1986 C's Win 13th in a Row, Move to 38-8

The fans had to wait a while, but eventually they got what they really came for -- Showtime.

It's not that the issue was ever seriously in doubt, but, well, when you're shelling out the bucks, you want more than just a W, even if it is your heroes' 13th straight victory. You want Entertainment, and that's what the Celtics gave the Garden public during the second half of their 103-88 dispatch of the Washington Bullets last evening.

The real fun began with Washington leading, 64-63, with 3:36 remaining in the third period. From that point, the Celtics casually ran off a 14-4 spurt to close the period, then added the first two baskets of the fourth period to go ahead by 13 at 81-68. And that was that, as far as competition was concerned.

But it was hardly the end of the show, for that was only the beginning. With Bill Walton ripping down rebounds at both ends -- he had a personal Celtic high of 17 -- and with such bombardiers as Scott Wedman (15) and Jerry Sichting (11) firing in jumpers from East Cambridge, Boston put on an offensive display the short-handed Bullets were unable to match.

Walton's 15-point, 17-rebound performance was enough of a dazzler to earn him a prolonged standing ovation when he exited with 5:07 remaining, but he was hardly the only front-line standout for the Celtics. Larry Bird put on a post-up clinic en route to a 26-point, 17-rebound evening, while Robert Parish demonstrated to 7-foot-7-inch Manute Bol that even teeny-weeny 7-foot centers can play a little, too. The Chief worked very hard and did a number of very smart things to earn his 25 points.

No PhD in Hoopology was needed for anyone to realize that the Celtics would not exactly be bristling with intensity following their big triumph the night before in Milwaukee. So it was that their 49-48 halftime lead was a perfectly satisfying result, considering the circumstances.

Washington arrived without Jeff Ruland, who reinjured his right ankle last Saturday, and without his inside game, they had few offensive options other than to shoot long jumpers or hope for one-on-one isolations. Coach Gene Shue ordered quite a few of the latter, in fact, meaning that large portions of the first half were spent watching one man fool around with the ball for 15 seconds, hoping to get within scoring range against a Celtic defender. Few of these isolations were successful, the most laughable of them being three attempts by Dan Roundfield to score on Walton.

But the Bullets led for a substantial portion of the first half, anyway, utilizing the jump-shooting of Jeff Malone (who is, lest you've forgotten, an All-Star this season) and the off-the-bench spark of Leon Wood, who has responded to his trade by Philadelphia with some outstanding scoring skill.

Washington led by three (25-22) after one period, and held three five-point leads in the second quarter. The Celtics, however, never allowed Washington to get frisky, and they did appear to recognize in the second quarter that it would be necessary to get serious.

All they had to do was take advantage of a major physical mismatch; namely, Bird on Darren Daye. Bird scored 12 of his 20 first-half points in the second quarter, most of them on shots from the right lower block, where Bird established long enough residence to become a citizen. Twice he flashed into the lane for short turnarounds, and three other times, he posted up Daye to score a layup or draw a foul.

The second quarter also featured Boston dominance on the offensive boatds, where the Celtics picked up eight points. Walton tapped in two at the outset of the period, Parish put back a Walton miss and Bird capped an intriguing sequence late in the half with a follow-up of a Walton miss. The chronology on this one was as follows: Bird feeds Walton on the low post. Walton immediately kicks it out to Bird for a short runner. Walton rebounds and tries to dunk over Bol. He misses and Bird grabs the altitudinous rebound and scores. Fun stuff, especially when compared to most of the first-half action, which rated somewhere between a 1.5 and a 2 on a thrill scale of 10.