CELTICS BEGIN TITLE DEFENSE
The Detroit Pistons, hoping to challenge for the Central Division championship this season despite a revamped starting lineup, play host to the defending champion Boston Celtics tonight to highlight the six-game, opening- night slate for the National Basketball Association's 39th season.
The Pistons have only two players - Bill Laimbeer at center and Isiah Thomas at point guard - starting in the same positions they did last season, when they made the playoffs for the first time since 1977. A third All-Star, Kelly Tripucka, is moving over from forward to guard to take the place of John Long, an unsigned free agent.
Terry Tyler is one forward starter for the Pistons, while Dan Roundfield, acquired in a trade with Atlanta, is the other. Despite the changes, the Pistons posted an NBA-best 6-1 exhibition record, including a 115-113 triumph over the Celtics.
Elsewhere tonight, Atlanta visits New Jersey, Cleveland is at Philadelphia, Washington travels to Chicago, Utah is at Seattle and Phoenix is at Golden State.
Saturday's openers include a nationally televised afternoon game matching Houston at Dallas, followed at night by Detroit at New York, Philadelphia at Atlanta, New Jersey at Cleveland, Washington at Indiana, Los Angeles Lakers at San Antonio, Portland at Kansas City, Chicago at Milwaukee, Golden State at Denver and the Los Angeles Clippers at Utah.
DETROIT WILL meet a Boston team that also will field a new starting lineup. Guard Gerald Henderson was traded to Seattle and will be replaced by Danny Ainge, while Kevin McHale will probably be at forward instead of Cedric Maxwell, a free agent who did not sign a contract until Thursday.
Last season's Most Valuable Player, Larry Bird, joined center Robert Parish and guard Dennis Johnson as the other starters.
The Celtics, who won eight straight NBA championships from 1959 through 1966, also were the last team to successfully defend a championship in 1959.
''In my mind, it's no mystery, no jinx as to why teams haven't repeated," Coach K.C. Jones said. "Other teams improve through the draft and through trades, and everybody guns at the team at the top. This year, in the East alone, Washington, Detroit, Philadelphia and New Jersey all have improved."
The 76ers, after posting a 65-17 record in 1982-83 and then winning 12 of 13 playoff games en route to the championship, are back this year hoping to prove last spring's first-round playoff loss to New Jersey was a fluke.
''IT REALLY didn't hit us until we were walking off the floor after that fifth game," said 76ers General Manager Pat Williams. "Then you realize you're dethroned, defrocked. You're just another ballclub. That's when the humiliation sets in.
''If our team has any pride - and there is no doubt in my mind that we do - then we'll be tearing out of the blocks. I think we may see a fanatical band of warriors in the Spectrum."
''I met with the players individually during training camp," Coach Billy Cunningham said, "and all the veterans said they did not like starting their summer vacations in April. Our goal is to win another championship, and we will work toward it one game at a time."
The strong Philadelphia cast of Moses Malone, Julius Erving, Andrew Toney and Bobby Jones will be joined by two first-round draft choices, Charles Barkley and Leon Wood.
Cleveland is counting on a rookie center, Mel Turpin.
''TURPIN HAS all the tools to be a dominant player in this league," said George Karl of the Cavaliers, one of four teams with new coaches. "It all depends on how hard he's willing to work to achieve it.
Karl and George Irvine of Indiana are NBA coaches for the first time, while Cotton Fitzsimmons at San Antonio and Jack McKinney at Kansas City are former Coach of the Year selections with new jobs.
The debuts of Akeem Olajuwon of Houston and Sam Perkins of Dallas are the featured attractions of CBS's season-opening game Saturday, but perhaps the rookie getting the most attention in preseason was Olympic hero Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. Chicago didn't make the the playoffs last season but went 5-2 in exhibition games.
However the former North Carolina standout said he does not expect to take the NBA by storm.
''It's not going to be the Michael Jordan show," he said. "I just want to be able to fit in and help the team. I've seen the success of the Cubs, the White Sox, the Bears . . . I think it's going to be time for the Bulls now."
"I look at what the Bullets and 76ers have done," Boston GM Jan Volk said, "and it's kind of frightening for us."
Since that seventh-game win over Los Angeles in mid-June, the Celtics have made only one noticeable transaction. And it involved subtraction, not addition: last week's trade of starting guard Gerald Henderson to Seattle for a 1986 first-round pick.
And while Danny Ainge was taking over Henderson's spot, starting forward Cedric Maxwell was still a holdout a few days before the season started.
The Knicks signed free-agent Pat Cummings to play forward. But, as he did last year in Dallas, the 6-8 Cummings is starting at center. Knicks center Bill Cartwright has a broken foot, and his backup, Marvin Webster, is out for the year with hepatitis. Until Cartwright returns, Hubie Brown must coach, coach, coach.
The young Nets have the same personnel they did when they won 45 of 82 games a year ago. "And having beaten the Sixers in the playoffs should give them a good deal more confidence," New Jersey GM Bob MacKinnon said.
Central. "Every time I would talk to (Atlanta GM) Stan Kasten, I would ask if Dan Roundfield was available," said McCloskey, Detroit's general manager. "The answer was always no, until one day when Stan said, 'It's a possibility.' "
The Pistons acquired power forward Roundfield over the summer, improving the possibility that they will win their first division title since they played in Fort Wayne, Ind., in the 1950s.
"I think Roundfield may be the last piece of Detroit's puzzle," Chicago's Thorn said, knowing that Roundfield's new teammates include Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer.
The five other Central teams are muddled together. Milwaukee, which has finished first each of the last five years, has Terry Cummings. But the Bucks do not have Marques Johnson or Junior Bridgeman (both traded to the Clippers for Cummings) or Bob Lanier (retired).
Chicago will see how much Jordan means. Atlanta has good youth up front and questionable youth at guard. Indiana has two new guards, Olympian Vern Fleming and Temple's Terence Stansbury, a first-round pick acquired this week from Dallas.
Cleveland surrendered Cliff Robinson and center Tim McCormick, its first round pick, to get rookie center Mel Turpin. Atlanta's Kasten said: "What you think of Cleveland depends on whether you're a Turpin fan. If Turpin's a star, the Cavs could finish second. If he's a bum, they could finish last."
Midwest. "If we were Chinese," said Portland GM Stu Inman, "then we would say that last year was the Year of Frank Layden."
Layden's Utah Jazz suddenly went from sour to sweet, winning 45 games and finishing first. The Jazz enjoyed the rarest of seasons, because there were no significant absences of players to challenge Layden, the coach-GM-orator.
Any chance for a repeat of that bliss is already gone. The Jazz was on the verge of starting this year without holdout Adrian Dantley, the closest thing to machinery playing in the NBA.
Sam Perkins held out for a while. But now the rookie center has joined and enhanced Dallas, the team that finished two games behind Utah last year.
San Antonio has many of the same players who won the division two years ago. Cotton Fitzsimmons has been hired to coach the Spurs back toward the top.
Houston can start Sampson, Olajuwon, Rodney McCray, John Lucas and Lionel Hollins. In the exhibition season, this potential lineup sounded better than it looked.
Denver responded to its 38-44 season by trading its scorer of scorers, Kiki Vandeweghe, to Portland for three players and two draft picks. Kansas City responded to its 38-44 season by making no major trades. The Kings instead changed coaches (Jack McKinney for Fitzsimmons) and picked Providence center Otis Thorpe in the first round.
Pacific. Two general managers, Golden State's Al Attles and Phoenix's Jerry Colangelo, sang this division's gospel chorus.
"The Lakers are the Lakers," Attles said.
"Kareem is Kareem, and Magic is Magic," Colangelo said.
But while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson are leading the Lakers to another division title, who will finish second?
Could it be the Trail Blazers, with Bowie and Vandeweghe playing for coach Jack Ramsay? "Portland could make it a big four with L.A., Philadelphia and Boston," Compton said.
Or could it be the Clippers, with Bill Walton, Marques Johnson and Norm Nixon? The Clippers have moved from San Diego to Los Angeles, where Walton and Johnson (at UCLA) and Nixon (with the Lakers) have excelled on title teams.
Walton has played only 102 regular-season games over the last six years because of injuries. But in this month's preseason, his health and performance were impressive. He's at forward, while James Donaldson continues at center.
" 'If Walton' - that's a mouthful," said Dallas GM Norm Sonju. "But if he plays well. . . ."
"The Clippers (30-52 last year) could make a tremendous turnaround," Phoenix's Colangelo said.
The Suns, who gave the Lakers a ferocious time in the conference finals, have been weakened by a knee injury to leading scorer Walter Davis. He will be missing for several weeks, at least.
Seattle has a new backcourt of Henderson and Ricky Sobers, and rookie Tim McCormick joins Jack Sikma up front. That would sound more impressive if the Sonics were in the Central Division.
Golden State missed the playoffs by one game last year. If the young Warriors want to approach the postseason this year, they could sure use center Joe Barry Carroll. He held out throughout exhibition play.
No comments:
Post a Comment