Bird Posts 31, 15, 5, and 2 in 31 Minutes

December 2, 1982

BIRD LIFTS CELTICS, 122-97

As the Celtics' season rolls along, you begin to understand the strong feelings they have about a loss, any loss. Right now, it seems almost unnatural to them.



Perhaps no one can expound this philosophy better than Larry Bird, whose marvelous talents were the catalyst that led the Celtics to a resounding 122-97 trouncing of the Atlanta Hawks before 15,320 last night. That the 87th straight Garden sellout crowd was eager to get its first look at rookie sensation Dominique Wilkins was obvious. The Hawks had beaten Philadelphia at home Tuesday, and thus there was plenty of anticipation of the first Bird- Wilkins confrontation in Boston. Wilkins had 22 points when the two first met in Atlanta.

What the capacity crowd saw was a vintage performance by Bird, who in 31 minutes had 30 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. Wilkins had only nine points, and was such a defensive liability he played only 15 minutes.

Bird opened with a 17-point first quarter as the Celtics tied their one- quarter high (39 points) for the season. By halftime, Bird had 22 as Boston rolled to a 71-59 lead (most points in a half for Celtics this season).

Vintage Bird, as purists know, also begets vintage Celtic basketball, keyed by stirring defense and a blistering fast break that produced five players in double figures. Boston had 27 assists and 12 steals, four by Quinn Buckner. In the final period, the lead increased to 35 points and every Celtic scored at least four points.

Bird may have spent the entire fourth quarter on the bench, but everybody in the building knew he wanted to win.

"I'm playing well," admitted Bird. "But not as well in all areas of the game as I'd like to. I'm shooting better and my defense has been pretty good. But I'm not rebounding and getting the assists the way I know I can.

"The shots are there, and I'm taking them. I feel I've been in control of my game lately, except for Tuesday night. But I don't think it's just me. I'm in the flow of things, and the ball just keeps coming my way."

Bird said the Celtics' 123-116 loss to Detroit on Tuesday in Hartford was one of those games not to dwell on.

"If we do lose," he said, "we want to come back and win the next night and start another streak. We won eight in a row. We'd like to win eight, 10, 15. We didn't play to our potential against Detroit. We knew we had a job to do against a good Atlanta club, and we went out and did it. Our starters played well this time. We ran the break, played good defense and our transition game was much better."

If you think about it, the Celtics did practically everything better last night against the Hawks. Coach Bill Fitch said the game plan originally was to go inside to Cedric Maxwell, and let him loosen up Wilkins, Tree Rollins and Dan Roundfield. Maxwell did his job, and suddenly Bird was teaching young Wilkins a lesson about moving without the ball, physical Celtic defense and fast-break execution.

After 15-12, Boston went on a 20-6 tear in the first quarter for a 19- point lead, and never really looked back. Atlanta's bench did get the Hawks to within 12 points by halftime. But when coach Kevin Loughery put his starters back to work in the third quarter, they could score only 10 points and were benched for the evening. Wilkins didn't play in the final period, either.

"I don't blame Dominique for what happened," said Loughery. "Bird is the best player in this league and he had one of those nights. He's a catalyst because when he's going good, he makes the people around him better. The fault lies with all our starters. They never really got going. Dominique knows if you don't do the job, you don't play."