Pistol’s 35-Foot Buzzer Beater Punctuates Win

March 8, 1980

Pistol’s 35-Foot Buzzer Beater Punctuates Win

With Pete Maravich's flying buzzer beating 35-foot three-pointer punctuating a sensational defensive display in exclamatory fashion, the Celtics extended their victory streak to nine by smashing the Philadelphia 76ers by a convincing 111-92 score before 15,320 zealots at the Garden last night. The Celtics built up a 66-42 third-period lead, saw their advantage dip to as low as 12 (72-60, 74-62, 82-70) in the face of a truly remarkable performance by Julius Erving and then regained control at the seven-minute mark of the final period to give the crowd a dazzling showtime, during which Bill Fitch was able to pull his stars for well-deserved ovations.



But the most significant ovation came with 3:30 remaining. That's when Billy Cunningham removed Erving, who had scored 36 of the first 75 Philadelphia points. Had even one of his mates played half as hard, or one- third as well, the Celtics might have had trouble defeating the Sixers for the third time this season in Boston.

The Celtics played one of the best defensive games of the year, limiting the transition-minded Sixers to just two fast-break points in the middle periods after they had scored eight of their first 10 in the game off the break. It was the second-period unit of Dave Cowens, Cedric (Panasonic MVP) Maxwell, M.L. Carr, Gerald Henderson and Maravich that expanded a three-point (31-28) lead into a 13-point (47-34) halftime spread.

Larry Bird, who was in his November polite mood to start, checked himself mentally into the game in the second half, scoring 19 of his team-high 27 points. For most of the first half, the teams had played as if it were 10 minutes past midnight and Carson were still delivering his monologue. "When," the fans might well have asked, "will this show begin?"

But begin it did - for the Celtics, at least. Holding the 76ers scoreless from the floor for the final 5:48 of the half, the Celtics moved into a 47-34 lead at the intermission.
In terms of establishing any offensive continuity, the game still hadn't gotten started by the half. The Celtics were no reincarnation of the '72 Lakers at the offensive end themselves, but they did play legitimate team defense, keeping almost every one of the Philadelphia offensive threats from doing what they wanted to do.

The actual surge had begun earlier in the second quarter. The Sixers, trailing by a 21-16 score after a very cautiously played (and yet still horribly filled with turnovers) first half, took the lead at 22-21 as Erving (a 1-for-7 first-period shooter) scored the first six Philadelphia points and Darryl Dawkins rammed home a gorilla of a one-hand slam-dunk follow-up.

But Tiny Archibald got Boston right back with a falling-down, three-point banker from the lane. Erving answered with a perfectly executed guide-in on a back-door lob pass from Doug Collins, but that was to be the second-to-last Sixer hoop of the entire period, and there was still 9:47 remaining.

Henderson, who would later cap the Celtic first-half production with a nice baseline running hook at the eight-second mark, broke the second tie of the half by taking a spectacular pass from Carr (after a more spectacular steal and going-out-of-bounds save) and split a pair of Sixer defenders to give the Celtics a 26-24 lead. It was not to be his final contribution to the Celtic cause.

The final go-ahead point of the period was a free throw by Bird in response to a Dawkins low-post move. Henderson delighted the crowd with a nice banked runner to make it 29-26, and the Celtics were in control for the rest of the half. Compounding the Sixer offensive problems was foul trouble incurred by their three big men. By the half, Dawkins (playing histypical nothing game in the Garden), Caldwell Jones and Bobby Jones all had three personals. But even before Caldwell's departure, Maxwell had reaffirmed his new confidence against the man who had given him so much trouble earlier in the season (like sending back his first four and goaltending his fifth back on Dec. 22 in the Spectrum) by throwing in two in-your-face shots and picking up four free throws on the big guy.

The Celtics got major bench contributions from Henderson, Carr, Maravich and Cowens in that second period. Those four, plus Maxwell, played the last seven minutes, during which time the lead went from 29-26 to the 47-34 halftime spread.