1988 NBA Playoffs: Celtics Send Series Back to Boston for Game 7

5/21/1988

Ready for the annual Armageddon?

The Celtics are. They insured that more than 15,000 people will roll into the old arena atop the train station tomorrow afternoon over yet another Seventh Game by carving out a 102-100 decision last night over the Atlanta Hawks.

Pedigree won this one. The Celtics reached back for a vintage all-around performance. They were wheezing in the end, having lost 6 points from an 8-point (101-93) lead with 3:01 left by scoring just one point in their final five possessions, which included two misses and a controversial traveling call, a 24-second violation and a a free throw by second-half hero Danny Ainge (15 of his 22), who made the second of two foul shots with 33 seconds left to make it 102-98. But they had demonstrated to the Hawks and the Omni capacity crowd of 16,451 exactly how legends are made.

Dominique Wilkins, a battler from beginning to end, brought his team within 2 with a left-to-right lane banker that consumed only four seconds on the clock. Boston needed to get something good from this new possession, but instead got a 24-second violation when Larry Bird unloaded the ball crosscourt to Ainge from the right wing rather than throwing up some kind of a buzzer-beater.

This gave Atlanta the ball back with five seconds left. But the best they could get from the ensuing inbounds play was a running lefthanded hook by second option Cliff Levingston, who drove the lane on Bird, only to encounter the menacing presence of Robert Parish. The ball clanged off the glass, hit the rim, was batted a bit and was finally picked up in the left corner by Dennis Johnson as time ran out.

Thus ended a truly hard-fought basketball game, one which had begun on a positive Boston note when Ainge connected on a transition three-pointer off the opening tap, and one which featured some stout Atlanta defense, virtuoso performances by both Wilkins (35) and Doc Rivers (playoff career-high 32) and vital contributions from many different Celtics.

Boston was the pace-setter from the beginning, faltering only in the first two minutes of the second quarter, when seven unanswered Hawks points put the home team ahead, 37-32. But a Dennis Johnson 3-point drive ended that run and for the remainder of the game the largest Atlanta advantage would be one point, the last at 61-60.

Boston took control following a Levingston short jumper which tied the score at 66 apiece (8:14 of the third). The wily Johnson broke the deadlock with a 15-footer, before increasing it to 4 with an off-the-hip drive. When Wilkins traveled, Kevin McHale (26 points, 10 rebounds) made him pay by shuffling in for a layup. That made it 72-66, Boston.

Ainge took over at the next sign of trouble. Danny had been struggling with his shot for the entire playoffs (41 percent shooting), but when it got down to 72-70 on a pair of Rivers free throws, Ainge responded with 9 huge points in succession, capping the spree which included his third three-pointer of the game with an 18-footer to make it 83-74, Boston's largest lead of the game.

These were not nice, open Horse shots, either. "The shots Danny made tonight were incredible," saluted Rivers. "We played tough defense and they went in. If you were a sports fan, you had to like it."

K.C. Jones liked it, all right, just as he liked a lot of things he saw out there. Among these pleasing developments was the play of Mark Acres, who saw 15 minutes of action (6 points, 5 rebounds) in the face of foul trouble that hampered both Parish and McHale.

The Celtics exited period three leading by 5 (83-78) and from then on it was a game of call and response, with Boston in command. A jumper by Bird pushed it to 90-82, but it was still 3 at 96-93 when McHale shoved in a three-point play (4:34). Bird connected again to give Boston the 101-93 advantage with 3:01 remaining, but when Rivers immediately one-upped him with a corner three-pointer, the final, desperate Atlanta countersurge had begun.

In a sense, the Celtics spent the final 44 minutes living off their good deeds of the first four. They had a sensational start, jumping into a 15-6 lead before the game was 3 1/2 minutes old. "We needed that," said DJ. "That let us know we could win here." Added Bird, "The start was important. We knew we'd be playing a lot of minutes, and maybe couldn't play as well as we'd want to in the end. It was important to have that cushion."

And more than important to win this game, as a loss would have ended the season. "It was to the point where we'd have to go home for four months," Bird said. "Nobody's ready to do that."

And now?

"They had a big chance to beat us," said Bird, "and we all knew that if we lost it meant vacation tomorrow. I think Sunday is gonna be a big win for the Boston Celtics."

Now that's the old Bird talking.