Celtics Baiting King

NBA Eastern Conference Semis
May 1984

It's a matchup that makes the league happy, puts dollar signs in the eyeballs of CBS executives, and causes money to change hands in every dormitory from Boston University to Columbia. It's Celtics-Knicks in the NBA's Eastern Conference semifinals - the first Boston-New York playoff duel in 10 years. If the Celtics are to advance to the Eastern finals, they'll have to stop white-hot Bernard King, who averaged 42 points in five games against Detroit. They think they can.

"Bernard has scored his last 40 points. He won't get any 40s here. We got somebody that can stop him. We got Max on him," M.L. Carr boldly predicted before yesterday's practice. Cedric Maxwell, wearing his "I Love New York" T-shirt to practice, added, "It's going to be a monumental task to try to stop him, but he ain't getting 40 on us. We're going to stop the bitch." King averaged 33.5 points on 56-percent shooting a-gainst Boston this year. He is playing with two dislocated fingers (the middle digit on each hand), but managed to burn Detroit five straight times.

"They're going to lose, there's no question about it," said Maxwell. "They've been playing well, but Bernard's been playing great. He's been the guy carrying them, but I don't feel they can come in and have one guy beat us in this series. I'm confident of what we can do." Larry Bird (sprained right ankle), who ran yesterday for the first time since Tuesday's first-round clincher in Washington, said, "Our whole plan is to do all we can to make Bernard shoot tougher shots and take different shots than he's used to taking."