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LANDOVER, Md. (AP) Al Attles, coach of the underdog Golden State Warriors, said he would continue to rely heavily on his “shock troops” against the favored Washington Bullets in the National Basketball Association’s best-of-seven championship series beginning today at the Capital Centre. Attles, fully aware that it was the Warriors’ deep bench strength that has carried them this far much further than expected — indicated he would not deviate from his season-long strategy of free substitution. “I like to think I can get by with eight players, but most times it doesn’t work out that way,” said Attles. ‘There are times when I try to get many players into a game in order to find the right combination.” A typical example was last Wednesday night, in the seventh and deciding game of the Western Conference final against the Chicago Bulls. When the Warriors began their surge back from a 14- point deficit late in the game, only one regular, rookie of the-year Keith Wilkes, was on the floor, along with such undistinguished and unheralded players as Phil Smith, George Johnson and Charles Dudley. Even superstar, Rick Barry was on the bench. Barry, who had been a woeful two for 15 on field goal attempts, eventually came back and sparked the final comeback with six field goals in the fourth quarter as the Warriors overcame the cold-shooting Bulls 83-79. Even though Barry was a major contributor down the stretch against Chicago, he has been extremely erratic in the playoffs, not nearly as consistent as during the regular season when he averaged 30.6 points a game, second best in the league. “I guess the two series we have had so far in the playoffs have disproved the theory that if you stop Rick, you stop us,” said Attles, indicating the importance of his reserves. Washington, on the other hand, does far less substituting. Coach K.C. Jones basically prefers to use his top seven players-starters Elvin Hayes, Mike Riordan, Wes Unseld, Phil Chenier and Today’s first game of the NBA playoff final series between the Golden State Warriors and the Washington Bullets will be carried life on WJW-Radio (850 on the AM dial), starting at 3 p.m. WJW-TV, Ch. 8, will not carry the game, because it has a scheduled Indians-Chicago telecast. But Channel 8 will pick up the NBA game in progress as soon as the Indians’ game is completed (meaning fans will probably get to see about the last half-hour of the NBA contest). Kevin Porter and reserves Nick Weatherspoon and Jimmy Jones. Jimmy Jones, however, is sidelined for the entire series with a knee injury, and K.C. Jones will be forced to rely on seldom used veteran Clem Haskins to spell either Chenier or Porter in the back court. Haskins, admittedly overweight, ran extra wind sprints this past week in an effort to get his weight down and increase his stamina. “I wanted him to get in shape because we’re going to need him,” emphasized K.C. Jones. “You never know what’s going to happen, and depending on the situation, he my have to play quite a bit.” askins played nine minutes, his longest stretch in the playoffs, last Sunday when the Bullets won the Eastern Conference final series against the Boston Celtics.
Newspaper Details
Willoughby News Herald
Willoughby, Ohio, US
Sun, May 18, 1975
Page 36
Full Page
Clipped by
Robert G.
USA 09 Jun 2026
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Willoughby News Herald
