Celtics Lose Again, as Bird held to Two Points in 4 out of Last 5 Quarters

May 6, 1985

BIRD'S ICY (1-6) FINISH MERITS SOME ELBOW ICE

DETROIT

Two bags of ice were wrapped around the right elbow. More wasted cubes melted at Larry Bird's feet, littering the locker room floor.

"How's the elbow?" he was asked.

"Good," Bird said. "Every day it gets better than the past."

He leaned to scratch his leg. Ice cubes fell out.

"I have no excuses," he said.



He has scored two points in four of the last five quarters, and the Pistons have won both games. He was 1 of 6 shooting in the first quarter yesterday, 2 of 9 by halftime, 9 of 23 when Detroit had finally beaten Boston, 102-99.

Why are the Celtics, one-time 2-0 leaders, suddenly in a three-game mini- series? Because, Bird said, he was 1 of 6 in the fourth quarter.

"There were a lot of things I could have did out there," he said. "I didn't do it when they needed me most. I'm not used to that."

Detroit led, 54-53, after Bird's disappointing first half. No problem. He was 6 of 8 in the third quarter, never from closer than 12 feet. His three- pointer at the end made it 87-76 entering the fourth.

A bad sign: One of the two misses was an airball.

"We were moving the ball well, playing good defense and taking them out of their offense," Bird said. "You play from quarter to quarter. At least I try to. You take it one quarter at a time and try to play well each one."

The idea entering the final quarter was to capitalize. "We're a great team and our strength is down low," Bird said. "When we had that 11-point lead, we were trying to get it down low to Robert (Parish) and Kevin (McHale). Maybe I should have gotten it more when we were up by 11."

Parish missed an inside jumper, a McHale turnaround spun out, Parish turned it over on an offensive foul and then Bird followed a clanging key-top jumper with two turnovers. By now Vinnie Johnson had begun.

"When we had to have two points, we couldn't get it," Bird said. "They might have been doing things, but the momentum was with us because we had the lead. The lead was all we wanted."

His second shot of the fourth quarter - taken seven minutes into the period - put the Celtics up, 96-92. But in the final 4:30, while Vinnie Johnson was outscoring the Celtics, 8-3, Bird was 0 for 4.

"I was a little hesitant today on some of the moves I made," he explained. "I'd see guys open out of the corner of my eye and wish I'd passed the ball to them instead of shooting it. I was thinking about passing more than shooting, and you can't do that in this league. A shooter has to shoot it."

He suffered two consecutive embarrassing misses - the second a baseline airball - in the final three minutes. "On one of them, I felt I got fouled and I just put it up thinking they were going to call the foul," Bird said. "I've said this before about shooting. If you're missing long or short, you can adjust. If you're missing off to the side, that's when you worry."

Though he had missed badly several times, he said he wasn't worried. When the Celtics trailed, 100-99, he said he wanted the ball. "Sort of," Bird said. "DJ knew I was going to post my man (Kelly Tripucka) up and I knew he was going to get it to me. He couldn't have got it to me no better."

The series is still even, the Celtics still have the home-court advantage and they still have more experience to draw upon. But worse than any momentum Detroit might have gained is an underlying Celtics worry.

"Could be," coach K.C. Jones said in answering a question. "Normally Larry is shooting better than that. Knowing Larry, he won't say a word about it."

Maybe he doesn't have to. Maybe the 17-footer that fell short in the final 10 seconds and the ice water trickling down his arm afterward say enough about the condition of Larry Bird's elbow.