Celtic Starters Put In a Full Shift

BOSTON — In the past 12 seasons, only two NBA teams dared rely on their starters more than the Boston Celtics have this year. In each case, the gamble was rewarded with a championship trophy.

Because of injuries and the poor play of reserves this season, Boston’s starting five totalled 14,492 minutes in the regular season, 800 more than the Dallas Mavericks, who were next in relying on starters.

Since 1975, the only teams to exceed this total during the regular season were the 1975-76 Boston team with 14,531 minutes and the 1979-80 Los Angeles Lakers with 14,669 minutes played by their starters.

Boston coach K.C. Jones says he has no choice this season.

“It’s a given that these guys have got to play long minutes. They know it and I know it,” Jones said.

The starters on NBA’s defending champions averaged between 35.2 and 40.6 minutes per game. Kevin McHale totaled 3,060 minutes, Larry Bird 3,005, Robert Parish 2,995, Dennis Johnson 2,933 and Danny Ainge 2,499.

“I pay them for 48 minutes,” says Celtics president Red Auerbach. “Anything under that, they owe me.”

Bird owed Auerbach nothing for Game 7 of Boston’s Eastern Conference semifinal. After playing every minute in the series finale with Milwaukee, Bird said he wasn’t tired, adding, “We should play double-headers.”

McHale says 48 minutes of playing time should be accepted without complaint.

“You’ve got all day to sleep, why shouldn’t you be able to play 48 minutes?” he asks.

In the post-season, the playing time of Boston’s starters has risen. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, they averaged nearly 41 minutes.

Trainer Ray Melchiorre said the regular-season grind served to prepare the Celtics for the NBA’s second season.

“You don’t practice for a marathon by running only two or three miles a day,” he said. “We’re ready for it.”

Boston teams have traditionally relied heavily upon the starters and a few top reserves, as Detroit coach Chuck Daly noted.

“They’ve been doing it since the beginning of time,” Daly said. “It (fatigue) is not a factor with them, it’s a myth. They have the best five players, why not play the most minutes with them?”

Daly said the Celtics’ offensive patterns and defensive ability help them conserve energy.

“They do simple things, like use straight-line post-ups where they don’t have to run around. Defensively they don’t have to double down (guards helping double-team an opponent’s big man) because they can play straight up. All of those are extra energy that other teams have to use. They don’t have to because they are that good.”

Teams can only rest when their team has the ball, explained Jones.

“Most players rest on the wrong end. You must rest on the offensive end, like (Bill) Russell used to do,” Jones said. “And on offense you run straight lines because the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

“We’ve had a truckload of injuries all year so that means the minutes must be up for those who can go.

“We could run more with Bill Walton and Scott Wedman coming off the bench last year. Because they’ve been out, we had to go to the half-court offense.

“We couldn’t be running up and down court the whole game. If the chance is there, we’ll run, but we must be able to half-court it and be patient enough to take good shots. That helps cut down the other teams’ running. So the half-court game is a must.”

Auerbach says that Boston’s experience allows it to effectively adjust its offensive tempo.

“You’ve got to be smart enough to know when to break. It takes a smart team to run, then go to the half-court game, to run, then play the half-court game. That’s where the smarts come in and the Larry Birds and the Dennis Johnsons take over.”