One more thing...

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Watched the Celts and Bullets 1982 playoff game on NBA.com TV last night. A
double-OT thriller won by the Celts. Anyway, a few things struck me... the
3-pointer was a non-factor until late-game score-and-situation dictated it.
Bird didn't attempt one. It was beautiful basketball-lots of mid-range
shooting. Antoine should be tied down and forced to watch that game.

Speaking of Antoine... I was struck by how similar in build and abilities he
was to Cedric Maxwell. The difference was Maxwell's discipline in his game.
It seemed he never took a bad shot. I think he had 25 in the game, and you
didn't even notice. That's the kind of player Antoine could be but never
will.

Other notes... it's easy to forget how good a young Robert Parish could be.
He was much more of an offensive threat in those early days, before Bird and
McHale assumed the dominant roles on the team... Gerald Henderson reminded
me of Sam Cassell... One of the best things about watching those old games
is the crowd shots. Remember when Joe SixPack dominated the lower sections
of the Garden? Great, great fans.

Anyway, this was about the time when I really fell in love with the Celts
(it coincided with the increased frequency of Celts games on CBS, then with
my parents' purchase of a satellite dish), but I'd never seen this game. I
saw so many games in the mid-and-late-80s, but my memories of that first
Bird championship team are much more sketchy. The battles with the Lakers
and Pistons are staples of those "NBA's Greatest Games" shows, but I haven't
seen as many from the early 80s. Great to see.

Mark