bird (21 points) scored the next four, getting two off a fast-break pass from Danny Ainge, and two more from the foul line. Tiny's fast-break layup put the C's ahead, 73-71, and that was that.

The Hawks had nothing left. Coach Kevin Loughery was hit with his second technical and tossed by referee Jack Nies with 1:18 left in the third quarterm and mercifully, Loughery didn't have to watch what the Celtics did to his team in the final period.

"We have a tendency to do that to people," acknowledged Kevin McHale (17 points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes). "We've got a lot of horses and we keep coming at them. We got the break going and moved the ball better and they had to do things differently. They had to come out and chase us and when you do that, you open it up for our rebounding."

With Bird, Rick Robey and McHale playing bumper pool off the backboards, and Tiny continuing to run the show from the point, the Celts outscored the home team, 31-19, in the fourth period. The final lead was the biggest, and created the erroneous impression that this was an easy victory.

Au contraire.

"This was a tough game, a playoff-type game," said Fitch. "I'll tell you one thing: Atlanta has got the best 0-2 team in the NBA.

"They were able to run on our mistakes at first," said Archibald. "I thought we were going to lose for a while."

Indeed, the Hawks will strike fear into a lot of teams this year. They block shots, play excellent team defense and force turnovers. (The Celtics turned the ball over 12 times in the first half and were outrebounded, 27-24.)

Wilkins electrified the crowd with a first-period Doc-esque dunk over Bird, and Roundfield seemed to be able to do whatever he pleased.

"It was a good game for three quarters," Loughery said in summation. "They just wore us down. You've got to play 48 good minutes to beat them."