Green Improves to 12-2
1990-91 Boston Celtics
Remembering the 29-5 Start
In the final accounting, Bernard King led the Bullets with 22 points in last night's 123-95 loss to the Celtics.
He made 9 of 23 shots in doing it. Not great, but certainly not as brutal as the 4-for-21 line he turned in last time against the Green.
That was only half of it, though. King, who dressed and left quickly after the game, needed an 8-for-14 second-half effort to pull up to those numbers. The first half: 1 for 9 when the Celtics were ragged offensively themselves. Chalk one up to the Celtics' help defense.
"He was struggling, and I thought he needed to pick himself up," said Bullets coach Wes Unseld. "But we needed to help get him going, to set some picks."
The Bullets talked at halftime. King scored their first two baskets of the third period and had 12 points in the quarter, but by then, the Celtics had it going themselves.
"They were shading him, double-teaming him," Unseld said. "And Robert Parish would leave to go over."
Parish blocked a King shot in the first period, Reggie Lewis one in the second and Kevin McHale and Larry Bird had their turns in the third.
"We did a great job on him," Celtics coach Chris Ford said. "Kevin Gamble and Reggie would come together and switch and try to deny him the ball. Unfortunately, Kevin McHale lit a fire under him in the second half."
Ford could afford to smile at that point.
The Celtics' ability to shut down King speaks for the team's defense in general, Ford said.
"We're getting down and protecting one another," he said. "And forcing teams to shoot from the perimeter. On the whole, we're doing a great job of making teams shoot poorly." We've been really concentrating on shutting people down."
The Bullets shot 41.4 percent for the game. The fact they rely so much on King -- his 29.8 points a game are nearly double Harvey Grant's 15.8 -- didn't hurt the Celtics, Ford said.
"If it's one guy you need to concentrate on, it makes it that much easier."
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