January 24, 1980
Score one for the pessimists.
All season, doomsayers have been posing the query: "What will happen to the Celtics if they lose - pick one - (a) Dave Cowens, (b) Tiny Archibald, (c) Larry Bird?" The Celtics and their followers are about to find out because Dave Cowens sounded like a very concerned man yesterday.
Cowens injured his left foot in the third quarter of Tuesday's 112-106 triumph over the Houston Rockets, and although X-rays were negative, that doesn't mean he has escaped meaningful injury. The foot was swollen and purplish yesterday, Cowens says he can't walk on it, and the big thing is that Cowens still really doesn't know what's wrong with it.
"I don't think it's something I'm going to be able to play with right off," he said. "The first thing is to get the swelling down. Then we might be able to determine what I have. Right now I can't walk on it."
Cowens thinks he might have injured himself by coming down on Moses Malone's foot, but he's not really sure about that. "It's like when you catch your finger in somebody's jersey and pull it back, stretching the ligaments, or something, by hyperextending it," he explained. "The pain is at the base of the big toe, where it joins the instep. For all I know, I may have hyperextended the big toe, and until the swelling goes down, X-rays won't mean a whole lot."
Cowens speaks from experience. He likens the uncertainty to the stress fracture he suffered to his foot in the 1974 exhibition season. The X-rays revealed no break, and he returned to action after 10 days. He broke the foot cleanly the first night back and wound up missing the first 17 games of the season.
Rick Robey inherits Cowens' starting job at center as the Celtics launch a busy stretch of six games in nine days. Robey can score - he scored 24 last night and came through with binges of 22 and 17 points in his previous two chances to replace Cowens (in Cowens' fight game with Tree Rollins and after Cowens' Tuesday night injury). But he could not possibly replace Cowens on defense, where Big Red has been setting new standards of greatness. In addition, there is a numbers problem, because the only available backup to Robey is Eric Fernsten.
Cedric Maxwell was 2 for 2 from the outside, and now is 4 for 8 on the season from distances beyond six or eight feet. Included in this barrage was a bonafide 17-footer. "Bill (Fitch) has been telling me all the while to face up and shoot the ball, that it will help everybody else," he said. "I'm making a conscious effort to do it. I've never lacked confidence to take the shot." . . . The Celtics picked up 16 points on fast breaks and second shots to Detroit's none in the fateful third quarter . . . Gerald Henderson topped off another nice effort with a vicious slam dunk at the end of a 3-on-1 fast break in the final minute of play.
If the Pistons' injury situation and record wasn't enough trouble, veteran guard Jim McElroy did not dress because of a feud with coach Richie Abudato. McElroy, who had been injured, says he is now 100 percent and should be starting. Abudato says McElroy hasn't proven in practice that he should play ahead of anybody and that hewon't be elevated until he does . . . Bob McAdoo on his problems in Boston: "I think a lot of the blame of what happened last year has to go to John Y. Brown. The man was just no good for basketball."
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