Celtics End Game with Lineup of Eric Fernsten, M.L. Carr, Don Chaney, Gerald Henderson and Jeff Judkins

January 26, 1980

It took the Celtics three and a half periods to discover they just weren't supposed to win this game.

Trailing, 92-90, with 7:57 remaining, and having benefitted enormously from a bold gamble by coach Bill Fitch, who substituted five players late in the third quarter, they crumbled down the stretch, failing to score a field goal for the next 5:32 as the Washington Bullets regrouped to walk off with a 118-107 victory last night at the Garden.

The Bullets had gone ahead by a 23-21 score back in the first period, and they were in control of the game until there were 3:24 left in the third period, when Fitch removed his starting five, then trailing by an 82-70 score, and inserted Eric Fernsten, M.L. Carr, Don Chaney, Gerald Henderson and Jeff Judkins.

This group pressed and hustled, and before they turned the game back over to the starters, they had caused three five-second inbounds violations, had, in fact, caused four Washington turnovers in the final 1:14 of the third period, and had reduced the margin to eight (92-84) while psyching up what had been an aggravated and bored crowd.

The first group succeeded in getting the deficit down to two, but after Tiny Archibald dropped in a pair of fast-break free throws to make it 92-90, they fell apart. Roger Phegley (16 points), twice a killer in this game, initiated what would become a 15-2 spurt with a sneakaway, the first two of eight quickies he would score. It wasn't until Judkins (14) deposited an off- balance banked, conventional three-pointer at the 2:25 mark that the Celtics scored another basket, and by then it was too late.

All things considered, the Celtics would definitely rather have been where they were than where they could have been at the half. They were trailing by 12 at 61-49. They could have been minus 20 or more had they not pulled themselves together in the final minute of the period.

The Celtics had begun auspiciously enough, parlaying a combination of fast-breaking and board-pounding to fashion an early 14-6 lead. They still led, 17-10, as the Bullets were living up to their new reputation, which is that of a very dead team. They had, after all, lost their last six games.

But the visitors turned the game around with a phenomenal display of outside shooting in the final six minutes of the opening period. They outscored the Celtics, 24-6, in the first 6:14, and of those 24 points, 18 came on nine field goals from distances of at least 17 feet. The other six points were contributed by Westley Unseld, who rumbled in for a pair of inside three-point plays.

This sensational shooting binge gave the Bullets a 34-23 one-period edge, and enabled them to play loose and easy in the second period, even without Elvin Hayes, who went to the locker room with some foot/leg ailment early in the period, taking his 11 points with him. The Bullets were able to maintain their margin, however, getting unlikely board help from swingman Phegley, who picked up six of his eight second-quarter points on the offensive boards. Washington's major moment of crisis came when a brief flurry by Gerald Henderson cut the lead to eight at 39-31 with 7:36 to play. Phegley sneaked in for a followup and Larry Wright got away for a 2-on-1 fast break basket, and the Bullets were off on another spurt which eventually gave them an 18-point lead at 59-41 with 1:10 remaining in the half.

It was at this point that the Celtics saved themselves from extinction, forcing a couple of bad Bullet possessions and scoring eight of the last ten points in the half, the last six Boston points coming on four fast break free throws by Tiny Archibald and a long M.L. Carr jumper with three seconds to play.

As badly as the Celtics played in spots, and there were long stretches in which they were offensively impotent, they still would have had a hard time combating the Washington shooting. The Bullets shot a dazzling 76 percent (16 for 21) in the first period, and they were essentially doing it from long range.

The chief bombers were Hayes, Bob Dandridge and Kevin Grevey, with Dandridge leading all first-half scorers with 16.

Rick Robey had a miserable time against the Washington front line. He and sub Eric Fernsten really weren't able to keep Unseld from doing what he wanted underneath, and it was very predictable that when the slender Fernsten entered the game, Washington would attempt to exploit him. Fernsten came in to give Robey a rest at the 2:47 mark of the first period, and exactly 18 seconds later Unseld was posting up on the left baseline and powering in for his second three-pointer. At one point, an exasperated Bill Fitch went without a center, briefly employing a Larry Bird-Cedric Maxwell-Carr front line.

The primary Boston offensive force in the first half was Bird, who scored 11 points, but once the Celtics stopped running - and they went 13 minutes without a fast-break point in one stretch - they were in trouble.