This ticket stub gets saved. This videotape gets put away. This program goes into the safe deposit box at the bank. This memory is tucked away forever in that special compartment of Celtics ' fans minds wherein reside only the golden moments, the ones where Johnny Most used to go into dog whistle and Emperor Arnold used to fire up the expensive stogies.
The Celtics outscored the Atlanta Hawks, 36-6, in the third period last night.
Atlanta had two field goals and two frre throws in 12 minutes of play, and, yes, that is an NBA play-off low. The Celtics, who were already firmly in control of the game and had been since midway through the second quarter, finished the period with 24 unanswered points, sending the 265th consecutive Garden sellout crowd of 14,890 into delirium with a scintillating display of interior defense, transition basketball and Globetrotter-like passing which transformed the game into something bordering on legitimate humiliation, but which never degenerated into farce, even if Danny Ainge got so excited, he was reaching over writers to high-five fans, even as Kevin McHale was sinking two post-period free throws to conclude the historic run.
When the third period was over, the 66-55 Celtics halftime lead had ballooned to a scary 102-61 spread. The final score was 132-99, and when it was over, the fact that it also meant the end of this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series in five games was about the 134th thing on anyone's mind. Who doubted the Celtics would win the series? The question with this bunch for the last two months or so has been how much history it can make.
Is it possible to play better than the Celtics did in the final 5 1/2 minutes of the third period last night? Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson either forced exterior turnovers or directed people into traffic. Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Larry Bird either blocked shots or made Atlanta's people change the ones they had in mind. The transition game was spectacular. The outside shooting was deadly. The passing was worthy of being shown 24 hours a day at the Hall of Fame. The Celtics were truly a beautiful basketball machine.
"It's hard for me to recollect any quarter like this in the 20 or 25 years I've been around," said K.C. Jones. "I'll have to see the films and see exactly what happened."
The Big Run started in the most innocent fashion possible when Bird, a killer from the opening tap (36 points, 10 rebounds and 14-for-24 shooting), sank a technical foul on an illegal defense violation. That made it 79-61 with 5:17 remaining in the quarter.
Dominique Wilkins, who ended a skyrocket year with a sad 4 for 14, then was trapped in a sideline double-team, losing the ball out of bounds. Bird got a quick pass and faked a couple of times before rifling a blind pass to McHale (25) for a layup. That was the play which blew the lid off the pressure cooker, inciting the crowd and setting in motion the forces that would make the final four minutes something for Celtics fans to savor forever.
Before the period was over, the Hawks would have two shots blocked, commit two offensive fouls and make two other turnovers. The Celtics would respond with everything from a Parish layup on a superb looped-in Bird feed, to a Bird lefty overhead post-up banked jump hook (he was 7 for 7 with the left hand), to a great Ainge pass to a roaring McHale for a fast-break dunk, to an Ainge three-pointer which actually sent the normally unemotional Dennis Johnson into a war dance. All the while, the patrons were responding with a roar which forced people to turn up the volume of the TVs in Tewksbury.
Of course, none of this was necessary to win the game. We're talking serious, serious icing here. The Celtics had assumed control in the middle of the second quarter, and in fact, had come out playing the same kind of controlled, cold-blooded basketball which had produced victories in both Chicago 3 and Atlanta 3.
The leader was Bird, whose 15 first-quarter points included three inside baskets and a three-pointer to salvage a broken play. Atlanta led for precisely 14 seconds (21-20) on a Tree Rollins layup, but Parish recaptured the lead with a left box turnaround, and by the period's end, the Celtics were in front by five at 32-27.
Five isn't much, perhaps, but the manner in which the Celtics had scored their points was disturbing to Atlanta coach Mike Fratello. "We weren't stopping the layups," he explained. "In Games 3 and 4, guys made switches they didn't make tonight. We made the rotations and we stopped their splits. They do not blow their opportunities. Your execution has to be excellent. By the middle of the second quarter, we had lost our concentration completely."
Fratello was correct. The Celtics didn't need much in the way of outside shooting, not while they were getting 23 points from first-half post-ups, nine from second shots, six from layups and six from fast breaks. A little run of eight straight midway through the quarter stretched it out to 53-41, and were it not for eight points generated by Spud Webb penetration, the Hawks would have been officially finished at halftime.
Say this for the Hawks: At no point during that surrealistic third period did they lose dignity. They tried hard at both ends. They simply could not avoid being an accident of basketball history.
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