Sure Beats Talking about Getting Rid of McAdoo

January 20, 1980

PLAYOFF TALK CELTICS HAVE TALENT, BUT INEXPERIENCE A DRAWBACK

Enmeshed as we NBA freaks are in the January blahs, what more pleasant topic of conversation could there be this morning than the playoffs? You remember the playoffs - that succession of basketball games in which millionaires occasionally dive on the floor and people in Hoboken get to watch, in their pajamas, Seattle play Washington.

Well, you see, that's the funny thing. This year, instead of people in Hoboken losing sleep on weeknights, people in Coos Bay could be watching Larry Bird over their Sunday morning sausage and eggs. Though we would never have dared dream of such a thing back in September, the distinct possibility exists that the Celtics could at least get to the NBA finals this season.

Assuming that the opposition in the finals will be Seattle, the Celtics would not arrive as favorites. Nobody would be favored over Seattle. Only the lack of a true playmaking guard keeps the Sonics of Lenny Wilkens - Lord, wouldn't the vintage Lenny Wilkens be great with that club? - from being viewed as a classically great team. The rest is all there, the team and individual reduce-the-hotshot-scorer-to-tears defense, the rebounding, the scoring, the depth, the experience and the confidence. "In a seven-game series," says Philadelphia general manager Pat Williams, "the smart money would be on Seattle." Few disagree.

But what about the Celtics, who, after all, would have been viewed as a substantially improved team had they gotten this far merely by winning half their games? Forget the won-loss record, for that is a product of such variables as a good training camp, the schedule and health. Forget about the regular season. The question of the day is: What kind of a playoff team will the Celtics be?

"In the East," says Williams, "they're as capable as anyone else of getting to the finals. I was talking with Doug Collins the other day and he said that Boston was so unselfish and moved the ball so well that he'd hate to be matched up against them in a seven-game series."

The Boston offensive potential does scare people. "Boston," points out Washington GM Bob Ferry, "is a hard team to defense, and that makes for a good playoff team. They can spread you out and open up the middle. Larry Bird makes Tiny (Archibald) do damn effective by bringing the forwards out. Then Tiny can break you down with that floor spread out."

Bill Fitch would really like to win his division, because that way he could avoid a two-out-of-three mini-series, a fate he considers considerably worse than losing his American Express card. "We'd be a helluva lot tougher in a seven-game series than in a three-game series," he claims. "A short series is more a question of physical talent. In a longer series, our intangibles would show up more. The immaturity of our bench, where players like (Rick) Robey and (Gerald) Henderson would be in their first playoffs, would be diminished in a longer series.

"The playoffs are different. Last year Phil Ford was the best rookie player and he disappeared in the playoffs. Who's to say that if we played a three-game series Larry Bird wouldn't show up well?" Indeed, Celtic afficionados will recall that it wasn't until the sixth and final game of his first playoff series against Atlanta in 1972 that Dave Cowens played anything resembling his normal game.

Continues Fitch, "I know this: Once you make the playoffs, anything can happen. Take a Washington. With all the problems they've had this year, if they do manage to make the playoffs they'd be favored over some teams that had better regular seasons. But we wouldn't be picked as overall favorites. That's one thing we wouldn't have to worry about."

There is one great playoff positive for the Celtics. Dave Cowens will never have to play two days in a row. As the Celtics compiled their 33-11 record through last Wednesday, seven of those 11 losses had come on the second half of a back-to-back game situation, and while the blame for the losses surely can't be laid strictly on Cowens, he has had some ineffective nights in this context. Without Cowens being Cowens, the Celtics are a very mortal team. "Obviously, we would gain from that," admits Fitch, "and we'd also gain from the spirit and enthusiasm of the fans, who haven't had the playoffs for a year or two."

A given for any playoff team, of course, is good health. The playoff history of the seventies was often simply a case of The Survival of The Fittest. Should a key Boston player go down, it would be sayonara, championship. "But I believe in destiny," says Ferry, "and with the way things are going for Red Auerbach right now, I don't think they will get an injury, and I honestly mean that."

Fitch maintains that among Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Kansas City, Atlanta and Boston, "you've got a champion in there somewhere." He rates Seattle as the present favorite, but he certainly likes his team.

"We're not as good as our record," he says, "but our character and enthusiasm is as good as you'd think. That doesn't mean we're donkeys ability- wise, either, but that such advantages as getting off to a fast start are no longer a factor. We aren't blowing people out anymore.

But," he concludes, "we've got a lot of games left, and I think we're going to get better, even though our second half record might not show it."

So there it is. Playoff talk. It sure beats thinking about how to get rid of McAdoo, doesn't it?