Pistol Showing Signs of Life

February 25, 1980

CELTICS NOTEBOOK FITCH LIKES CELTICS' PRO' LOOK

Bill Fitch, that little ol' phrasemaker, didn't have to reach very far into his bag of verbal tricks to sum up the performance of his team on the five-game road trip that concluded with a 124-105 laugher Saturday night in Denver.



"We showed professionalism," he said after watching the Celtics place seven men in double figures (all by the end of the third period) and never trail after taking the lead at 10-8 on the first of two three-pointers by Larry Bird. "On this whole trip, the players worked hard and didn't read their clippings. We may not have played well all the time, but we played hard."

The trip (3-2) ended with Fitch feeling more and more comfortable with his bench. The latest player to make a significant contribution to the cause was Pete Maravich, who scored 10 of his 14 points in the second period, when the Celtics were turning a 43-39 game into a 69-52 halftime spread. The Pistol, who canned long jumpers throughout the game, finally moved like an athlete instead of like a guy wearing an armored suit.

"That first-half performance," said Fitch, "was very good because it's exactly the role we had in mind for him. I didn't like some of his turnovers in the second half (though he was officially credited with one, he was clearly responsible for more than that), but he got himself into the fast break for the first time, and I had to like that."

Maravich himself was very pleased with his game.

"Each time we practice hard, I get in a little bit better shape, and once I'm in shape, everything else will come," he said. ”Being as far out of shape as I was, I had no timing. I'm still far from being there, but I'm pleased with the way I moved and passed on certain occasions." Maravich and Dave Cowens each benefited greatly from hard practices last week, and this dual progress was immensely satisfying to Fitch. Anyone remotely familiar with road life in the NBA is aware that coaches seldom expect anything from practices held away from home.

Players ordinarily can't concentrate on the road - they are often too busy thinking about what movie they'll take in, where they'll go for dinner or how sorry they feel for themselves in general to keep their minds on something as mundane as a practice. Yet this group of Celtics - it did not stop with Cowens and Maravich - continually applied themselves. "They worked hard, practiced hard and did the job out there," lauded Fitch . . . The coach's immediate concern is tomorrow night's game in Hartford vs. Atlanta. Fitch is unhappy about having to play a tough game in Hartford coming off a road trip, and he isn't exactly thrilled about returning home on Wednesday to face San Antonio. To him, the Celtics are actually on a seven-game road trip since Hartford is not really a home game and since he considers the first game back after being away from home, in effect, the final road game of a trip.

The Celtics expect to have Cowens, who has missed 14 consecutive games with a hyperextended left big toe, back by tomorrow night. "Dave and I will get together to discuss it," Fitch said yesterday,"and Monday's practice will be a key. But the way things have gone (11-3 without him), there is no need to bring him back until we're absolutely certain he's ready." Should Cowens be activated, a roster deletion would be necessary, and it's still unclear how the team will handle that volatile matter . . . Considering that the Celtics, one game behind Philadelphia when Cowens got hurt on Jan. 22, enter tomorrow's game 1 1/2 games ahead of their Atlantic Division rivals, neither Fitch nor anyone else should lack gratitude for what's happened. The club has hung tough, the way a "professional" team should.