Celtics 110, Knicks 92
Game 1 1984 Eastern Conference Semifinals
He finally left the trainer's room and walked (yes, walked, not limped) into the locker room some 40 minutes after the end that was to have been sweet but now was questionable. K.C. Jones, his coach, had already left and so, too, his teammates, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Cedric Maxwell and the rest who had left the Knicks nicked, gouged and humbled as much as New Yorkers can be humbled, all the questions answered, but one question remaining.
The only ones left were the media, a horde of media, waiting on that one question. Larry Bird walked right into their midst and sat down on the table that sits in the middle of the Celtics locker room. The subject of the tender ankle came up gingerly.
How's the ankle feel?
"It feels all right."
How did it happen? Did you land on Louis Orr's foot or did he step on yours or what?
"I don't know how it happened. I just twisted it."
Will you be able to play Wednesday?
"We'll have until Wednesday to find out."
That dance done, the sore subject of the sore ankle was raised. Jones already had been candid as Bill Fitch never would have been, admitting that, yes, it had been a mistake to have Larry Bird still in the game with 3:30 remaining, Boston up by 106-86. The Knicks and coach Hubie Brown had long ago conceded, Bernard King had not played a second in the fourth quarter, Brown's magnetic basketball court with its moveable X's and O's was tucked away, the game beyond salvation or strategy, garbage time in full swill.
"Just before then, I had talked about it with (assistant coach) Chris Ford and he said I should take Larry out and I was just about to do that," said Jones. "I made a boo-boo . . . I just hope it doesn't come back to haunt us."
There. An NBA coach, a Celtics' coach, was admitting he was human, conceding that Bird should have been been on the bench, resting the ankle that had kept him away from practice since Tuesday. No one could deny that, not even those who would list among their three greatest joys in life watching a Hubie Brown-coached team being blown out by 27 in the fourth quarter.
A remarkable scene then ensued. No, said Bird, the reason why he was still playing with 3:30 left in the blowout was not because his coach was tardy in taking him out but because Bird had refused to come out.
"K.C. wanted to take me out earlier but I didn't want to come out," said Bird. "I figured my ankle would get stronger the longer I played on it . . . It's my fault. I wanted to stay in the game."
A few more questions were asked about the game and Bird said the Celtics had handled the Knicks' trapping defense very well, that the key to the game was Kevin McHale "shutting down King because Bernard's half their offense," and how McHale "had played one of the best basketball games I've seen a Celtic play all year . . . I don't think the Knicks have anybody to stop Kevin."
But again the question of Bird's being on the court so late in the game came up. Again, Bird said it was his fault, this time saying that he had asked Jones two or three times to be left in the game. Affix blame if you must, but this scene was noble in its intent.
"Like I said, it was my fault," explained Bird. "K.C. asked me two or three times if I wanted to come out but I wanted to stay in because I wanted my ankle to get stronger by playing."
It was a pity that Bird aggravating his ankle injury sullied this 110-92 victory, one of the most complete of the season for Boston. True, the Knicks came into Boston physically and emotionally tired after their Friday night win over Detroit ("I couldn't tell if the Knicks looked tired," said McHale. "Everybody looks tired when they're down by 20."), but the Celtics could do no wrong.
From the opening few minutes, when Maxwell set the tone of the game by crashing inside for three of the Celtics' first five baskets, the Knicks were on the run. "I was excited at the start," said Maxwell. "With those things in the paper (about how King would not score 40 points), I knew the Knicks would be coming out and looking for me. I figured I'd better take it to them before they took it to me."
Next, Parish devoured his Sunday brunch of New York center Bill Cartwright, scoring 17 points in the first half. And the Celtics were double- teaming King (27 points) as much as possible ("We want to make Bernard a passer instead of a shooter," said Gerald Henderson) and McHale was scoring at will over the mismatched defense of Orr.
And if you're scoring the coaches, the Celtics were more than ready for Hubie and the Trapdoors. Boston had several new wrinkles for the Knicks' trapping defense (including Maxwell bringing the ball upcourt) but the basic system of patient passing and spreading out the floor paid off handsomely. Indeed, Boston upped its lead from 9 to 11 in the first four minutes of the second quarter when Hubie first set the trap with his defensive second team.
"Patience was the key with our passing," said Maxwell. "But once we broke the press and got the ball to midcourt, we didn't stop there; we went after the 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s. When you break a press like that, you've got to make them pay the price."
But the story, the inspiration, the force was Bird. He hadn't practiced, his ankle felt tender before the game and he can't remember the last time all the pieces of his body have felt healthy. Bird's rebounding was good, his shooting (10 of 16 from the field) was better but his passing, his magnificent 12 assists, were the best.
In your list of The Great Passes I've Ever Seen, be sure to include these somewhere: the behind-the-backer to Dennis Johnson along the baseline when Bird was double-teamed by King and Rory Sparrow, and the fast-break, 25-foot alley-ooper when Bird pulled up near the right sideline, looked left as if to pass to Johnson but lofted the ball instead to Parish ("I didn't know if he saw me but I figured I'd better keep going") who was filling the left lane across the court.
The best, though, was a knee-high fastball under three Knicks from Bird in the circle to McHale ("I thought he was passing it to DJ") beneath the basket in the first quarter.
"I was thinking of getting it to Dennis but at the last second I saw Kevin stick his arm out under the basket," said Bird. "Kevin's not got the greatest hands in the world so I was a little scared of throwing it to him. It was kind of a reaction pass . . . It was the kind of pass that if Kevin wanted the ball, he'd have to get it. It wasn't a great pass."
That, unlike Bird being on the court only 3:30 from the end of a blowout, is debatable.
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