What’s All This Talk about the 1987-88 Celtics?

The fast start by the 2007-2008 Boston Celtics has a lot of people talking, which is understandable, given that the Fab Three Danny Ainge assembled last summer is playing like gangbusters.

What has surprised me are the constant references to the 1987-88 Boston Celtics, who apparently started the season 6-0. I’ll forgive you if you don’t recall that season as being memorable or pleasant, because I sure don’t.

What I remember are names like Darren Daye, Fred Roberts, and Marc Acres coming off the bench, names that don’t conjure up images of excellence the way that Wedman, Walton, and Sichting do. Sure, Reggie Lewis was on that team, but KC rarely used him, especially after the All-Star break.

Watching KC run Bird, McHale, Parish, DJ, and Ainge into the ground, playing them 40 minutes per game, night-in-and-night-out, was like watching a loved-one slowly fade away from a bad illness. Yes, the team won 57 games during the regular season, with the closest competition in the Atlantic finishing 19 games back. But they struggled to win even two games out of six in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Detroit Pistons.

The only saving grace was that we deprived the Lakers of the satisfaction from beating us again in the Finals, only fitting after they did the same to us in 1986.

Nonetheless, we somehow did manage to start that season with six straight wins—sans McHale no less. McHale, who had fractured the navicular bone in his foot during the previous season, was still on the shelf.

However, the 6-0 start needs to be qualified. Five of the first six games were at home, a distinct blessing for what would become a below-average-team on the road. The Cs won several of the games by fewer than five points, and Game 6 was marked by double-ankle injuries to Bird.

And then the roof collapsed.

The Celtics were crushed in three of the next five games.

112-97 to Bucks

116-85 to Philly

109-88 to Cavs

Beat reporters were already using the words “tired” and “fatigued” to describe the Celtics starters, and it wasn’t even December yet! More troubling from today’s perspective was an article in the Globe asking whether the Cs would go 82-0 after the fast start:

Stop hallucinating. These aren't the 1972 Miami Dolphins, or the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers cloaked in green. The Kennedys can go undefeated in Massachusetts and Doyle Alexander can go 9-0 in the American League, but every team loses games in the NBA, Right?

Or maybe the Celtics can go 82-0?

"No," laughed Ainge. "I can guarantee you it will not happen."