Celtics’ Newcomers Have Contributed Little to Help Win

So much for great starts. So much for dramatic home-court debuts. In three games, the Boston Celtics’ four newcomers have done so little.

The limited contributions of Bill Walton, Jerry Sichting, Sly Williams and Sam Vincent continued Wednesday night when the Celtics opened their home season with a 117-106 National Basketball Assn. victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

The quartet played a total of just 30 minutes and scored only six points while amassing nine personal fouls and five turnovers.

“It takes a little time for them to get comfortable with the system,” said center Robert Parish. “Plus, if you get traded, you try extra hard. They have to learn to relax.”

Boston obtained Walton and Sichting in trades, signed Williams as a free agent and took Vincent in the first round of this year’s draft.

Walton had the toughest time of the four against Milwaukee. He committed five fouls, played just 10 minutes and managed just three points, all on free throws. He also had five turnovers and missed both of his field-goal attempts.

“I’m disappointed only in the fact that I didn’t get to play more,” said Walton, who has 14 points in the three games, two of them victories, that Boston has played this season. “Ten minutes is ridiculous. I wanted to get in and bang around some. (Referee) Jim Capers didn’t see it that way.”

The 6-1 Sichting found his size to be a problem.

Milwaukee, he said, “isn’t one of my better teams to match up against defensively because they have a lot of 6-4 and 6-5 guys in there at the same time. That’s probably why I didn’t have many minutes, which is fine.”

Sichting, who had two points in 13 minutes, “was doing all right,” said Coach K. C. Jones. “But when they posted up Sichting and hit two (shots) in a row, it’s not his fault, but I had to pull him out of there.”

In three games, Sichting, an outstanding outside shooter, has hit 6 of 16 shots and scored 14 points.

Williams missed both his field-goal attempts Wednesday night and had one point in six minutes. Vincent played just the final minute and didn’t score.

“Their problem is being on a team with too many talented players and too little playing time to distribute among them,” Jones said.

Vincent and Williams sat out the season opener. In the second game, Williams had four points in 13 minutes and Vincent was scoreless in four minutes.

Asked why Vincent, who did well in exhibition games, hasn’t played much, Jones said: “there are only so many minutes out there and so many positions. His time will come.”

There was a silver lining for the newcomers on opening night on the famed parquet floor.

“It’s a lot more fun playing here in the white uniforms when you don’t have the opposing team’s jersey on,” said Sichting.