Pistol Keeps Firing

Pistol Keeps Firing

March 21, 1980

MARAVICH'S 20 HELP STAGGER PISTONS

The Celtics rolled up their fourth victory in six days last night as they blasted the Detroit Pistons, 124-106, at the Silverdome. Pete Maravich sparked the Celtics for the second night in a row, scoring a team-high 20 points as he led a double-figure scoring parade. Cedric Maxwell, returning from a sprained ankle that had sidelined him for Wednesday's game in Hartford against the Pacers, contributed 16 points. Dave Cowens added 15, Larry Bird and Jeff Judkins 11 each, and M.L. Carr and Tiny Archibald chipped in with 10 each.



You'd never know it by the look on Bill Fitch's face, but the Celtics walked off the floor leading by a comfortable 64-45 at the half. Ten of the 11 men at Fitch's disposal played in the first half as Boston jumped into an early lead and sort of winge it after that. The Pistons were self-destructive in the beginning, and by halftime they were also in foul trouble, as both Ron Lee and Terry Duerod had four personals apiece.

You know the type of game this was, given the respective records of the clubs. Boston broke fast, but then an inevitable period of stagnation set in, and the Pistons got themselves back in the game a bit. Fitch was extremely agitated with his troops whenever they appeared to take a possession of the basketball or a defensive set too casually.

The Celtics rang up 10 fast-break points en route to a 35-16 first-quarter lead. It was a period of basketball that had more in common with a September scrimmage than an NBA game.
Detroit actually seized the lead at 4-3 on a basket by Greg Kelser, who would finish the first period with nine points, but Dave Cowens immediately regained the lead on a layup. But the big turnaround came about a minute and a half later when the Celtics, then leading, 9-8, waved the wooful Pistons bye- bye.

Boston really started getting up on the D, and Cowens, Bird and Maxwell rebounded every miss. Good outlets followed, and soon the Celtics were running at will. In the next 6:17, they outscored the Pistons by a 21-3 margin and found themselves sitting on a 30-11 lead.

Again Pete Maravich had his shooting shoes on, and he scored 10 points to lead all first-quarter scorers. Included among his four baskets was one in- your-face jumper to the fourth degree. Cowens also looked strong with eight points. Fitch wore an anguished look throughout the first half of the second period as his troops failed to work for decent shots.

The Celtics played in the manner of a team not expecting to encounter any real difficulty, and the Pistons were playing hard. The lead was whittled down to 12 (39-27, 41-29) on two occasions before the Celtics ran off a little 11-4 spurt to get that 19- point lead back at 54-35 as Jeff Judkins took a good fast-break pass from Gerald Henderson for a driving three-point play.

But no sooner did the Celts have the lead up to 19 than the Pistons scored five straight of their own. First Leon Douglas got a three-point play on a back-door layup (Eric Fernsten got no weakside help), and then Kelser dropped in a corner jumper. The halftime stats contained no dramatic individual figures. The Celtics had good balance as Maxwell and Maravich had 10 points each, while Cowens had 8. Kelser, who was really up for Bird (a three-foul, 1-for-5 man), had 15 points to lead all halftime scorers.