5/7/1988
He remembered it this way. The clock was running down, Larry Bird and Kevin McHale were otherwise engaged and it was a shot he'd been working on for two months.
"I saw there were only two or three seconds left on the clock. I didn't take it to be the hero," said Dennis Johnson of his inspirational three-pointer from the right that gave the Celtics an 87-85 lead over the Knicks with 3:37 left in last night's game.
The Knicks, meanwhile, thought they'd covered all wings.
"I saw the clock run down and I thought we had them beat," said Mark Jackson. "Then I saw DJ shoot it from -- heck, from how far was it?"
Johnson shot the ball from strength, from confidence, just as he always does in this time of year in that time of the game.
"It kind of bothers me that people think I appear only at crunch time," said Johnson, who finished with a triple-double -- 19 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. "I try to concentrate throughout the whole game."
His performance wasn't only memorable in the final four minutes. In the first quarter, Johnson fed the ball to Robert Parish for a dunk, passed to Bird for a layup, hit Bird again on a breakaway, found McHale for another layup and drove the lane himself. Whoosh, Boston led, 18-8.
"Dennis was there at the beginning of the game and he was there for us at the end," said K.C. Jones. "He was very much the catalyst."
Johnson vowed before it began that this eipsode would be different from Game 3, that this time the Celtics would run their plays. After scoring 16 points (9 assists) in Game 1 and 18 points (9 assists) in Game 2, Johnson turned in 18 points and 7 assists in Game 3, but the Celtics lost, 109-100.
"This was an extremely tough first-round series," he said. "The first two games weren't close, but the last two were very physical. We could never relax."
The middle quarters of Game 4 proved stressful for the Celtics. The famed Knick "chaos" defense (a wild press-and-pray) forced the Celtics into uncharacteristic turnovers while the score remained close.
"We didn't lose our poise, though," said Johnson. "It just took a few words from a couple of people and we got it straightened out."
A couple of people? Read Johnson and Bird. When the Knicks built a 6-point lead, 83-77, Johnson hit Bird on a flyaway in the lane. The Celtics chipped away until Johnson buried his three-pointer. One minute later, the reliable veteran took a pass from Bird and nailed a jumper from the right of the lane. The Celtics led, 91-88.
"I've been working on my shot on that side for the past two months," said Johnson.
McHale said Johnson's performance was successful because "he passed it in for us to kick it back. We're better when we play from the inside out."
Johnson helped pad the 3-point lead with two straight feeds to Danny Ainge and four consecutive free throws. Boston led, 102-93, and New York was out of it.
"DJ's a money player," said Gerald Wilkins. "We played good defense on the three-point shot. He just buried it."
Johnson seemed oblivious to the praise.
"The difference between me and some of the other players in the league is that I don't care what the media writes about me," he said. "Whether I hit the shot or whether I miss it."
With 46 seconds left in the game and Wilkins at the line, Johnson walked over to Jackson and put his arm around the rookie.
"I don't talk to many opponents on the court, but I wanted to tell Mark that he had a great season," said Johnson. "I congratulated him on being Rookie of the Year and told him that he's the point guard of the future. He's got the charisma and the skill to succeed."
Jackson returned the compliment.
"That was very nice," said the kid from Queens. "I learned a lot from Dennis Johnson in this series. He's someone I look up to, someone I'll try to pattern myself after."
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