BIRD'S EYE-POPPING START PART OF GAME PLAN
Who'd ever have thought it would be Larry Bird? Of all the men to stray away from what is considered to be the most sacred of Celtics traditions, who'd have thought it would be the man generally regarded as the team's most unselfish player?
To those who thought the 48-point night against Atlanta by Bird on Sunday was a rarity, be advised that it may happen again this season. Possibly tonight (7:30, Sportschannel) when the Celtics resume the NBA wars in Hartford against the New Jersey Nets. Probably tomorrow night in Philadelphia, where Julius Erving and the 76ers will provide the ultimate motivation.
With a 28.8 average, Bird is off to the finest start of his six-year NBA career. Not since John Havlicek roared through the 1970-71 season at a 28.9 clip has any Celtic maintained this pace and been a challenger for the NBA scoring leadership. Havlicek finished second that year to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of Milwaukee and third in 1971-72 with a 27.5 average.
Bird's fast start, which currently ranks him third behind New York's Bernard King (31.9) and Golden State's Purvis Short (30.0), is no accident. While a few years ago any mention of a Celtic among the top 10 scorers was considered heresy, the scoring talent of the 6-foot-9 Bird is so awesome that coach K.C. Jones has given him the green light, and Bird has responded to the challenge.
Mostly, he has done it with the same determination that has made him in many eyes the best all-around player in the league. Bird will never be known for his leaping ability, and sometimes on the fast break he looks like a man cutting across an Indiana corn field. But few players of any size can equal his shooting touch, which enables him to hurt teams from anywhere on the floor.
Bird is shooting with such confidence these days, he treats an 18-footer like a layup. Left wide open, he has uncanny ability to float in a three- pointer as if he were tossing pennies on a street corner. Inside, he intimidates players with his size and strength. It's not the new Larry Bird. Just the rest of what has been coming for six years.
"He is in a flow that is definitely to his liking," says Jones, who simply bubbles everytime he starts to talk about his star forward. "It's his moving, his ability to get the ball and power. He's a great shooter but you can't overlook his passing ability or he'll burn you. He's always banging the boards."
Such comments are not idle thoughts based on a revelation. Jones has been watching Bird do such things since his rookie year and has been his most ardent supporter. But after watching him average 19.5 shots and score 24.5 points, Jones has decided he wants to see the ball in Bird's hands even more. After his brilliant night against Atlanta (20-32 field goals, 8-9 free throws), Bird has boosted his shot average to 22.5.
"It just makes sense to me," says Jones "that if a guy is shooting that good, you try to set it up where you get him open and take advantage of it. Sometimes, it means holding your own guy to 10 points. Some people say he's playing defense for the other team.
"While we haven't had a lot of big scorers over the years, it's been a Celtic philosophy that the hot hand gets the ball. If he cools off, somebody else will get the ball. We've had hot nights from Cedric Maxwell and Dennis Johnson this year because of the same thinking."
Nothing that happens to Bird, of course, is by accident. Mostly, it is the result of hard work and in this case hours of shooting that began long before the current season. Bird spent hours developing his shooting touch this summer, and even now it is not unusual to see him shooting for an hour after practice.
"So far it's worked for me," says Bird, who in past years has been hampered by periodic slumps. "Once you start traveling and play too many games in a row, you can't work on things and that's when you usually get into a slump. But if you work hard and have enough rest, it shouldn't influence you. K.C. is good about letting us get our rest, even if it means not doing much in a practice like we had tonight. If you're rested, you come out fired up for the game."
Bird says he does not need to be fired up to perform well. He does better, in fact, when he is under control and playing good defense and rebounding. Lost in the emotion of the fight 31 days ago involving Bird and Julius Erving of the 76ers was the fact that the Celtic star had scored 42 points in three quarters and had also completely dominated Erving on the defensive end.
"In some of those games," said Bird about his fast start, "I played only about 21 minutes. Yet, it was times like that that I felt I had more control over my game than any of the others. I may have scored a lot of points in the others, but points isn't everything.
"Against Atlanta, for instance, I had to cover Dominique Wilkins after Max had been guarding him, and I had trouble with him. Wilkins was leaping over me and shooting the ball very easily. Usually I can push him out, but I struggled a little bit in the fourth quarter.
"I've never had a problem with motivation. Right now, I try to take each individual game as a challenge. I've always done that."
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