NBA Roundup : Up to Old Tricks, Gervin Gets 42 Points

George Gervin had everything going his way Friday night as he scored 42 points to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 122-107 victory over the Houston Rockets at Houston.

“All my old tricks were working tonight,” said Gervin, who hit 21 of 26 shots. “I felt good, and plus, I played well. And me feeling good contributes to my teammates playing good.”

San Antonio Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons said he had no special plans for Gervin to handle the ball so much.

“We weren’t going to ‘Ice,’ he was just in the flow of the game,” Fitzsimmons said. “We played our game plan the way we wanted to play it. We were running off our defense primarily and ‘Ice’ was the recipient.”

The victory was San Antonio’s first of the season against Houston in three games. Fitzsimmons said it was especially important.

“We lost to them in our building,” he said. “So, some way, somehow, we had to win the game over here. We also had to show them we could beat them, because they had handled us both times.”

Gervin, who also scored 42 points Nov. 10 against Cleveland, outdueled Houston’s Ralph Sampson, who finished with 30 points.

Boston 125, Indiana 94--Robert Parish scored 27 points and Larry Bird added 23 for the Celtics before retiring to the bench early in the third period at Boston.

Upset by Seattle in Boston Wednesday night, the Celtics got off to a sluggish start as Indiana took a 33-30 lead with the help of 13-1 spree led by Jerry Sichting and Steve Stipanovich.

However, the Celtics caught fire in the second period and went ahead to stay on a basket by Dennis Johnson at the two-minute mark. Bird scored 13 points in the period.

The Pacers, who upset the Celtics at Indianapolis last week, were led by Sichting with 20 points.

“We didn’t let them push us around tonight,” Parish said. “In Indiana they thought they beat us up, and not too many teams can do that. Tonight we did not allow that.”

Chicago 93, Seattle 76--Michael Jordan scored 22 points for the Bulls against the cold-shooting Sonics at Chicago.

The 76 points was the lowest output by an NBA team this season. The previous low was by Washington in a 105-79 loss at Milwaukee on Oct. 31.

The Bulls ended a six-game Seattle winning streak at Chicago Stadium. The Sonics had not lost in Chicago since March 9, 1982.