CELTICS NOTEBOOK
FORD PUT ON INJURED LIST; CHANEY BACK
And so, after the 69th game, the deluge.
The Celtics had played 77 consecutive games with the same starting backcourt, beginning with the first exhibition game in Madison Square Garden and continuing through Sunday's losing effort against the Bullets. But the streak ended last night when neither Nate Archibald nor Chris Ford was around to aid the team.
Archibald was home nursing a corneal abrasion (the result of an accidental poke in the eye by Elvin Hayes), an injury expected to sideline him for at least two games. Ford, meanwhile, is suffering on two fronts. He has been bothered by the flu, and, more importantly, he has been concerned about the physical condition of his mother, who is gravely ill in New Jersey. After being sick for two weeks, she suffered a stroke yesterday morning.
Ford was placed on the injured list prior to last night's game, and Don Chaney was reactiviated after having missed eight games on the basis of a hamstring pull. For Ford, a consecutive game streak of 471 has ended. It was the third best in the league, behind ony Randy Smith and Jim Chones. Coach Bill Fitch announced that Gerald Henderson would be one starting guard for last night's game against the Pacers, who had lost eight games in succession after a tremendous 131-86 destruction of the Knicks on Feb. 20. Fitch was considering either M.L. Carr or Jeff Judkins for the other starting backcourt spot. "I'm not that worried about the backcourt defense," he joked. "I'm just hoping we're not shut out."
The game attracted a capacity crowd of 16,924 to the Market Square Arena, and it represented the culmination of a tremendous attendance story here. The three Celtic games came within 51 paying customers of selling out the place three times, and the Celtics therefore had accounted for 13 percent of the Pacers' season attendance . . . In Larry Bird's first two "home" appearances, he had flip-flopped dramatically. He had foul trouble on Oct. 20, fouling out in just 22 minutes, although he did shoot 8-for-12. But he redeemed himself in front of his Indiana followers Dec. 1, going for 30 points and 11 rebounds in a Celtic overtime victory . . . The teams were 1-1 here (the Pacers winning the first one in OT), while the Celtics had won both games played in the Garden. The clubs will meet for the sixth and final time next Tuesday night in Hartford . . . The local press was accusing the Pacers of "going through the motions" lately, and there was much consternation about the fact that the team dealt away its No. 1 draft choice (the Celtic pick it had acquired in the Earl Tatum deal; their own 1980 No. 1 belongs to the 76ers, courtesy of an atrocious deal for Mel Bennett) to Denver in the George McGinnis deal that also cost them Alex English . . . The Celtics will be back in the Garden tonight, facing the Houston Rockets, against whom they are 5-0 this season.
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