[none]

[pami@meditech.com]

These are articles from the Boston Globe and the New York Times about some of the greatest
Celtics games of all time. Oh the Glory Days. Even if you are not too interested, read the
article titled "Bird Stole the Ball."
 
The show is Jordan's--but Celtics steal it
 
Celtics 135 Chicago 131 (2 OT)
 
By Bob Ryan
 
   Only one man in the history of the NBA play-offs knows what it feels like
to score 63 points at the highest level of competition and be denied the sweet
smell of team success. But the hoop world knows that every other player and
every other team is on borrowed time. The Celtics, Lakers, Hawks, Rockets and
every other 1986 title aspirant had better seize whatever opportunity they can
- -- Now! -- because we are clearly at the dawn of the Age of Jordan.
   "I would never have called him the greatest player I'd ever seen if I
didn't mean it," said Larry Bird after yesterday's exhilarating, stimulating,
emotional, exhausting and altogether brilliant contest.  "It's just God
disguised as Michael Jordan."
   Bird's equation of Jordan to the Deity is understandable in light of
Jordan's record-breaking 63-point effort in the Garden (a display that
surpassed Elgin Baylor's 1962 play-off standard of 61), but let the record
show that Bird was able to speak in the pleasant afterglow of victory. Despite
all Jordan's virtuosity, the Celtics constructed a 2-0 series lead by walking
(staggering would be a more apt description) off with a 135-131 double-
overtime triumph in what could accurately be described as an epic contest.
   They play 'em and we rate 'em, and there is no question that this game will
make the Top 5, and maybe even the Top 3, of Greatest Celtic Play-off Games
Ever among the Garden cognoscenti. This was pure athletic theater, and not
until Orlando Woolridge air-balled a desperation three-pointer with two
seconds remaining in the second OT was there a legitimate chance for any
Celtic owner, general manager, coach, player or fan to relax and light up that
mental cigar. As long as Mr. Jordan is known to be present in this hemisphere,
no rival lead is safe, no palm is dry, no throat swallows easily and no
stomach is settled. A man who scores 63 points out of the flow  is a man to
fear, respect and idolize.
   But justice, as we witnessed in Holmes-Spinks II, has nothing to do with
winning and losing, for despite Jordan's 22 field goals and 63 points, he
didn't make the biggest basket of the long, long afternoon. Jerry Sichting, a
player whose game is to Jordan's as a 1955 Studebaker is to a 1986 Porsche,
had that honor. For it was Sichting who took an inside-out pass from Kevin
McHale and did what he has done faithfully all year -- swished the foul line
jumper. That basket broke the game's 13th tie and gave the Celtics a 133-131
lead with 57 seconds left in the second OT. And when Jordan missed a left
baseline jumper on the next Chicago possession, Robert Parish rebounded.
   The ball went to Bird (36 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists), who orchestrated
a two-man game on the right wing with Parish. "As soon as he set the pick and
rolled, I gave it to him," said Bird, unconcerned that Parish had not scored a
jumper all night and had established a bad case of the oopsies in his
infrequent drives to the hoop. "When he goes, you've got to give him the ball.
You don't worry about Robert Parish. I never do, because he's made a lot of
big plays for this team."
   That's no lie, and this time he took the pass and swished a 12-foot moon
shot on the right baseline to give Boston a four-point lead (135-131) with
nine seconds remaining.
   The best shot Chicago could get was the weak Woolridge three-pointer. The
ball was inbounded to Bird, who just stood with it to await the ending of a
truly spectacular afternoon of play-off basketball.
   In any game such as this, there is invariably an individual of whom it can
safely be said, "Without him, this would definitely  have been an L."
Yesterday afternoon, that man was the oft-maligned Danny Ainge.
   You never would have pegged Ainge as a potential hero midway through the
third quarter. He hadn't even scored a point by the time the aggressive young
Bulls claimed their final 10-point lead (69-59). But before the period was
over, he had erupted for 13, including 11 in the final 2:36, the last three of
which came on a three-pointer that brought the struggling Celtics within one
at 84-83.
   Ainge would wind up with 24, and he would score two giant baskets, the
first a left-handed lane drive that would tie the score at 125-125 with 12
seconds left in the first OT, and the second an open 18-footer that would give
Boston a brief 131-127 lead in the second OT, a lead that was quickly wiped
out via two quick hoops by the irrepressible Jordan.
   Chicago abandoned the first-game strategy of continual Jordan isolations,
and he proved how brilliant he was by performing even better in the context of
a normal offense than he did when 90 percent of the action was directed his
way. The Bulls took the lead at 4-2 and clung to it stubbornly until a clock-
beating 28-foot three-pointer by Bird gave Boston the lead at 93-92 and
created the first of nine consecutive lead changes through 102-100, Boston (an
inside-out three-pointer by Bird from McHale).
   Boston did everything but summon the ghost of Walter Brown in an attempt to
knock out the Bulls, but the visitors would not succumb. A 108-104 fourth-
quarter lead soon turned into a 111-110 Chicago advantage on the Jordan basket
that gave him an even 50 points. A 116-113 lead with 45 seconds remaining in
regulation (an Ainge-to-McHale alley-oop) evaporated when Charles Oakley hit a
free throw with 34 seconds left, leading to the sequence (Bird miss, Parish
momentary rebound and Chicago steal/strip/maul/who- knows-what- but-no-call)
that set up the game's most controversial happening.
   Leading, 116-114, with six seconds left, the Celtics had to dig in one last
time to preserve the lead. With about one second left, Jordan up-faked Dennis
Johnson and threw up a three-pointer that clanged off the rim as McHale
arrived on the scene. Referee Ed Middleton called a foul on McHale after the
shot. Did Jordan get hit? Did he spread-eagle smartly upon release and hit
McHale? Do you ever make a call like this? Middleton did, and Jordan,
naturally, sank both shots to create OT No. 1.
   The Bulls surged ahead by four (123-119) on a Jordan three-point play with
1:39 left, but Sichting canned a corner jumper (missing the affixed free
throw) and Ainge came through with that clutch drive. Jordan missed an
unmolested left-side jumper and Bird rebounded with two seconds left. A Bird
three-pointer was long and the weary troops entered the second OT.
   Way, way back in this one, many amazing things had gone on. For example,
Bill Walton (who fouled out with 6:10 left in regulation) grabbed 13 rebounds
in 13 first-half minutes. Sidney Green and Oakley had made breathtaking tap-
ins. Bird, after going 0 for 5 in the first quarter and then hyperextending
his right pinkie (forcing him to play with it taped to its neighbor), came out
to hit nine of his next 11 shots, including two three-pointers. McHale scored
a fourth-quarter basket while actually sitting on Dave Corzine. And every
primary Celtic had gotten himself into foul trouble (the first six guys,
Walton being No. 6, compiled 31 fouls).
   All the while, Jordan just kept scoring. And scoring. And scoring. This
way. That way. Horizontally. Vertically. Diagonally. In ways never conceived
of by Hank Luisetti, Joe Fulks, Paul Arizin or even World B. Free. And,
reminded Parish, "It's not like he was doing it in a summer league."
   A question now arises: What is Michael Jordan capable of doing in his own
building? Two-and-zero looks about 100 times better than 1-1 right now.
 
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Michael Madden
 
    Write the story of what the Boston Celtics did in the final 5:23
yesterday, call it The Defense Never Rests and you'll have a sure best-seller.
Write the story of the officiating, name it The Return of Power Football and
you'll have the most apt description of that final, brutal havoc on the
basketball court. But if you want to know what happened to the Philadelphia
76ers, call on your astrologer, shuffle your tarot cards and tune in Edgar
Cayce and Jeanne Dixon because the answer is in the stars, not us.
    One point in the final 5:23 of play. No, not in the NBA, not the Sixers,
not the Doc, not the Dawk, not The Train. No way. No. No. NO.
 
    "I don't understand it," said Billy Cunningham.
    "I can't explain it," said Darryl Dawkins.
    "I really don't know," said Julius Erving.
    5:23 left: Doc flies for his own rebound, launches heavenward to the
basket for a floating, reverse follow. Sixers lead, 89-82.
    The team that lost is the best basketball team not to make the NBA final,
yet its players slunk back to Philadelphia last night described as losers,
chokers, the team that threw it away. "I don't know what to say, man," the
Sixers' Darryl Dawkins said slowly, haltingly. "I'm all shook up . . . it
hurts."
    4:48 left: Philadelphia's Andrew Toney throws up a running leaner in the
lane; it bounces off the rim. The first miss.
    Billy Cunningham, the 76ers' coach, didn't open the door to his locker
room for a full 15 minutes after the loss. And, when he finally emerged out to
the world, Cunningham stood four-square in the door for another five minutes.
"My players need more time," said the coach, now ashen-faced. Cunningham then
left for the Celtics locker room, to give his congratulations but not before
turning over his shoulder, "Five more minutes, guys. They need time."
    4:21 remaining: The Doctor is double-teamed in the right corner and tries
to slip a pass inside. Larry Bird steps in and picks off the pass. The first
turnover.
    "I understand that in a playoff game like this one," said Cunningham,
"that you have to let the players play. And what we were trying to do is go
inside with the ball to get some fouls. Then I see bodies flying all over the
place and no calls. I don't understand . . . I don't and I guess I never will.
I think the officials heard the crowd." What the officials did was swallow
their whistles; holding, blocking, grabbing, shoving, pushing, mauling and
mugging now all were accepted plays in the NBA.
    4:03 left: Bobby Jones, again on the right side, tries to force the ball
inside to Caldwell Jones but again Bird steps inside and steals the ball. The
second turnover.
    Once the Philly room was opened, the media hordes swarmed around the few
Sixers not in the shower. Dawkins, the giant, is sitting naked in the left
corner, choked up. "What can I say, man?" Dawkins replies to several
questions, "It hurts . . . it's the worse. It's over, man and I ain't getting
into no trouble. I ain't going to blame the refs but you run the (bleep) film
back when I took my shot and you tell me if two guys didn't get me. You look
at it and tell me. I didn't get a goddamned call . . . I got three guys on me,
I get knocked down and there's no call. What kind of (bleep) is that?"
    3:25 to 2:59 remaining: Dawkins goes up for an awesome Gorilla Dunk but
Boston's Robert Parish, in a reject just as awesome, stuffs the Gorilla move.
Second miss. Next, Nate Archibald steals Lionel Hollins' pass. Third turnover.
    The Sixers' Maurice Cheeks is sitting on a bench, head down, eyes
downcast. "It's our fault," said Cheeks. "We just let it slip away. I don't
think Boston is a better team. I think we're a better team. But they became
the aggressors down the stretch and they made us commit a lot of turnovers."
    2:27 to 1:59 remaining: The Doc goes up for a 22-footer but misses; the
Sixers' third key miss. But Caldwell Jones collars the rebound, the ball comes
to the Doctor for another shot but Bird mugs him to the court and blocks the
ball. Fourth miss. Finally, the Train, Lionel Hollins, gets the ball but he
misses a 22-footer. Fifth miss.
    Julius Erving is poised and cool in the locker room, but pained. The Doc
had scored 10 points in the final quarter "and I was winded at one stage in
the fourth quarter but I got it back," he explains. "In the other games,
playing Bird so hard might have had an effect on me but, in this game, I had
my opportunities. The Doc says finally, "I don't believe in sulking, but this
hurts."
    1:07 remaining: Dawkins gets the ball on the left, puts his shoulder down
and goes over right tackle to the basket. But Parish stops him at the 2-yard
line with a crucnhing block and Dawkins' shot bounces off the backboard. Sixth
miss. Dawkins, Parish and Cedric Maxwell crash to the court, Bird picks up the
loose ball in the right corner and goes coast-to-coast for the winning basket.
    Bobby Jones is just as poised and cool as Erving and just as pained. "I
can't say we choked because we were in there to the end," said Jones. "We had
our opportunities but we just couldn't do much with them. But the games's over
with; it's done."
    48 to 29 seconds remaining: The Doc, 20 feet out on the right, goes up and
fires a weird, poor crosscourt pass to Bobby Jones. M.L. Carr picks it off.
Fourth turnover. But the ball is quickly restolen from the Celtics' Henderson
by Hollins, the ball goes to Cheeks who drives and is fouled by Henderson.
Cheeks bricks up the first free throw but makes the second. The Sixers' only
point of the final 5:23.
    Cunningham is asked what happened at the end and why. The coach's eyes
look vaguely blank, but the answer is honest. "My mind's too hazy now to
analyze what happened down the stretch," said the coach. "I'm not too sure."
    What happened was that the Celtics worked the ball for 23 seconds before
Carr fired up a 20-footer from the left with six seconds left, the Celtics'
Parish gouged out the rebound, killed four seconds before Bobby Jones jerked
Parish's arm, yanked his body and stole the ball. The Sixers called time.
    One second left: Cunningham gathers his team in the huddle, calls out a
play with two options, the first being a lob pass from Bobby Jones at
halfcourt to the Doc under the basket. The Sixers had never practiced the
play, Jones says later he has never thrown that pass the entire season.
"C'mon, Bobby," Cunningham implores Jones in the huddle, "Ya gotta do it,
Bobby. Ya gotta do it."
    Jones' pass bounces high off the backboard, Erving never touches the ball.
FInal score for the Sixers in the final 5:22 - 10 possessions, six missed
shots, five turnovers, one foul shot.
 
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bird Stole The Ball!
 
   The replay was shown again. And again. And again. The little clock always
started with five seconds in the corner and with all of that confusion on the
screen.
"OK, last time," Wayne Lebeaux said in the heat of the Boston Celtics'
locker room last night.
   Twenty feet, maybe 30 feet from the parquet floor where all of this really
happened a few minutes earlier, Larry Bird stepped in front of Isiah Thomas'
soft pass again and turned to whip the ball to Dennis Johnson again and Dennis
Johnson spun the ball into the basket and the wipe-your-eyes magic trick
happened again. Boston Celtics 108. Detroit Pistons 107. Flat-out
unbelievable. Again.
    "OK, one more time," Wayne Lebeaux said, whipping the tape back to the
beginning.
    People who watch basketball films for a living could not see enough of
this. Again and again. How far away was Larry Bird when the play started? How
could he even be thinking what he was thinking? The pass was going to Bill
Laimbeer, was it not? Larry Bird was out near the foul line, guarding the
Pistons' Ricky Mahorn. Laimbeer was under the basket. How did Larry Bird know
he should do what he did?
   "One more time," Wayne Lebeaux said. "Then I'm shutting this thing off."
    "I could see the ball was going to Laimbeer," Larry Bird said. "I was
going to foul him. I thought that if I fouled him right away, there'd only be
four seconds left, and even if he made the shots, we'd still have a chance to
tie the game.
     "The ball just hung up there. It seemed to take forever to get to
Laimbeer. I kept going and I got my left hand on the ball. I was thinking
about shooting, but the ball was going the other way. Then I turned and saw
Dennis. It was a lucky play. That was all it was."
   Luck? Yes. Celtics luck? Yes. Garden luck? Yes. Luck by design? Also, yes.
How was Larry Bird still thinking in that situation? He had gone for the game-
winner and had been blocked by the Pistons' Dennis Rodman on an attempted
drive. That was how the Pistons had the ball at that end of the court, the
ball skittering off Celts guard Jerry Sicthing. How was Larry Bird still
awake, not muttering at himself at that time of the game?
    "How?" Celts assistant coach Chris Ford was asked.
    "How?" Ford answered. "Because he's Larry Bird. That's the only reason I
can think of."
    Ford said he was standing, yelling the word "Foul" as loud as possible as
the play was made. He never thought of a steal, never dreamed of it. Pistons
coach Chuck Daly said he was standing and yelling, "Timeout," as loud as
possible, but could not be heard by his team in the middle of the Garden noise
that had continued from beginning to absolute end in this turnaround fifth
game of this Eastern NBA best-of-seven final series.
    Isiah Thomas? He said in the Pistons' locker room that he wanted to put
the ball into play in a hurry. Get the ball into play. Get the foul. Get the
foul shots. Go home with the win. Bill Laimbeer?
    "Ohhhhhhh," Bill Walton shouted as the play came onto the screen one more
time. "He's backing away. Laimbeer is backing away."
    "One more time," Wayne Lebeaux said.
    "He's backing away," Walton said. "You have to go for the ball."
    The amazing aspects of the play did not stop. There was a resemblance,
perhaps, to the John Havlicek steal -- "April 15, 1965," one reporter yelled
across the room to another -- but this was even more significant. The Celtics
did not have to score when Havlicek stole the ball. They only had to stop the
Philadelphia villains from scoring. Here the Celtics not only had to score,
but Johnson had to score with a shot that was approximately 9.8 on the degree-
of-difficulty scale.
   "You look at all the parts of that play," Chris Ford said. "Each one is
amazing. Look at where Larry is, at how far he has to come to steal the ball.
Then you look at the fact that he's almost falling out of bounds and can't get
a good shot. Then that he sees DJ. Then the fact that DJ makes the shot. That
was a harrrrd shot."
    How many years and how many games and how many practice sessions went into
that little pass and basket? How many two-player combinations in basketball
could have locked into the same mental frequency so quickly? Wasn't Dennis
Johnson coming for the basket almost as soon as Bird was stealing the ball?
Look. Here he was. Wasn't he taking that tough shot to save himself from a
foul that probably wouldn't have been called at that time of the game? A
righthanded spinner from the wrong side of the basket? He was about 3 feet
underneath the hoop by the time the ball hit the glass and dropped through the
hole.
   "One more time," Wayne Lebeaux said. "From the beginning. But watch now
because this is it."
    "We have a good sense of where we are, Larry and me," Dennis Johnson said.
"We've been together a long time . . . but that mostly was luck. I'll admit
that. I mean, how many steal-the-ball plays can you remember in the time
Johnny Most has been broadcasting here? Havlicek. Gerald Henderson. This one.
What's that? Three in 30 years, 40 years? That has to be luck."
    Luck?
    "Well, when there's time left, there's always a chance," Larry Bird said.
"But this was a slim chance. You have to say that."
    Luck?
    "One more time," Wayne Lebeaux said. "Awwww, the hell with that. I'm going
to run this thing the whole damn night."
    Grown men stood in the warm little room and stared. Again and again. Larry
Bird stole the ball. Dennis Johnson spun it into the basket. An entire city
seemed to hop about an inch and a half off its feet. Again and again.
    Larry Bird stole the ball.
 
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Peter May
 
    Reality therapy, also known as the Detroit Pistons, can wait. At least for
24 hours. The Celtics deserve that much after what transpired yesterday.
   Years from now, when Chuck Person is still talking trash and Larry Bird is
limping around the lower 40 in French Lick, hundreds of thousands of people
will say they were there.
 
   They will list the highlights as if going over the grocery list: Larry's
fall and rise. Indiana's great comeback. Robert's third quarter. Reggie's
third quarter. The crowd. Micheal Williams. Person's verbal antics. Derek
Smith being, well, Derek Smith. And so on.
   The Celtics' 124-121 victory over the Pacers was a fitting conclusion to a
marvelous playoff series. It established Indiana as, finally, a team to watch
down the road. And the Celtics flexed their muscles just enough to make sure
they are still a team to watch.
   Bird did nothing but add to his already overflowing legend with a 32-point,
nine-rebound, seven-assist gem. Making it even more dramatic was a second-
quarter fall that produced a whiplash-like collision between head and parquet
and resulted in what the Celtics think and hope is only a bruised right
cheekbone.
   His re-entrance after getting ice treatment shook the Boston Garden to its
foundation and energized the Celtics enough to build a 16-point lead. It
wasn't enough, however, to deflate the Pacers, who came awfully close (how
does a couple of inches sound?) to erasing an 11-point deficit in the final
3:11?
   But the Celtics survived. Or persevered. Or lucked out. Person missed a 3-
pointer in the final 15 seconds that would have given Indiana a 121-120 lead
- -- "we were one bullet short," Person said -- and four big free throws by
Brian Shaw in the last 6.6 seconds were enough to dispatch the Pacers and
force another meeting with the dreaded Pistons.
   "It was just a great game to be a part of," said Reggie Lewis, who had 22
points, 10 in the third quarter. "And when Larry came back, that really gave
us a big lift."
   Bird had left the game with 4:23 remaining in the first half after his fall
while diving for a loose ball. The Pacers were in the process of recovering
from a 10-point first-quarter deficit, a deficit resulting from some excellent
Boston running (16 first-quarter points on transition) and some spirited bench
play from Smith (10 points in the first quarter.)
   No one knew how badly Bird was hurt.
   "He really took a shot," said Celtics boss Dave Gavitt. "I knew he was
woozy. It was kind of shaky, really. I kind of doubted he'd come back. Well,
maybe I should put an asterisk there. This was Larry."
   Without Bird, the Celtics and Pacers matched hoops with Lewis and Robert
Parish (21 points) carrying the load. Bird came back with 6:46 to play in the
third and by the time the quarter ended, the Celtics had themselves a 9-point
lead and Bird had 12 more points, making him Boston's career playoff scoring
leader.
   "We knew he was coming back," said Indiana's Detlef Schrempf (20 points).
''And we knew the crowd was going to be loud and noisy."
   "It reminded me a little of Willis Reed," said Dee Brown, who was 18 months
old when the Knicks' center dragged himself onto the floor in Game 7 against
the Lakers in 1970. "I knew he'd be back. He's the toughest player I've ever
seen."
   The emotion of Bird's return and the Celtics' attendant play seemed to
indicate things were, at long last, in Boston's corner (have we heard that
before?). Ed Pinckney came off the bench to deliver nine strong minutes
(including one Wilkinsesque tip-in).
   The Boston lead crested at 112-96 with 7:02 to play on two Lewis free
throws. Bird then came out for a breather -- against his wishes -- but he
wasn't down for long. Nor were the Pacers. Five Boston turnovers in the final
3:46 saw to that.
   An 8-0 Pacer run paced by Williams (23 points, 10 assists) cut the deficit
to 118-115. Soon thereafter, the Pacers found themselves with the ball and
down, 120-118, after Kevin McHale stepped backcourt.
   Now, things weren't so giddy. Person (32 points, 9 rebounds) got himself
where he likes to be, wide open for a trey. About 14,890 people held their
breath. The shot fell short. Person later made an outrageous trey from around
30 feet (and with Smith's hand in his face), but the one the Pacers needed, he
couldn't provide.
   "We were one shot away from going to the next round," Person said.
   The miss forced the Pacers to foul and Shaw twice stepped to the line and
made a pair. Person tried to goad someone into a technical, even yelling at
coach Chris Ford (who yelled back). Only when Schrempf's 70-foot heave was
wide to the right, however, could Ford raise his arms in triumph. And keep
them there.
 
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nique and Larry Showdown
 
By Michael Madden
 
   Words fail where Larry Bird didn't. Basketball can be no better than this,
nor a seventh game, nor a fourth quarter, nor Dominique Wilkins and most nor
of all, Larry Bird. It all was sublime and Larry Bird was beyond even the
sublime. He was in a world whose inhabitants number one and only one.
   There can be no perspective for this because where is the benchmark for
comparison? There can be only description, but words failed all who tried to
describe Bird's fourth quarter. And so it was left to Bird to describe himself
and he did it so perfectly when asked by an Edmonton hockey writer his
feelings on sharing the same bill with Wayne Gretzky.
  "Hell," said Bird, scoffing off the question, Lord Stanley and all who might
dare enter his world of one, "this is my building."
   So perfect. "Hell, this is my building." Boston Garden. Fourth quarter.
Seventh game. "Hell, this is my building," and this is his time and this is
his moment and this is his shot, all 999 variations  of the clutch shot, and
this is his sublime. You know he's been so great, but on this day Larry Bird
was his greatest.
   Men tried to describe what they had seen and they could only punch at
superlatives. "That was the greatest performance I've ever witnessed," said
the Celtics' Dirk Minniefield. "It was like he was playing on Mt. Olympus and
we were all down on the Greek islands."
   "I've seen so many of his fourth quarters," said assistant coach Jimmy
Rodgers, "but I don't ever remember him ever having a fourth quarter like
that. And you know . . . it was absolutely necessary. Everything he did was so
significant."
   And that is why it was so sublime. Bird's 20 points in that fourth quarter
are only numbers, empty and bare and dry as sawdust without their context.
Within their context -- the Hawks doing no wrong, 'Nique soaring to his
highest level, a quarter where long minutes went by with neither team missing
a shot, a season ending for that team that finally missed that shot -- Bird
came through. In so many ways.
    "It was like two gunfighters waiting to blink," said Kevin McHale of the
Bird-and-Magni-'Nique shootout. "It was boom . . . boom . . . Larry would make
one and Dominique would make one. Larry would make one and Dominique would
make one. Larry would make one and Dominique would make one. It was
unbelievable . . . I tell you there was one four-minute stretch there that was
as pure a form of basketball as you're ever going to see."
   Yet, it was the Celtics who won, it was the Celtics who finished with 2
more points than Atlanta, and it was Bird who crunched 20 in crunch time to
Magni-'Nique's 16. It was a Bird that McHale had not seen in a while.
    "Larry took that game over himself," said McHale. "It's been a while since
I've seen that look in his eye, like, 'Get the hell out my way, boys,
because I'm going to go to work.' I tell you, it was good to see that look in
Larry's eye. That look today was like, 'I want the ball,' and when he gets the
look like that, Katie bar the door."
   Of how many parts did Larry Bird consist in this finest of fourth quarters.
Larry Bird The Shooter, ah, there are points and points and points to be made
about that Larry Bird. But how about Larry Bird The Defender, making two key
defensive plays, and Larry Bird The Lefthanded Touchdown Passer, feeding Danny
Ainge with a Boomer Esiason off-balance toss for a breakaway with 17 seconds
left and a 116-111 lead and Larry Bird The Coach waving Minniefield off the
court in those final 20 seconds and back to the bench. No substitutions needed
now; Bird knew that.
    "I really felt good going into that fourth quarter," Bird would say,
modestly. "It was one of them games where you felt whoever made the first
mistake or whoever missed the first shot was going to lose, so every shot I
took, I tried to concentrate on it."
    Any basket in a fourth quarter of a tight seventh game can be framed and
mounted on the mantelpiece and brought up to the grandchildren 30 years from
now. So where to begin with Bird, with 8:56 left and that tripping, running,
off-balance, falling, leaning lefty hook in the lane that went in with a foul
attached?
   "That was just lucky," Bird would say. "I was feeling a lot of contact and
I knew I had to get the shot off to get to the free throw line. But after I
made that one . . . I wanted the ball the next time down to see how hot I
really was."
    Sublimely hot. For Bird next hit a 14-foot baseline leaner, but it was
what had happened before this shot that was most significant. For Bird The
Defender had sneaked inside on Kevin Willis and picked off a routine John
Battle post-up pass. Five seconds later, Bird The Shooter buried the 14-foot
leaner.
    On and on and on and on it went, Bird and Wilkins, Wilkins and Bird,
neither blinking, neither cracking, basketball as precious as the Mona Lisa.
''Things," said Bird, "were just going my way on the offensive end," an
understated way of describing 9-of-10 in the crunchiest of crunch time.
    "The way I look at it," Bird said, "the team goes to me a lot for the
last-second shots throughout the year. And if it comes down to one shot or
five shots or whatever, I think my teammates would rather see me have the ball
and try to win the game for us."
    They did. He did. The running lefty leaner in the lane for a 101-99 lead
with 5:42 left, the 20-footer off a pick 36 seconds later, another pop off a
pick with 3:34 left for a 107-105 lead and then the play, the two plays, by
Larry Bird The Defender followed immediately by Larry Bird The Shooter. It was
109-105, Boston, with 1:48 left, when the Hawks got the ball in low to Antoine
Carr and Carr turned and Carr went up and . . .
    "Yeah, I slapped the ball -- the ball just went straight up," said Bird.
''He tried to turn baseline and he went up and I got a piece of it."
    Celtics ball. Now, five seconds later, here was Bird far down the other
end of the court, in the left corner, his sneakers well behind the three-point
line but only inches from the out-of-bounds line.
    "The best way to get your three-pointers is on a semi-break like that," he
said, " 'cause guys are sort of scattered and everybody runs to the middle of
the court, to the paint."
    No hesitation. Nothing. The look in his eye. Dennis Johnson knew enough to
get the ball to Bird as soon as possible and so Bird went up with the three-
pointer, a Hawk draped on him, and it went in and the big clock above midcourt
read, 112-105, Boston.
    All that was left was for Bird The Coach to present himself. The Hawks
came at the Celtics with three guards with 26 seconds left, Minniefield was
sent into the game for Boston but Bird waved him off.
    "I didn't know who he was coming in for," said Bird. "I thought he was
coming in for Robert (Parish) and they made a substitution and I didn't know
if K.C. had seen it. That's all I was doing. I was asking him if he had seen
the substitution."
    This was it. Everything. The complete package. Sublime and beyond.
 
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boston Massacre: Knicks Lose Historically
 
 By Sam Goldaper
 
 The Boston Celtics' long playoff history is filled with many great moments.
 
   One of the most famous came on May 27, 1985 - the so-called Memorial Day
Massacre - when the Celtics routed the Los Angeles Lakers, 148-114, in the
opening game of the championship round.
 
   Doing as they pleased today, the Celtics not only outdid that scoring feat
but also wrote themselves a place in the National Basketball Association record
book by overwhelming the Knicks, 157-128, at the Boston Garden to take a 2-0
lead in their opening-round series.
 
   The Knicks must sweep the last three games of the series or their season will
be over. Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
 
   The Celtics' total was the most points ever scored in a playoff game. For
trivia buffs, it was Kevin Gamble, the seldom-used guard, who broke the record
with an 18-foot shot at the buzzer.
 
   The old record was 156 points, set by the Milwaukee Bucks on March 30, 1970,
against the Philadelphia 76ers.
 
   The most points the Knicks allowed previously in a playoff game was 140,
against the Celtics on March 21, 1967.
 
   The overall point total tied a record for a playoff game set in San Antonio's
152-133 victory over Denver in April 1983.
 
   The margin of victory - 29 points - could have easily been greater.
 
   ''What is there to say?'' said Al Bianchi, the Knicks' general manager, as he
watched the final seconds of one the most dreadful games in Knick history.
''They whipped us in every department. We let them do anything they wanted.''
 
   The loss was the Knicks' 26th in a row in the Boston Garden since Feb. 29,
1984 - 18 in the regular season and 8 in the playoffs.
 
   Throughout the game, several coaching voices on the Knick bench tried to
rally the team with cries of ''C'mon defense; 'D' it up.'' The pleas fell on
deaf ears. ''The scoring was pathetic,'' said Billy Cunningham, the Hall of Fame
player and former Philadelphia 76er coach, who did commentary on the game for
national television. ''The scary thing is the Celtics tried to control the tempo
of the game. Can you imagine how many points Boston might have scored
otherwise?''
 
   The Celtics were wide open for many shots. They shot 67 percent from the
field - a record for a playoff game - and played outstanding defense, especially
in the second quarter.
 
   At the half, Boston was ahead by 74-59.
 
    ''They're playing like they have taken their game to a new level,'' said Stu
Jackson, the Knicks' coach. ''It's the best I've seen them play in about a year.
Everything that went wrong for us was worsened by their torrid shooting.''
 
   The Knick coach was asked, as he is so often, whether the Boston Garden had
something to do with losing.
 
   ' 'I don't think it's the building,'' he said. ''It's the team.''
 
   After the Celtics began the second period with an 8-2 spurt as the Knicks
missed six of their seven shots, Jackson asked his players, ''How are we going
to respond?''
 
   Things only got worse, especially for Patrick Ewing. The Knick center had
only six shots in the first half, two in the second quarter.
 
   With the exception of a brief spurt in the opening quarter when the Knicks
closed a 12-point deficit to 3 by the end of the period, New York was playing
one-on-one basketball against the most experienced team in the N.B.A.
 
   When the Knicks followed Jackson's direction to push the ball up quickly,
several players wound up bunched in the middle.
 
   Then too, there was the familiar problem of rebounding, Robert Parish, with
16 rebounds, and Kevin McHale, with 10, were too much for the Knicks to contend
with.
 
   When the Celtics missed, they often rebounded their own shots, hitting on
second and third efforts.
 
   The Knicks' Charles Oakley, coming back in the playoffs after missing the
last 17 regular-season games with a broken hand, was his old self at times on
the offensive boards. He had five offensive rebounds - and nine rebounds over
all - in his 21 minutes, but it was hardly enough to make a difference.
 
   The Celtic offense was orchestrated by Larry Bird, who made up for his
5-for-15 shooting by doling out 16 assists. His passes found McHale and Parish in the paint
area or under the boards. McHale scored 31 points, hitting
on 12 of 15 shots. Parish had 18 points.
 
   Perhaps the most staggering statistic - one that illustrated the Celtics'
ball movement and hot shooting - was their 46 assists, 21 more than the Knicks
had.
 
   In addition to the 64 points from the frontcourt of McHale, Parish and Bird,
Reggie Lewis added 21. But no matter who shot, the ball went in. Ed Pinckney,
who rarely plays, got 14 minutes of time after the Celtics' lead reached 30
points. He made all six of his shots and scored 16 points.
 
    'We're old,'' said Jimmy Rodgers, the Celtics' coach. ''Chronologically,
we've got more years than most other teams, but our guys are playing young at
heart right now.'' McHale agreed.  ''Sure we're old in age,'' he said. ''But we
showed the basketball world that we can still play like youngsters. We knew the
Knicks would come here and try to run, try to tire us and try and get some easy
baskets. We've got a veteran team that responded like one should. We played
defense, rebounded, passed the ball and shot it well.''
 
   The Knicks wound up shooting 51 percent, which would win a lot of games.
Ewing led the Knicks with 28 points, 18 coming in the second half when they
started to go to him in desperation.
 
   Jackson, who called the loss ''humiliating,'' said his team would have a day
off Sunday.
 
   ''Monday morning we've just got to go to practice,'' he said. ''Our pride is
at stake.''
 
 
Getting a rundown on Celtics' runaway
By Frank Dell'Apa
 
 
 NBA Properties Inc. must be preparing the labels now. It is a difficult
task. The Runnin' Celtics seems a ripoff. Sprintin' Celtics is alliterative
but inaccurate. Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood run-and-gunners could be interpreted
wrong. Larry's Loyola-East -- the fathers might object.
   There are many explanations for the Celtics' 157-128 victory over the
Knickerbockers at North Station Greyhound Park on Sunday. Most involve either
the Celtics' calculated competence or the Knicks' complete incompetence.
 
   What exactly has happened? Have the Damn Celtics sold their souls? Are they
on steroids? Or are they just getting sound medical advice and plenty of rest?
   "We're old in age," Kevin McHale said after the game. "But some days you
just feel young."
   But all evaluations are cautionary, since the Celtics are a victory away
from the dreaded Pistons.
   The common perception of the Knicks is that they quit during this game. If
true, the Celtics deserve some of the credit. Because the Knicks follow
Patrick Ewing, and Ewing was simply manhandled by Robert Parish. Ewing did not
often receive the ball from teammates -- he took only six shots in the first
half. Were Ewing allowed to roam free, as he did in scoring 51 points against
the Celtics last month, the Knicks would certainly have found him early and
often.
   But Parish discouraged the Knicks' game plan. And after it became apparent
that going to Ewing would be difficult, the Knicks took the easy way out with
one-on-one moves and perimeter jumpers.
   "Robert has played like that for the last 10 years," McHale said. "A lot of
the time he has not gotten much credit. In the NBA, you are novelty at first
and people get excited over anything you do. The middle part of your career
you can get overlooked and that's what happened with Robert."
   The pace of this game should not have been to the Knicks' disadvantage.
They trailed, 41-38, after the first quarter. Then Rodgers went to a two-
center, three-guard offense -- Joe Kleine and Parish plus John Bagley, Reggie
Lewis and John Paxson. Then the Celtics were really off and running.
   If the Knicks believed that they had weathered the best onslaught Boston
was capable of, they were mistaken.
   "They're playing like they have taken their game to a new level," Knicks
coach Stu Jackson said. "It's the best I've seen them play in about a year."
   Such observations have been surfacing regularly from opponents in recent
weeks. Fact is, outsiders are having difficulty analyzing this team and
insiders will say only that they are cautiously optimistic.
   McHale recalled the 1982 Celtics, which he thought was the best team he had
played on. The Celtics began the Eastern Conference finals with a 40-point
victory over Philadelphia, then lost the series in seven games after Tiny
Archibald was injured. And, of course, there was the Game 1 148-114 massacre
of the Lakers in the 1985 finals, which the Celtics lost in six games.
   "They're playing with a lot of energy and confidence," Rodgers said. "We
look at this as an evolution. We wanted to improve from Game 1 to Game 2. It
takes three to win the series."
   Rodgers could have coached this Knicks team, but the Celtics prevented him
from doing so three years ago. Had the Knicks hired Rodgers then, they might
well have been better prepared for these playoffs.
   Now Rodgers is holding the reins of something that is beyond either control
or explanation. For now, all he wants to do is bank some of those Game 1
points.
   "For a rainy day," he said.
 
   Ernie DiGregorio, who retired from the NBA after playing for the Celtics in
1978, has applied for the head coaching position at Morgan State University in
Baltimore. Former NBA guard Dudley Bradley has also applied for the job . . .
The next opponent for Brian Shaw's Il Messaggero Roma team is Darren Daye's
Scavolini Pesaro in the Italian League playoffs starting Wednesday. The
following is a description of Daye in Sunday's New York Times travel section:
''When Daye . . . walks down the street it is a royal progress. He is hailed
not like a star but like a prince, which to the fans he definitely is."
 
 
NY's Robinson, King get off to slow start; Knicks fizzle, Celts revel in Game 7 Eastern
Conference Final win
 
Celtics 121 - Knicks 104
 
With the Celtics leading, 34-26, late in the first quarter yesterday, the
Boston Garden public-address announcer intoned, ''Will the Knicks' bus driver
please report to the East lobby.'' The Knicks could have reported to the East
lobby, too. For all practical purposes, their decisive seventh game of the
Eastern Conference semifinal series was over. So was their season. And so,
perhaps, was Leonard (Truck) Robinson's career with the Knicks.
 
   In the 121-104 loss, Bernard King scored 24 points, but he had only 9 in the
first half when the game was being decided.
 
   ''Bernard had a tough start,'' Hubie Brown, the Knicks' coach, would say
later. ''But that's part of basketball. When that happens, the scene shifts to
other people. But only two guys responded to the challenge. I thought Rory
Sparrow and Truck Robinson played real big for us.''
 
   Not big enough, of course. According to Hubie Brown, the Celtics played a
''perfect game'' as Larry Bird scored 39 points, many of them on one- handers
from somewhere near the Bunker Hill monument.
 
   Truck Robinson, meanwhile, scored 16 points, including 14 during the first
half with a workhorse effort. That's what a power forward is supposed to supply.
But that only made some Knick followers wonder why Truck Robinson hadn't played
that way more often, not only in the National Basketball Association playoffs
but also during the regular- season schedule.
 
   In the weeks to come, as Dave DeBusschere, the Knicks' executive vice
president, and Hubie Brown assess the team's needs for next season, a
consistently better power forward would appear to be the primary requirement if
the Knicks are to threaten the Celtic and 76er supremacy in the Atlantic
Division.
 
   In the Celtic series, Truck Robinson averaged only 7.5 points over the first
six games, including no points in the third game. In the five-game opening-round
series against Detroit, he averaged only 4.8 points. In rebounds, he averaged a
creditable 7.5 against the Celtics, 8.6 against the Pistons.
 
   If the Knicks are to use Bernard King's scoring ability as the catalyst for a
future championship, they must surround him with a better supporting cast, beginning with a
new power forward. Some critics believe a stronger center
than
Bill Cartwright also is necessary, but the Knick front office appears satisfied
with him. So look for the Knicks to try to make a trade for a power forward who
can produce consistently, not occasionally. Look for them also to consider
trading Ray Williams, who disappeared again yesterday with only 8 points.
 
   Even so, the Knicks deserve to be proud of having forced a seventh game with
the N.B.A.'s best team during the regular season with a 62-20 record.
 
   ''Something like this has to be progress, it has to help our foundation,''
Dave DeBusschere said. ''We won our fifth game on the road in Detroit in the
first series. We had to win a game up here to win this series with the Celtics
and we couldn't do it, but we matured, we grew as a team. We'll be better for
this in the playoffs next year.''
 
   In the two years of the Dave DeBusschere-Hubie Brown regime, the Knicks have
progressed into a tough playoff team.
 
   ''This year we carried the best team in basketball to seven games,'' Hubie
Brown was saying now of the Celtic series, ''and last year we played Philly
tougher than anybody when they won the championship, no matter what they say. Go
back and check the scores.''
 
   This year the Celtics, who now oppose the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern
Conference final, or the Los Angeles Lakers loom as the championship team.
 
   Except for Hubie Brown and Truck Robinson, none of the Knicks had ever been
in a seventh game of a N.B.A. playoff series until yesterday. To add to the
newness of that feeling, the Knicks had to play that seventh game in the Boston
Garden with all those green-and-white N.B.A. championship banners hanging from
the rafters, with that green-and- white ''14 N.B.A. World Championships'' banner
across the front of the scorer's table.
   ''Game time temperature 65,'' the message board said. ''Mostly sunny,
pleasant.''
 
   But the climate was not pleasant for Bernard King, who attracted a swarm of
Celtics whenever he had the ball. And the climate was not pleasant for Hubie
Brown, who attracted a technical foul in reply to his comments to Darell
Garretson, the referee who is also the N.B.A.'s supervisor of officials. When
the Knicks' coach continued to howl, Darell Garretson walked over to the bench
and spoke to him in a low voice.
 
   ''He told me I wasn't immune,'' Hubie Brown said later, ''to being ejected.''
 
   Hubie Brown didn't howl so loudly after that. He wasn't about to incur
another technical foul, which would have meant automatic ejection from his most important
game as the Knicks' coach, no matter what the score. But aft
er
the game he talked about what his complaints had been to Darell Garretson and
the other referee, Jess Kersey.
 
   ''We went to the basket five times,'' Hubie Brown said, ''and came out of
there with a, no points, and b, no fouls.''
 
   But strangely, the Knicks' fourth loss in the Boston Garden was virtually
identical to the previous three in this series. They lost by 17 points yesterday
after having lost by 18 in the opener, 14 in the second game and 22 in the fifth
game. In the three games at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks won by 8, 5 and 2
points. But according to Hubie Brown, the turning point of yesterday's loss
occurred in the first half.
 
   ''We caught five balls off the offensive boards, lost the ball and they
scored,'' the Knicks' coach said. ''That's 10 points that shouldn't have
happened. You can say that they made it happen. But that's stretching the tatoo
on your chest. You just don't make that happen. But that's a seventh game. You
learn that things happen in a seventh game. Strange things happen.'' But if the
Knicks somehow had won a seventh game in the Boston Garden, that would have been
the strangest happening of all.
 
 
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bird Brings it Home, 121-104
By Dan Shaughnessy
 
    You could say that this game was won on all those rainy days and Mondays
in East Rutherford, Atlanta and Richfield - or you could go back further and
say the Celtics won it when Red Auerbach gambled and picked junior eligible
Larry Joe Bird in the spring of 1978.
    Either way you look at it, the Boston Celtics yesterday rode a hard-earned
home-court advantage and Bird's masterpiece theatre to a 121-104 victory over
the New York Knicks in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
The win sets up a Celtics-Milwaukee Bucks Eastern final that starts in Boston
tomorrow at 8 p.m.
 
    Bird's performance was a Mozart of shooting, passing, rebounding and court
presence. It would be hard to script a more complete effort. Call it a
quadruple-double: 39 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and a dozen standing
ovations.
    The Hoosier Hoop Hosannah put an exclamation point on a seven-game set
that had all the passion of an Elizabeth Barrett Browing sonnet: the classic
showdown between MVP candidates Bird and Saint Bernard King, a mutual loathing
between head coaches K.C. Jones and Hubie Brown, dueling insults, raucous
crowds, national television, a bench-clearing brawl, three ejections, and
obscene chants at both Gardens. One New York tabloid went so far as to compare
M. L. Carr to David Berkowitz, calling him "M. L. of Sam."
    What the series lacked was spontaneity and surprise. Home teams won all
seven games. Five of the seven, including yesterday's game, were wire-to-wire
victories with no comebacks. There were only four lead changes in 336 minutes.
The team that scored the first basket won every game.
    Appropriately enough, Bird set the tone in the Mother's Day finale,
hitting a 16-foot fallaway from the left baseline in the 14th second of play.
    "We wanted to go out and get off to a good start," Bird said.
    Boston's start was very good. Shrugging off a bruised right shoulder that
had caused him to miss Game 6, Dennis Johnson was equal parts George Gervin
and Maurice Cheeks in the first quarter. He scored seven points in the opening
three minutes, driving the Celtics to an 11-6 lead.
    "We needed someone to really get it going," said DJ, who finished with 21
points and six assists.
    After a baseline post-up turnaround by DJ, Bird converted a three-point
play on a fast-break follow, then drove past King to make it 16-8 with less
than four minutes gone.
    Rory Sparrow and Truck Robinson (16 points, 9 rebounds), brought the
Knicks back to 20-20 with 5:18 left in the first period, before Bird struck
again, scoring eight straight in a 10-2 run that put the Celtics back in the
comfort zone for the rest of the day.
    Brown on Bird: "I hope nobody underestimates Larry Bird's performance. He
was outstanding, and his game was hard to chart today because most of his
stuff was from downtown . . . His performance was beyond description."
    The Celtics led, 36-26, after one. Bird had 15 points, while King was held
to zero baskets and two free throws.
    "We did a good job on him," said Maxwell, who denied King his favorite
spots and forced The Natural to miss six of his first seven floor attempts.
"We didn't want him to get off to a good start. We did exactly what we had to
do, which was to contain Bernard early in the game. When he scores early and
gets 'em rolling, it's very good for their team."
    In the first 12 minutes, the Celtics shot 56 percent to New York's 37
percent, and outrebounded the Knicks, 16-11. By then, for all practical
purposes, the ballgame was over.
    With Bird and Robert Parish (22 points on 10-of-14 shooting and 11
rebounds) sustaining the pressure, the Celtics jumped to a 47-32 lead early in
the second quarter. The Knicks never got closer than nine and trailed, 67-52,
at halftime. It was the most points allowed by the Knicks in any half this
year.
    Meanwhile, King had seven points on 2-for-9 shooting in the first two
periods. He finished the game with a face-saving 24, but most of them came
while the Bucks were making plane reservations for Boston.
    In the second half, New York never got closer than 13 (73-60).  The crowd
was so involved, they wouldn't let us get down," said Kevin McHale.
    Midway through the third period, McHale converted a dazzling feed from
Danny Ainge to make it 78-60. After a 20-second Knick timeout, DJ stripped Ray
Williams, and Ainge popped one in from out top to push the lead to 20. Then
Bird drove a stake though the big Knick heart with a three-pointer from the
outer limits.
    "We knew if we lost we wouldn't be there tomorrow," said Maxwell. "That's
all the incentive we needed . . . It was a great series, very emotional. A lot
of things were said and done, but in the end, you have to give New York
credit. They played with a lot of heart."
    Said Brown: "We're a little fiesty. I think if we played Tuesday in New
York, it would be 4-4."
    "The home-court advantage won the series," added Robinson. "They earned it
by having the best record in basketball over the course of the season."
    Maybe the NBA regular season isn't so meaningless after all. Boston's
62-20 record came in very handy yesterday.