Celtics Enter Playoffs as Walking Wounded

April 21, 1985

Celtics Banged up for Playoffs

If they were Indians and a little papoose was born yesterday afternoon at the Garden, the only name that would fit would be Running Wounded. These are now the Celtics, all bundled up in green medical wraps, the Running Wounded, and 24 more possible playoff games await.



"I'm not going to say I'm worried because I'm not worried about anything right now," said K.C. Jones, coach of Running Wounded. "I'm just going to go out, pick up Mama for a little din-din and have a good time tonight. I won't worry about anything until tomorrow."

Consider. Larry Bird's right elbow, his shooting elbow, was wrapped in a green protector ("I put it on so I could look flashy for CBS") and no shooter in his right arm allows anything to touch his elbow. You could put a green babushka in Christie Brinkley's hair before you could wrap a green bandage around a shooter's elbow. Bird scored 30 and pulled down 11 rebounds because he is Bird. But the elbow? It is not good.

Or this. Ray Williams ("I was getting a little tired from pushing the ball up so much") played 16 consecutive minutes through the third and fourth quarters "because I was trying to give Danny (Ainge) a blow," said Jones. And then Scott Wedman briefly went to guard - and guarding World B. Free - when Ainge's injured thigh gave the coach precious few alternatives. Ainge hit the winning jumper. But his thigh? It could be better.

Or Robert Parish's back or Cedric Maxwell's left knee? (Maxwell played a mere six minutes but never once touched the ball). Or the latest injury, the wrenched back yesterday to Kevin McHale? "It's a war out there, boys," said McHale.

And the medics have their litters full.

Nobody ever panics with this team, but Running Wounded needs a few days off to heal. Maybe a quick victory Tuesday in Cleveland, sweeping the series, so the aches and pains can be salved. Time may heal all wounds, but wounds don't heal all the time when the games are played every third day for six weeks. Time, please.

"Very much so," said Jones, "very much we need some time. It would give Max a chance to get some hard work, Larry needs some rest, Kevin and Robert . . . what did they play, how many minutes? (They played 47 and 37 minutes, respectively.) And Danny needs time for his thigh, his toe and his knee again. It's something."

Bird will play but Bird will hurt. The pain was most evident on the face of Bird, once in the first half and again in the second. He was scoring his points, dishing off his passes, but it was the unusual move, the plays that never can be expected, that brought out the painful grimaces. In the first half, Bird's right arm was chopped by two Cavaliers just at the instant he was releasing an outlet pass and he pulled up in pain.

Then, with 1:42 left in the third quarter, Bird took the ball after a Cleveland basket, spotted McHale free downcourt and let loose with his Nolan Ryan fastball. McHale got the easy two but Bird got the hard throb.

"Larry couldn't resist it; it was there," said Jones. "The way Larry plays the game, with every ounce he has, he does everything he can . . . but that pass hurt him . . . you could see it. It took a lot of guts knowing he was going to get hurt; it gives you a little hint where he comes from. It was very nice, though, of Kevin to put it in."

Bird, of course, was his usual self. "You have to go out there and put the pain behind you," he said. "Any time you put on a Boston Celtics uniform, you better be ready to play. Right now I feel very good about my elbow; it's a little painful, but you've got to play with pain."

Maxwell said he was feeling better, "but it's still slow and it's going to take some time. I'd say I'm 50 to 55 percent right now. That's what you use more than anything else in basketball, the legs."

If McHale got hurt, could Maxwell come in and give a strong 35 minutes?

"No."

One of the few unbound bodies is Dennis Johnson's ("Me and Rick Carlisle are probably the healthiest guys on the team"), and DJ said he is not overly concerned with the team's vital signs. "I don't think they're all hurt to the extreme," said Johnson, "where they're going to have to sit out two or three games or something like that. It may be that they just need a day off or a day's rest from practice and hopefully we can go to Cleveland and wrap it up quick."

If Running Wounded wins in three, said Johnson, "and hopefully New Jersey and Detroit will go on, that may give (the injured players) a couple of extra days rest. We're not looking past Cleveland, but we'll be looking closely at the next game."

The Celtics have won two close games in these playoffs, and those folk in Bozeman and Bangor who merely read the box scores will be misled. They won't know a thing about Running Wounded, who already has been wrapped too much in green gauze. Running Wounded needs the medicine doctor badly or, at least, time.