Are the Yeoman Celtics Overdoing It Again?

The theory that playing time is wearing out the Boston Celtics’ starting five is popping up again, especially since the New York Knicks came from behind Saturday night and beat the Celtics, 106-98.

“We wanted the game to get to a point where they might start to get tired,” Knick Coach Rick Pitino told Peter May of the Hartford Courant. “The only chance you have of beating Boston is to get them in a running game.”

Boston’s Larry Bird, who maintains that long periods of playing don’t bother him, has played 41 minutes or more in 9 straight games and 10 of the last 11.

But Johnny Newman of the Knicks, who shared the assignment on Bird with Kenny Walker, said he thought that Bird, who played 43 minutes, looked fatigued. So did Pitino.

Bird hasn’t been the only marathon man. Kevin McHale went 41 minutes against New York, and he has played 41 or more in 5 of the last 6 games and 6 of the last 9. Dennis Johnson went 41 minutes in Madison Square Garden but never looked as if he was in the game, with 9 turnovers and 3-for-14 shooting. Johnson, at 33 the oldest starting guard in the National Basketball Assn., has averaged more than 40 minutes in the last eight games.

Danny Ainge has averaged nearly 38 minutes in the last nine games. The only starter getting any kind of rest is Robert Parish, who got hurt Dec. 30 in Seattle. He is averaging 36 minutes.

The question has been debated for the last few years. It has been Coach K. C. Jones’ tendency to play his starters for long stretches when he doesn’t have what he feels is a reliable bench. He did it in 1984-85 and again last season, and the Lakers beat Boston in the NBA finals both times.

When Jones got help from his bench in 1985-86 and 1983-84, the Celtics won the title.

Trivia time: Who was on the receiving end of the longest non-scoring pass play in National Football League history?

Alan Greenberg of the Hartford Courant says two friends of his, die-hard St. Louis Cardinals fans, had this phone conversation after free agent Jack Clark signed with the New York Yankees:

“Damn Yankees.”

“Could have been worse. Could have been the Mets.”

“I hope he breaks his leg.”

“Don’t worry. He probably will.”

For what it’s worth: Larry Bird says the best popcorn in the NBA is found at Arco Arena in Sacramento, and that the biggest number of autograph hounds are to be found at the Sports Arena, home of the Clippers.

Trivia answer: Bobby Moore of the St. Louis Cardinals teamed up with quarterback Jim Hart on a 98-yard pass and run against the Rams on Dec. 10, 1972 that failed to produce a touchdown. Moore, of course, is now NBC’s Ahmad Rashad.

Quotebook

NBC pro football commentator Paul Maguire: “It’s just a game. It’s nothing monumental. These guys are making a million dollars a year to play a kids’ game. If that’s not fun, I don’t know what is.”