No player ever mentions current standings, all-time records or play-off pairings. The Celtics simply keep showing up and flattening people, showing up and flattening people. They play 'em, and we rate 'em. This is Joe Louis, 1940, and someday, when they're all old and gray, they may look back at this point in their lives with far more pride than they could ever realize right now.
The Celtics ' eighth consecutive victim in this current stretch of overpowering basketball was a Patrick Ewing-less New York Knicks team, a gritty bunch which had the temerity to go ahead of the Celtics by an 11-point margin in the second quarter, and which then had to stay out there long enough to be victimized by a turnaround that, at one point, reached 33 points.
A late, meaningless burst shaved a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit down to the final 115-108 score, but this was simply not a seven-point game. In fact, for much of the second and third periods, this had all the feel of a 77-point game.
Highlights of this Friday night theatrical production:
(1) The second-quarter ejection of K.C. Jones.
(2) Two chunks of team defensive brilliance culminating in most of the nine blocks and many other scares submitted by Kevin McHale and Bill Walton.
(3) More of Boston's unsurpassed ball movement, both inside out and side to side.
(4) A taunting, banked three-pointer by Larry Bird in the fourth quarter.
K.C.'s row with referee Mike Mathis was an act of undeniable importance. New York was the immediate aggressor, scoring on its first five possessions, and seven of its first eight. The Knicks caught Boston in a lazy defensive posture, and at the end of one period, they led, 33-28.
It's hard to know which K.C. liked less, his team's playing or Mathis' refereeing. He received his first technical early in period two, and with 9:10 remaining in the half and his team suddenly down by 10 (42-32), he said something else to Mathis.
"Good night, Mr. Jones," chirped Mathis, and that transcription is verbatim.
According to assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers, the suddenly elevated mentor, there was no rah-rah talk on the part of the Celtics. "The team doesn't really react that way," he reflected. "They don't say much, but they react positively."
Here's how positively: They ran off eight unanswered points in the next 59 seconds. One of those electrifying passes from Dennis Johnson at the top of the key to a cutting Bird on the baseline started things off. Walton (15 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks in 22 minutes of extraordinary relief work) blocked a Chris McNealy shot to start a fast break which ended in a magnificent DJ contortion of a three-point play. McHale (20 points, 6 blocks) smothered a Darrell Walker drive to launch another fast break. Jerry Sichting wound up being fouled in a breakaway manner, and after he made his two, McHale made one of two freebies stemming from an inside move. That's how you get eight points in 59 seconds and how you irrevocably change the course of the game.
The rampage continued through a 25-8 run, and even though New York was within five at the half (60-55), the Celtics were in complete control of events.
Anyone doubting that had only to witness the third period. Even with Robert Parish in foul trouble, the Celtics ran through New York, ripping off 14 fast- break points while doing more successful running out of missed shots than at any time in the season.
Throughout the middle periods, the guards adroitly pressured their New York counterparts into putting the ball on the floor. The Knicks shot 35 percent (16 for 46) in the middle periods as a result of being forced into the awesome inside presence of Messrs. McHale and Walton.
And when New York actually crept within 13 (107-94) with just over five minutes left, Bird took a pass from DJ and calmly banked a three-pointer from the right wing.
"And he laughed all the way downcourt," said Walker. When you're 50-11, you do tend to laugh a lot.
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