1988 NBA Playoffs: Celts Close Out Knicks

5/7/1988

Happily the Celtics flew home last night, never again to see a team that presses as long as the crowd screams (and here, it never stops). No more skinny 6-foot-6-inch scoring forwards, goodbye to veteran rookie Mark Jackson, and so long, Patrick. Now the Celtics can get on to an easier opponent, say, one with a winning record.

"We came out of it all right," Larry Bird (28 points) said after Boston's 102-94 victory finished the Knicks, 3-1, in their best-of-five first-round Eastern Conference playoff series. "In the future, if we had our pick, we'd probably stay away from 'em."

The Celtics could not have asked for a better playoff boot camp than two games with the Knicks and 19,591 shouters in Madison Square Garden. The teams had played 10-men-in-a-cage for better than 45 minutes, and the Knicks were still within a point (89-88) after Johnny Newman (25, and at this point bearing a strong resemblance to Faust) followed up his miss underneath for his final three points at 2:43.

Whereupon Dennis Johnson (19 points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists for his first triple-double in recent memory) took over as all Celtics fans prayed he would at this time of the year. He deposited an open jumper kicked out by Bird, rebounded Newman's errant runner at the other end and collected a loose rebound off a Bird miss at 1:10. DJ dribbled in on Jackson, whose 28 points and nine assists had glued his team's pieces together throughout this pressurized evening. "Just hold up," DJ yelled, pounding his dribble, then driving the lane -- and spinning 180 degrees to pass backward to Danny Ainge, who ho-hummed in a clinching 25-foot three-pointer at :53 (96-88) with Gerald Wilkins knocking him on his back.

"We had to make some awfully tough shots to beat them," Bird said. Himself included. While the Knicks were increasing their first lead up to 83-77 on 8 unanswered points, Bird was demanding his shots and missing three straight. But he snapped out of it with a couple of difficult traffic jumpers that set off a 7-0 run and returned the advantage (84-83) to the Celtics heading into the final five minutes. Those plays were sandwiched around a Robert Parish steal (of an entry pass to Patrick Ewing) and delayed dunk for 3 of his 18 points, all of which seemed crucial.

The Knicks finished the year deep under .500 at 39-47, but the Celtics could not have beaten them without Parish, whose 8 dunking/transitional points powered Boston to 16-4 lead and two Knick timeouts in the opening 4:25. The Celtics ran on Parish's defense, too, as he forced Ewing to fumble a turnover, and then blocked his dunk on the drive. Though Ewing quickly escaped Parish when the latter drew a quick second foul and was forced to switch with Kevin McHale, Ewing finished 3 for 12 and was not the offensive terminator who killed the Celtics in Game 3 here, though he did create chances for others with his 20 rebounds.

He also pulled the Knicks out of their early rut with a pair of turnarounds over McHale, which settled his teammates and allowed them to slowly assert their frantic pressing pace. "You find in every level of basketball," said New York coach Rick Pitino, "that big leads -- unless it's a complete mismatch -- evaporate."

This one endured several rallies, appeals and further crowd-answering rallies over the next two-plus quarters by the Knicks, whose press was thrown into effect by the never-ending offense of Newman. It succeeded in frustrating the Celtics, who attempted to initiate two confrontations (Jim Paxson vs. Pat Cummings, and McHale vs. Sidney Green after the latter had decked Mark Acres on a layup in the fourth quarter), continually rolled their eyes at each other and convened on the floor for several impromptu team meetings after the press squeezed turnovers out of Parish and McHale, who were never comfortable handling the ball out high.

"That chaos stuff he was talking about isn't a joke," said Celtics coach K.C. Jones. "It's definitely for real." The Celtics worked furiously to maintain a pad of at least two field goals until late in the third quarter, when the Knicks went on a 6-0 run that allowed them to take over on a Wilkins (18) runner as the fourth began. Jackson controlled their go-ahead run, but the Celtics have five Jacksons, and that was the difference.

"I'm prouder of this team than any other team I've ever coached," said Pitino, who is remembered as describing several of his Boston University teams the same way.

As for the Celtics, they've earned the rare reward of waiting for the Hawks or Bucks to come to Boston all out of breath. Bird never talks about feeling tired, but he'd just finished 46 minutes and his feet were soaking in ice buckets when he said, "It's very important for us to get as much rest as we possibly can. A game like tonight," he added, "takes a lot out of you."