1984 NBA Finals Game 5BIRD WAS THE CELTS' MAN
Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Summary
Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Media Coverage
He cannot offer the grace of a Julius Erving, the brute strength of a Moses Malone, the blinding power of a James Worthy or even the panache of a Magic Johnson.
A lot of guys in the NBA run much much faster, jump significantly higher.
A lot of guys speak better, carry themselves more regally, willingly offer more glimpses of other facets of themselves to an adoring public.
Larry Bird takes his profession one step beyond. In his own inimitable way, he goes where no man has gone before.
On an evening when the temperature in the Boston Garden climbed to an intolerable 97 degrees, the league's as yet uncrowned Most Valuable Player was hotter.
The ghosts of Celtics past may in fact still inhabit the building, but even they never had to survive in a sweatshop.
''Larry's a miner,'' Boston coach K.C. Jones said after his team left the Los Angeles Lakers crumpled and withered, 121-103, claiming a 3-2 advantage in the best-of-seven Championship Series. ''He gets up in the morning, goes down in the mine and works.''
It is as appropriate and as accurate as any description. Bird drove himself through 42 minutes, scored 34 points, hit 15 of his 20 shots from the floor and swept 17 rebounds.
He doesn't pull rabbits out of a hat, he simply lures greatness toward him.
''Larry is Larry,'' suggested Kevin McHale, who contributed 19 points and 10 rebounds. ''When he's your leader, when you're out there with the best player in the league, you feel bad if you don't keep up with him. When he's playing like that, one of the hardest things to do is get a rebound and try to find him for the outlet pass. You have to really look around, because he tends to be everywhere.''
The Lakers' fearsome fast break, by comparison, was nowhere. Basketball lore says it's impossible to run when you're getting crushed on the boards (51-37) and the opposition is shooting 51.7 percent.
The Celtics, looking ahead to Game 6 tomorrow in Inglewood, Calif., have never lost a Championship Series after achieving a 3-2 lead, and have won their last five titles on the road, most recently in Houston in 1981. Maybe they're not ready to say they smell blood, but they certainly left a carcass out on the parquet floor.
The Celtics varied their weaponry, getting 22 points from Dennis Johnson, 13 points and 12 rebounds from Robert Parish and 13 points from Cedric Maxwell, and they used the sauna-like conditions to their advantage, expending their energy defensively and going to the boards rather than racing up the court.
That worked to the extent that Lakers' center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was an ineffectual 7-for-25 from the field, and Magic Johnson - despite 10 points and 13 assists - never really found the magic at all.
But Bird did.
''He's the best player in the league at his position playing the way he plays,'' suggested Pat Riley, the Lakers' coach.
That's a compliment, everybody.
''We're talking,'' Riley said, ''about an unorthodox 6-9 ballhandling, passing forward who can score and rebound. I hope nobody gets the idea that we let him break out tonight. He played his game. Maybe he was that good because it was that hot. Back in French Lick, he must've played hundreds of games on black-top courts when the humidity was 80 percent.
''The other thing he has a remarkable instinct for is, playing when the game has to be played. It's intuitive, to catch a breath here, sit out a minute there, stay on the perimeter for a moment, then explode. Nobody can play every minute of every game at that level, and not very many can pick their spots the way he can.''
On a night when referee Hugh Evans could only last the first half because of the heat (he was replaced by alternate John Vanak, joining Earl Strom), and when the Celtics changed uniforms at intermission, Bird was reluctant to admit that he had become lightheaded and slightly dizzy during the second half.
''I thought it was cool out there,'' he said. ''Once you get emotionally pumped up, you don't think about things like that. If I got lightheaded, it was only because I was out of the game, sitting down.
''I just wanted to play ball and win, but I didn't have any particular plan about how I wanted to go about that. But it was pretty obvious after my first 10 shots (seven went in) that I was hot, so I kept on shooting. We want to win a championship, we're capable of winning a championship, and now we're very close to doing it.''
Bird was the one who said the Celtics had stolen their first victory in this series, then had been lucky to win a second. This, though, was unquestionably their game.
''Larry showed more emotion than usual tonight,'' said Danny Ainge. ''When he does that, the attitude becomes contagious. He'd score a goal, raise his hand in the air, a la Magic. But Magic does that all the time. When Larry does it, you know something special is going on.''
''One time,'' said M.L. Carr, ''he came to the huddle, looked dazed, out of it, and the coaches wanted to take him out. But he said 'No, I can go.' That's his pride rising above everything else. He has levels for pride, for goals, for standards that are almost unreachable for some of us. But he not only reaches them, he surpasses them.''
No, the Celtics didn't play like thugs, despite Riley's carefully contrived pre-game hype. But they did follow their leader to an almost exquisite level.
''It's a man's game,'' said Cedric Maxwell. ''That means it's hard, it's emotional, it's played for big stakes. This isn't a parade.''
No, but one more win and it will be.
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