The NBA : Bird Acknowledges That the Lakers Are Better Than Celtics

The way things have been going for the Boston Celtics recently, Larry Bird thinks it’s a good thing they won’t face the Lakers in a seven-game playoff series anytime soon.

“At the end of last season they were the better team, and so far this season they’re still the better team,” Bird said. “I know I wouldn’t want to play them right now.”

Of course, the Celtics and Lakers won’t meet in the “real season” until June in the NBA final, a match-up that everyone expects to see, despite the troubles that befell the Celtics in late December.

Until they defeated the Utah Jazz at Salt Lake City Saturday night, the Celtics had lost four consecutive road games. They blew a 25-point third-quarter lead to the New York Knicks and were beaten in double overtime.

They also lost to the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers, came from 10 points down in the last four minutes to beat the Bulls, but were also blistered by Portland, 121-103, at Boston Garden, the Celtics’ worst home loss in nearly four years.

So what’s wrong with the Celtics?

“We just haven’t been playing that well,” Bill Walton said. “We’re in a little bit of a low spot. One thing is that we haven’t been able to hold leads. We probably should have won all those games we lost, with the exception of Portland, when we got blown out.”

Walton is getting high marks for his play off the bench, but once again Coach K.C. Jones is showing a reluctance to play his reserves very often and has been getting burned in the Boston press because of it.

“The criticism comes when you’re on top of the hill,” Jones said. “Other teams play their starting guys that much, 35 to 40 minutes, but they’re on the bottom so they don’t get criticized. Well, we must be doing something right. We’ve been in the finals two years in a row.”

Bird and Kevin McHale have spent more time on the court than any of the other Celtics. Bird, who is shooting only about 45%, has played 16 40-minute games this season, and McHale has played 12 and narrowly missed another when he played 39 minutes in the two-point victory over the Jazz.

The Celtics made three major personnel changes after losing to the Lakers in last season’s championship series but none of them, so far, have made an impact.

Forward Sly Williams, who was supposed to help out on the front line, has been released. Third guard Jerry Sichting averages fewer than five points a game, and No. 1 draft choice Sam Vincent, a point guard, hardly plays.

“The team’s different from last season,” Bird said. “We’re still adjusting.”

Jones said there’s nothing wrong with the Celtics that can’t be corrected by such things as rebounding better and pushing the ball upcourt quicker.

“But the biggest thing that has happened is that the other teams are improving,” Jones said. “It’s not like the old days when we could just show up and win. Now when we show up, the other teams are ready. I think it’s amazing we have the record we do at this point. Teams are coming at us with the best they have. We never get a night off.”

And what about the Lakers?

“They are phenomenal . . . awesome,” Jones said. “With Maurice Lucas there now, Kareem is like a kid in a candy store. He can go out and relax for half a game, then Pat Riley can say to him, ‘OK, Kareem, make a few sky hooks and let’s go home.’ ”

The departure of the colorful Williams from the Celtics was not nearly as interesting as his departure from the Knicks.

Williams was never a player who enjoyed practice, so when he missed a workout one day, Knick trainer Mike Saunders phoned Williams’ house in New Jersey.

A voice that sounded very much like Sly’s answered the phone, identified himself as Sly’s brother and explained Williams’ absence.

“Sly has some personal problems,” he said. “There’s been a slight death in the family.”

Williams was soon gone.

Del Harris, former head coach of the Houston Rockets and now a scout for the Milwaukee Bucks, writes a column each Monday in the Houston Sports Journal. And, in an unusual move in a recent issue, he ripped the Rockets for not actively pursuing free agents.

“The ‘as is’ program the Rockets have followed since the end of last season is a slap in the faces of a city begging for a winner,” Harris wrote.

While other teams made moves, the only addition the Rockets made was signing 6-11 Granville Waiters, formerly of the Indiana Pacers. Harris pointed out: “Waiters could not make Indiana’s team and they have the worst record in the league over the past three seasons.”

Waiters was waived and then re-signed, which seems to go along with Harris’ assessment of him: “Waiters seems to be more suited to doing what his name implies.”

Oddly enough, Harris found no fault with the Rockets for not signing Norm Nixon.

“Even the discussion about the Nixon deal was ludicrous,” Harris wrote. “He was not wanted by 20 other teams for various reasons.”

The Rockets have enough players at guard, Harris continued, but they needed someone like Terry Tyler to help out the front line of Akeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson.

Harris’ comments on Sampson may be the most interesting to Laker fans.

“Ralph will be a free agent and we will be back to Square 1--no draft, no deals, no championship rings,” Harris wrote. “But Ralph will go to L.A. and get a ring. . . . He is apparently unhappy and ready to move on.”

Harris, who was fired by General Manager Ray Patterson, saved his best shots for his former boss, although Patterson is only the implied target.

“Some NBA front office people do not want tough acts to follow, just to show some improvement,” Harris wrote. “The key word is credibility. Just do enough to maintain it. Don’t be bold until the public demands action. Then, if it fails, blame the public or blame the coach.”

Harris said he doesn’t blame owner Charlie Thomas.

“But someone must convince him it is time for him to tell his people to make a ‘basketball move,’ ” Harris wrote. “After all, he thought that Joe Bryant, Wally Walker, Caldwell Jones, Billy Paultz and Tom Henderson could actually beat another NBA team.”

It should be noted that those were some of the players on the Rockets when Harris was fired.

Tom Nissalke has been mentioned numerous times as a candidate to replace Don Chaney if the Clippers make a coaching change. But Nissalke, although admitting that he would like to coach again, said he feels awkward being mentioned for a job that’s already filled.

“There will be jobs open sometime, I know, and I’d have to be considered, if not (by the Clippers), then somewhere else,” Nissalke said. “But I don’t think it really helps to have your name mentioned all the time. It can make your name to be old hat.”

Nissalke was supposedly lined up to be Chaney’s assistant coach this season, but Chaney wouldn’t go for it.

Clipper General Manager Carl Scheer and Nissalke go back a long way. They have the same agent, Ron Grinker; both have ABA backgrounds, and Scheer once asked the Houston Rockets for permission to talk to Nissalke about coaching the Nuggets, when Donnie Walsh wanted to move to the front office. The Rockets refused permission and Nissalke stayed in Houston to coach the Rockets, although he was later fired when the team changed owners.

Speaking of owners, you can also count Nissalke as a fan of Clipper owner Donald T. Sterling.

“I always said this of Ted Stepien when I was coaching Cleveland,” Nissalke said. “The guy put his money where his mouth was. Sterling has done this with his money. Look at Norm Nixon and Derek Smith.”

Nissalke also said he thinks the Clippers ought to make the playoffs.

“In that division, they look pretty good against down teams like Phoenix, Golden State and Sacramento,” he said.

When Randy Pfund, the rookie Laker assistant coach, was coaching at Westmont College, one of his duties was to raise money, which means he was a Pfund raiser.

Now, Laker Kurt Rambis has given him a new name: Mutual Pfund.

“People who know my financial background think that’s hilarious,” Pfund said.