5/2/88
It is essentially dreary games like these that fuel critics of the National Basketball Association's postseason policy. Does the 15th- or 16th-best team in a league deserve to play on and on?
No offense, Knicks, but neither Game 1 nor Game 2 of this series merited the designation "playoff game." New York is likely to perform much better Wednesday night in Madison Square Garden in front of its fans, but it would certainly be criminal to submit Boston's fans to any more uninteresting exercises rivaling yesterday's 128-102 dispatch of the Knicks. The Celtics now hold a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
In contrast to Game 1, when New York outplayed the Celtics for 2 1/2 periods, the issue of which was the better team was resolved early. New York hung around for a quarter (29-25, Boston, but you knew who was in charge), but Boston opened the second quarter with a run of 12-1. New York never came closer than 12 (72-60, with 7:43 remaining in period 3), and when they did, the Celtics called time out and then proceeded to slap the Knicks smartly about the face and shoulders, reasserting their dominance.
"We moved the ball, played better defense and had an excellent day rebounding," said Larry Bird, who had an understated 36 points (12-for-19 shooting). "We had playoff jitters for awhile in the first game," added Kevin McHale. "We settled down in the second half of that game and carried that over into the first half today. We did what we had to do. We moved the ball. And we went to the line a lot."
The incessant troop to the foul line did not escape the attention of New York coach Rick Pitino, who practically begged for an ejection in the fourth period in the hopes of "sending a message" to the officials, who were, in this instance, Hue Hollins and Ed (The Elder) Rush. "I hope they got the point," Pitino said. "The Boston Celtics are a great team. They don't need help from the officials."
The Celtics shot 37 of 40 from the line and twice succeeded in reaching the bonus situation before a period was five minutes old. The Knicks, naturally, felt this was an unwarranted imbalance, whistle-wise. The Celtics, naturally, felt this was nature taking its proper course.
"I think you're going to go to the line a lot against Rick Pitino's teams," said McHale, who must have thought he was Adrian Dantley after sinking a season (and personal playoff career) high 14 free throws (in 16 attempts). "They hold a lot."
A corner jumper by Bird broke the last tie at 20-18, but it wasn't until the first five minutes of the second quarter that the game swung irrevocably toward Boston. The unit of Bird, McHale, Mark Acres, Dennis Johnson and Jim Paxson came out shooting 5 for 5, even as the Knicks were shooting 0 for 4 with two turnovers. By that time it was 39-26.
The second-quarter lead eventually peaked at 54-34 on a Danny Ainge broken-play three-pointer (meaning the run had gone to 25-9), and the only item of significance to be learned from this point on was that New York clearly functions best with Patrick Ewing and Bill Cartwright in the game at the same time.
Without the Twin Towers, New York was outscored by 12 in the first half. With them, they were only outscored by 3 over a stretch of 9:25. Through three quarters (91-72, Boston), it was minus-6 with the Twin Towers and minus-13 without. They never appeared together during fourth-quarter garbage time.
Ewing has emerged as an exemplary figure, working incredibly hard on defense (6 steals and 3 blocks yesterday), while struggling mightily to produce what offense he can against Boston's double and triple-teaming. But he is being dragged down by the outside shooting of his mates. New York's guard trio of Gerald Wilkins, Mark Jackson and Trent Tucker combined to shoot 8 for 25 in the first half.
The Celtics, meanwhile, have gotten a pair of A-plus efforts from Johnson (18 points, 9 assists and smothering defense on young Mr. Jackson) to augment the expected sound play of the frontcourt firm of Bird, McHale and Parish, which checked in with 73 points and 26 rebounds. New York is working hard, but nothing much good is happening.
"They have excellent offensive spacing, they're a great passing team and they have better basketball instincts than any team in the game," Pitino said.
"We have the home-court advantage," said Bird. "We've got to play a little harder in order to make sure we keep it."
To the surprise of no rational basketball fan, they have kept it. Presumably, somebody, somewhere is still awake enough to notice.
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