February 16, 1980
IT'S CELTICS IN A BREEZE, 106-91
Piece of cake. Can of corn. Day at the beach. Walk in the spring rain. Day at the office. Get the idea yet?
The Celtics simply overwhelmed the Portland Trail Blazers last night, giving them too much Larry Bird (28), too much M.L. Carr, too much Tiny Archibald and just too much team before walking off with a 106-91 victory that ended their losing streak at its customary number - one.
The Celtics led at the period (22-20), half (51-40), three-quarter mark (78-68) and by as many as 21 (96-75) in this generally uninspired contest before the usual capacity gathering of 12,666 at the Memorial Coliseum. They had whatever it took to win, and in this case it meant another nice performance by Eric Fernsten, who relieved Rick Robey and who picked up eight valuable points, six on the offensive boards.
For Bird, it was another virtuoso display in which he did everything but clean the men's room. Carr disrupted the Blazers with his aggressive defense and some long bombs, while Archibald gave the team a big lift with a strong third-quarter shooting display which included a clock-beating three-pointer and a bomb from just inside the three-point line on consecutive possessions early in the quarter.
Aside from a 10-point Celtic run that featured eight consecutive points off the fast break and an early Ron Brewer burst for the other side, not a whole lot happened as the Celtics took a 22-20 lead in a dull first quarter.
The Boston run had come immediately after a timeout called by Bill Fitch with his team trailing by a 10-4 count. At this juncture, Brewer, who appeared capable of choosing his shot against Chris Ford before he was removed from the game with a leg injury early in the third quarter, had six points and had just penetrated along the left baseline for a nice bounce-pass feed to Kermit Washington. Fitch was none too thrilled about his team's interior defense.
When play resumed, it was Jack Ramsay who had to watch his players become incapable of stopping a Boston thrust. Bird started the Celtics back with a clock-beating baseline turnaround, and for the next three minutes it was a matter of the Celtics playing the D, getting the ball off the boards and taking it up-court past a team whose offense-to-defense transition had suddenly disappeared.
First Bird sank one of two free throws after an excursion to the basket. That was followed by a nice change-of-pace drive by Archibald for a three- point play, an unmolested Ford baseline pop and, finally, an artistic soaring all-the-way traffic drive by Cedric Maxwell. That made it 10 straight and forced Dr. Jack to call a momentum-breaking timeout of his own.
The good doctor did manage to settle his team down, and the rest of the period was a dreary exchange of missed layups, violations, air balls and assorted other happenings that had the patrons reading the program stories earlier than they had expected.
With the team of Bird, Robey, Fernsten, Carr and Pete Maravich on the floor, the Celtics moved from a one-point lead at 31-30 to an advantage that peaked at 13 (51-38) with 45 seconds to play in the period. A late layup by Bob Gross pulled the Blazers within two at the end of the desultory half of play.
Bird had somehow done it again, leading all first-half scorers with 18 where-did-they come-from points accumulated in his usual eclectic manner. About the only thing he didn't show in the first two periods was his three- point expertise.
The Celtics huffed and puffed, but they were unable to put the Trail Blazers away, and instead of taking a 14- or 16-point advantage that was within their grasp, they had to settle for a 78-68 lead going into the final period.
But that was enough against Portland.
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