December 20, 1979
The words came slowly. Defeat and failure are not easy things for The Doctah to admit. The moment of truth, it seems, was a three-pointer by Jeff Judkins with three minutes left that turned the already-jubilant crowd at the Garden into 15,320 howling fanatics.
"It was a hurting feeling," said Julius Erving, the 76er captain and the man who seemed to take last night's 112-89 rout by the Celtics harder than anyone. "A bad hurt. When Judkins hit that shot, the whole place came alive and you knew it was the nail on the coffin.
"They had stuck it to us pretty good and we knew it. That's the bad feeling I'm talking about. But maybe we can return the favor to them some Saturday night. Come to think of it, we play again this Saturday night. That would be a nice time."
By the time the Celtics' biggest showdown of this young season had ended, they were already looking ahead. Winning gives you that luxury.
"We can't afford to do otherwise," said veteran Nate Archibald. "We've got a track meet coming up Friday night. And I don't think I have to say whom we're playing (San Antonio). Then we face them (76ers) again on Saturday night and who knows how we'll play.
"You want to win all the games you can in December to build up a little cushion, and this was a big victory. But it's not who wins the games in the middle that counts. It's who wins the games at the end. We beat them tonight. But who know what will happen at the end. It's a long, tough season."
The Celtics have won 26 of 33 games, including the last five. That they should beat the 76ers, who fell three games back in the Atlantic Division, did not surprise the Celtics, who will not lose many games on their home court if they continue to play the kind of inspired ball they displayed in their 38- point second quarter last night.
The box score tells more than Larry Bird's 24-point effort (10 for 18 in the field), Cedric Maxwell's 21 or Archibald's 19. The Celtics had 18 steals and three blocked shots. The 76ers were guilty of 30 turnovers that directly led to 49 Boston points. The Celtics shot 51 percent, a marked improvement over the 45 percent in their last 12 games. The 76ers wound up with a 41-38 edge in rebounds but did not match the floor burns and bruised knuckles the Celtics suffered in order to play an aggressive, collapsing defense. The Celtics dared the 76ers to shoot outside - and got away with it.
"We didn't do a hell of a lot inside," said Steve Mix of the 76ers. "I think when we're looking at the films and trying to prepare for the next time we meet, we'll find out why in a hurry. They shut us off."
The Celtics won partly due to a blistering offense, scoring 49 points off the fast break. Ah, but there are fast-break nights, and their are nights when Archibald, Bird, Maxwell, Dave Cowens and Chris Ford are masters of improvisation.
The Celtics once made seven passes before scoring. With everyone touching the ball. Against the Nets, it's fun. Against the 76ers, it's inspiring.
"I think rather than credit our offense," said Archibald, "you should talk about our defense. Philly wasn't playing that great in the first place. But we remember from down there where they cleared out a side and worked us one-on-one. We helped out, even to the point where one guy would leave his man completely. Julius beat us down there. Tonight we left guys just to stop him.
"That puts pressure on the other guys to shoot and they didn't handle it all that well. And it worked the other way, too. When we were moving the ball up the floor, Julius had to guard Larry and that can be a tough matchup. Plus the 76ers don't play as good a team defense as we do. We shot well and put pressure on them."
"We know they're a physical team," said coach Bill Fitch, "and we know we have to shoot well against them. Our good shooting came off our defense. Dave was one of the keys on defense as he always is. We were able to run which is good because we didn't want to get into a half-court game with them."
The question of stopping Erving (9 for 15, 20 points) was the obvious key. Bird guarded him at first, forcing Philly to put their star forward into the backcourt in the second quarter. Ford and Don Chaney then drew the assignment. But this was hardly a one-man show. Chaney played Erving so tough that the Doctah was forced to go back to forward, where he got most of his points in the second half.
"We wanted to force them to shoot outside," and we collapsed in the middle because Julius is most dangerous when he's driving the baselines," said Maxwell. "We helped out a lot. In to where a lot of our steals came from ... passes by him or somebody the middle."
Bird wanted no special credit for his work.
"I don't get any special pleasure out of stopping Julius or any other player. What I'm happy about is that we got a win and the confidence that goes with it. We're supposed to win games on our home court.
"All along, we had the feeling if we could contain him and play our game, we'd be all right. We understood the situation completely.
"They were coming off the road from Detroit. We did the same thing a few weeks ago. We knew after our start they'd make a run at us and they did cut it to 10 points in the third period. But we're a pretty good team, too, and we just gave the ball to Tiny and he got us going again. When you're at home and the crowd is behind you, that's when you're supposed to have the advantage and be able to do things like that.
"I think a more important game for us was winning at Washington. It's tough to win on the road. But it's nice to get this one under our belt. We've got to play them (Philadelphia) again Saturday night."
The 76ers said thay did not show up expecting to lose, but have nobody to blame for the defeat but themselves.
"We haven't seen all the teams in the west, yet," said 76er coach Billy Cunningham. "But they (Celtics) are the best in the East. They beat us in every phase of the game at one point. What they did on defense didn't come as a surprise. A lot of teams play us that way, because they know we don't have Dough Collins at guard. But we didn't react to it well at all, and when we did, we made too many mistakes and threw the ball away. Bird was better tonight. But he's one of those guys who you know is already good at everything and can only get better."
The words came slowly. Defeat and failure are not easy things for The Doctah to admit. The moment of truth, it seems, was a three-pointer by Jeff Judkins with three minutes left that turned the already-jubilant crowd at the Garden into 15,320 howling fanatics.
"It was a hurting feeling," said Julius Erving, the 76er captain and the man who seemed to take last night's 112-89 rout by the Celtics harder than anyone. "A bad hurt. When Judkins hit that shot, the whole place came alive and you knew it was the nail on the coffin.
"They had stuck it to us pretty good and we knew it. That's the bad feeling I'm talking about. But maybe we can return the favor to them some Saturday night. Come to think of it, we play again this Saturday night. That would be a nice time."
By the time the Celtics' biggest showdown of this young season had ended, they were already looking ahead. Winning gives you that luxury.
"We can't afford to do otherwise," said veteran Nate Archibald. "We've got a track meet coming up Friday night. And I don't think I have to say whom we're playing (San Antonio). Then we face them (76ers) again on Saturday night and who knows how we'll play.
"You want to win all the games you can in December to build up a little cushion, and this was a big victory. But it's not who wins the games in the middle that counts. It's who wins the games at the end. We beat them tonight. But who know what will happen at the end. It's a long, tough season."
The Celtics have won 26 of 33 games, including the last five. That they should beat the 76ers, who fell three games back in the Atlantic Division, did not surprise the Celtics, who will not lose many games on their home court if they continue to play the kind of inspired ball they displayed in their 38- point second quarter last night.
The box score tells more than Larry Bird's 24-point effort (10 for 18 in the field), Cedric Maxwell's 21 or Archibald's 19. The Celtics had 18 steals and three blocked shots. The 76ers were guilty of 30 turnovers that directly led to 49 Boston points. The Celtics shot 51 percent, a marked improvement over the 45 percent in their last 12 games. The 76ers wound up with a 41-38 edge in rebounds but did not match the floor burns and bruised knuckles the Celtics suffered in order to play an aggressive, collapsing defense. The Celtics dared the 76ers to shoot outside - and got away with it.
"We didn't do a hell of a lot inside," said Steve Mix of the 76ers. "I think when we're looking at the films and trying to prepare for the next time we meet, we'll find out why in a hurry. They shut us off."
The Celtics won partly due to a blistering offense, scoring 49 points off the fast break. Ah, but there are fast-break nights, and their are nights when Archibald, Bird, Maxwell, Dave Cowens and Chris Ford are masters of improvisation.
The Celtics once made seven passes before scoring. With everyone touching the ball. Against the Nets, it's fun. Against the 76ers, it's inspiring.
"I think rather than credit our offense," said Archibald, "you should talk about our defense. Philly wasn't playing that great in the first place. But we remember from down there where they cleared out a side and worked us one-on-one. We helped out, even to the point where one guy would leave his man completely. Julius beat us down there. Tonight we left guys just to stop him.
"That puts pressure on the other guys to shoot and they didn't handle it all that well. And it worked the other way, too. When we were moving the ball up the floor, Julius had to guard Larry and that can be a tough matchup. Plus the 76ers don't play as good a team defense as we do. We shot well and put pressure on them."
"We know they're a physical team," said coach Bill Fitch, "and we know we have to shoot well against them. Our good shooting came off our defense. Dave was one of the keys on defense as he always is. We were able to run which is good because we didn't want to get into a half-court game with them."
The question of stopping Erving (9 for 15, 20 points) was the obvious key. Bird guarded him at first, forcing Philly to put their star forward into the backcourt in the second quarter. Ford and Don Chaney then drew the assignment. But this was hardly a one-man show. Chaney played Erving so tough that the Doctah was forced to go back to forward, where he got most of his points in the second half.
"We wanted to force them to shoot outside," and we collapsed in the middle because Julius is most dangerous when he's driving the baselines," said Maxwell. "We helped out a lot. In to where a lot of our steals came from ... passes by him or somebody the middle."
Bird wanted no special credit for his work.
"I don't get any special pleasure out of stopping Julius or any other player. What I'm happy about is that we got a win and the confidence that goes with it. We're supposed to win games on our home court.
"All along, we had the feeling if we could contain him and play our game, we'd be all right. We understood the situation completely.
"They were coming off the road from Detroit. We did the same thing a few weeks ago. We knew after our start they'd make a run at us and they did cut it to 10 points in the third period. But we're a pretty good team, too, and we just gave the ball to Tiny and he got us going again. When you're at home and the crowd is behind you, that's when you're supposed to have the advantage and be able to do things like that.
"I think a more important game for us was winning at Washington. It's tough to win on the road. But it's nice to get this one under our belt. We've got to play them (Philadelphia) again Saturday night."
The 76ers said thay did not show up expecting to lose, but have nobody to blame for the defeat but themselves.
"We haven't seen all the teams in the west, yet," said 76er coach Billy Cunningham. "But they (Celtics) are the best in the East. They beat us in every phase of the game at one point. What they did on defense didn't come as a surprise. A lot of teams play us that way, because they know we don't have Dough Collins at guard. But we didn't react to it well at all, and when we did, we made too many mistakes and threw the ball away. Bird was better tonight. But he's one of those guys who you know is already good at everything and can only get better."
7 comments:
Blogger Matty said...
What an awesome team win that was! Mr. Erden dunk on Josh Smith was epic!
Loving the rookie year stuff lex, a unique look at Bird's start to his legacy is cool, especially as i wasnt even born when this was all happening.
Just saw your comment matty.
The injuries are forcing doc to mix up the lineups. Tough to scout and prepare for. Also tough for the Cs to get bored.
Delonte back in January.
Nice!
I still love james posey!
I think pose was amazing too!, and i really wish he would have stayed!! He was the perfect role player for us!
Can't wait till were healthy!
Another good win, the truth was phenomenal! And Shaq's first quarter beggars belief! Defense still could have been better mind.
13 in a row baby!
Paul Pierce with a game for the ages
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