Celtics Improve to 13-3
1990-91 Boston Celtics
Remembering the 29-5 Start
So many times he had emerged from a locker room in Boston Garden on the other side. The easy winner. A painless evening. Last night, however, K.C. Jones saw the other side of Boston Garden, the side his adversaries saw over and over again in the
mid-1980s. Jones' Seattle SuperSonics had just been taken to the woodshed by the Celtics , in the form of a 135-102 trouncing. What about it, coach? What about the 10 points in the third quarter? The abominable shooting? The clueless offense? "I think it was due to jet lag," Jones deadpanned. "The whole thing was due to jet lag." Why not? He didn't even opt for the obvious alibi -- the Missouri earthquake excuse.
Jones got a warm reception at his former home, a standing ovation of about 30 seconds. Then he watched as the Celtics made the Sonics look like equal parts Colgate and the Washington Generals in a watershed third quarter. When the horn sounded, Boston had a 22-point lead, ushering in a vintage fourth quarter of garbage time that featured 87 points, 52 shots and and no defense. The third quarter told you all you needed to know. After Derrick McKey scored on a dunk 18 seconds into it, the SuperSonics simply unraveled, missing shot after shot and yielding far too many layups.
The McKey hoop made it a 2-point game. Another McKey dunk -- the Sonics can dunk with anyone -- made it 69-62 and there still was no indication that a blowout was imminent. But the Celtics then ripped off 13 unanswered points, 4 each by Robert Parish (22 points, 9 rebounds) and Brian Shaw (14 points, 9 assists). Larry Bird (11 points, 10 rebounds) had 3 in the run, including a technical foul freebie as Jones said something naughty to referee Jimmy Clark.
The SubSonics were in the midst of a dry spell of Saharan proportions, going nearly 5 minutes without a point. The Celtics weren't exactly precision personified through all of this. They only shot 52 percent in the quarter and they committed 6 turnovers. True to form, however, the Sonics got zero points off the Boston miscues.
By the time the quarter ended, the once-competitive affair was now an official yawner, with the Celtics leading, 86-64. In that quarter, the Sonics shot 18 percent. Four of their shots were blocked, though that seemed a conservative figure. We could note that Seattle's plummeting dive coincided with an extended halftime to honor Johnny Most. The earthquake angle would be more credible. The Celtics had a little something to do with it, too.
"We came together in that quarter on both ends," Reggie Lewis (16 points) said. "We started rebounding. We spread the floor. We got easy baskets." And that was it. The only concern for Chris Ford was that he saw two routs -- and only one counted. The Celtics had come out strong and gone right for the jugular, building leads of of 8-0, 14-2 and 17-4. They looked sharp, committed, focused and ready to run.
The Sonics were none of the above. Their futility in that sequence, and really, for much of the game, was captured best by Xavier McDaniel, who was 1 for 10 from the field in 21 invisible minutes. "Things kinda got out of control," the X-Man said. But if there is one characteristic of this Celtics team, it's forgive and forget. They beat you up. Then they help you up.
They have become quite adept at blowing leads, though in most every case, they recover in time for a happy ending. "You cannot let up no matter what level you are at," Ford said. "You just can't." The Celtics did, of course, and soon Seattle was back into things as Sedale Threatt (20 points) and the acrobatic man-child, Shawn Kemp (19 points), got warm. Seattle also stayed alive with relentless board crashing, outrebounding the Celtics under the Boston basket in the first half.
"You just hope you don't fall into too many bad habits," Ford said. "You just gotta play through these nights and get the win." After Most was given his due, and a microphone unveiled high above courtside, the Celtics went back to work. By the fourth quarter, the lead swelled to 37 as the teams combined to shoot 69 percent in the final 12 minutes. Not even Most in his prime could have kept listeners enraptured at that point.
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