C's Win, Despite 35 & 6 from Da Ice Man

February 28, 1980

CELTICS GUN DOWN SPURS IN SHOOTOUT

The 15,320 folks at the Garden, comprising the 23d sellout of the season, had to strap themselves in last night as the first quarter of the Celtic-San Antonio Spur game went by like the jet winds from a Boeing 707.



This game was just simply a case of two of the NBA's best fast-breaking teams beginning a game with their afterburners on and ending it with the Celtics finally corraling the visitors, 130-125. George (Ice Man) Gervin, the commander, immediately took control like some gyrating astronaut as he glided, skated, snaked and baked his way for 21 points with a whoosh following him down the court. And he didn't look tired.

Gervin simply treated Chris Ford and everyone else that came near him like invisible men in his capitivating style. On the other end, Larry Bird and Cedric Maxwell kept the pace up for the Celtics. Bird started his 30-point performance with an "I-know-you-are-standing-18-feet-behind-me-but-I-don't-see-you" pass to Ford for a three-pointer that spent three seconds bouncing on the rim before it fell into the basket. Bird also added a third-quarter reverse playground master slam dunk to his repertoire of shots.

"We came out smoking in the first half," said Gervin, who had 35 points and 6 rebounds. "We were playing with confidence. In the second half we didn't play that well." At one point M.L. Carr was telling Gervin that he was going "to eat 'em up" if he kept up his scoring pace. "The brother (Carr) is beautiful," said Gervin. "He was just trying to mess up my game. He always plays hard that way and he enjoys it.

"But playoff time we'll be back. And we will be ready," Gervin cautioned. Carr (13 points, 8 rebounds) who, along with Gerald Henderson (12 points, 6 assists) had strong performances off the bench, said: "George is going to get his points. I just told him I was going to eat 'em up on defense to put something on his mind. But we can let a Gervin and a Lloyd Free get their points and still beat them. ”It's more important for us now to concentrate on not making mistakes and letting games get away from us that we are supposed
to win."

After trailing, 65-61, finding no cure for Gervin and the rebounding of John Shumate and Mark Olberding, the Celtics came out in the second half with the notion of giving some help to their guards on defense. "We wanted to give some help to the guards on defense to keep George from shooting," said Maxwell, who pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds and scored 22 points. "I was coming up to at least make him pass the ball and let someone else kill us, but not him.

"It disrupted their pace. And we basically played both ends of the court better than they did in the second half." With 10:11 left in the third quarter, Rick Robey hit a 17-foot jumper from the top of the key to tie the score, 67-67. Three minutes later, a span highlighted by a flying slam dunk by Maxwell and another master jam by Bird, the score was 82-73, Boston, as San Antonio stumbled, trying to find a replacement for Gervin in the offense.

But Larry Kenon did volunteer 10 third-quarter points as he found the range with his jumper. However, by the time the third quarter ended, the Celtics had padded their lead to 99-89. And then came the fourth quarter, which was played at a much slower pace than the first. By now, however, the crowd could have been treated for jet lag.

Henderson didn't look pretty in the fourth quarter and he certainly wasn't the tallest man on the court but he put in three field goals early in the period to keep the Celtics up, 105-100. "There was no way I was wanted to lose a game at home, no matter what it cost," said Henderson, who is playing with a pad on his face to protect a jaw injury.

Henderson and Pete Maravich added eight points each in the final quarter, which was interrupted twice because the officialvclocks were out of whack. It was just as well. With all their firepower, the Spurs had 6-foot-10 Kevin Restani attemptingvthree-point jump shots with absolutely no success. That probably means the Spurs and coach Doug Moe will have a few three-point plays when the two clubs meet again.

Maravich scored the final basket on a drive to make it 130-125 and cap a delightful evening for coach Bill Fitch, who is beginning to use his own watch to keep the time.