Larry v. Magic: Game 12 (part 15)

1984 NBA Finals Game 5

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Summary

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Media Coverage

PERSPIRATION, INSPIRATION

The summer days of French Lick, Ind., came back to Larry Bird on Friday night. Hot days on macadam basketball courts.

The sun was beating down. The basketball was in his hands. The game was brought down, distilled, to its elemental nature. Stay all day. Play all the way. Bop till you drop.

This one was for the Michelob Light.

"Did the heat ever bother you?" Larry Bird was asked in the Celtics' locker room after their 121-103 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers in the steambath at Boston Garden.

"Nah," the Celtics' star replied. "I play in this stuff all the time back home. It's like this all summer."

You somehow could see him in the outdoor heat on the outdoor court. Doing exactly the same things. Hitting the same shots. Spinning and elbowing his way to the basket ("Foul? You're going to call a foul for that?"). Everyone else falling away, game by game, grabbing towels and sitting down next to a chain- link fence in a sweaty lump. One guy left. Still ready to play some more.

Larry Bird. Standing in the sun, the little waves of heat coming off the ground around him.

"I just wanted to get out there and play," Larry Bird said after his 34- point, 17-rebound night. "I never wanted to leave the game. I was tired at the half, but I came in here and we took cold showers,put on clean uniforms and I was ready to go again. I felt great.

"It was like we were starting a new game. I had to loosen up all over again."

What did he say when he went home at the end of last year, when the finish was those dismal four straight losses to the Milwaukee Bucks? He was going to dedicate himself to basketball. He was going to Indiana to play and play and be ready to play some more when he returned to Boston.

This was the far end of that dedication. He not only still was playing, he was bringing his teammates with him.

"I've never seen him as intense as he was tonight," Kevin McHale said Friday. "Never."

Make no mistake. If the Celtics finish their business this afternoon at the Fabulous Forum, finishing off the faster, smoother Lakers in this best-of- seven series, this is Larry Bird's title. He surely has had some help, but he has been the force behind the entire production.

He has set the never-give-up tone. When his actions didn't do the job, when the Lakers ran to their 2-1 advantage, he simply switched to words. He called his teammates "sissies" and men in need of "heart transplants." There has been a lot of talk about how tough the media was on this team when it was losing. Larry Bird was even tougher.

He has cajoled and kicked. Led by example and innuendo. When the 90- degree night arrived, he was able to kick up his effort even another notch. He even had the entire bench involved, the people who weren't playing.

Has there ever been a pro basketball bench that resembled the Celtics' bench on Friday night? There was M.L. Carr with that basket-woven fan he obtained from some guy in the stands, fanning the heat away from every starter's face. There were assistant coaches Chris Ford and Jimmy Rodgers, pounding backs, shouting encouragement as if this were the final game for the Suburban League title. There were the ballboys, running around with iced towels and cups and cups of drinks.

"For the first time since I've been here, the ballboys really did their jobs," Larry Bird said, noticing it all. "They really had those towels ready. They really were working."

The tunnel vision, the directedness of the 27-year-old man has been something special from the beginning of these playoffs. His bad games - when the shots haven't been falling - have been as good to watch as his good ones. Maybe even better.

He has fought the very percentages of life in those bad games. Everyone has a bad day, right? Everyone has those days when hammer invariably hits thumb, foot invariably trips over curbstone. Larry Bird has kept hammering and running. Forcing his luck. Making it change.

"In the overtime of the fourth game, he comes back to the bench and says, Get the ball to me and I'll drop it in,' " M.L. Carr said, talking about one of those fighting, forcing games. "Everybody goes back on the court. We get the ball to Larry. Whew. He just drops it in with 16 seconds left."

An example of his fine-tuning came after the second game in Boston, the series tied, one game apiece. To handle the long layoffs imposed by television between those games, Larry Bird had decided to do extra running after practice, thumping out laps around the Garden mezzanine while his teammates took showers and were interviewed. To do this, he was skipping the normal extra foul shooting he does.

He had missed some important foul shots during the first two games, the ball rolling off his fingers flat and dead.

"That's it," Larry Bird decided. "My foul shooting's hurting us. I'm going back to my normal routine. More foul shots after practice day."

"How many will you take?" he was asked.

"Somewhere between 100 and 150 every day," Larry Bird replied.

How many foul shots has he missed since then? One? Two? How many? He has battled his foul shooting back into step the way he has battled the other parts of his game, indeed, the rest of his team's game into step.

The more you look at Friday night's win, the better it becomes. There was Larry Bird, saddled with defensive whiz Michael Cooper for four games, taking Cooper now to every part of the court. Embarrassing Cooper every place he could be embarrassed. There were the rest of the Celtics, following Larry Bird's lead through the night, stronger and stronger. There were the Lakers. Lumps on the bench. Gasping for oxygen. Gone. Finished.

One more win today and Larry Bird will have done exactly what he said he wanted to do over a year ago. One more win.

"I'd like to get it finished," Larry Bird said Friday night. "I'd like to get it over with."

This one's for the Michelob Light.

Larry v. Magic: Game 12 (part 14)

1984 NBA Finals Game 5

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Summary

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Media Coverage

CELTICS' TURNABOUT TOOK BETTER THAN FAIR PLAY

The 1984 NBA championship series has been completely turned around. Whether that change isunalterable is now up to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Remember what this entire exercise is. It's a seven-game series for the bragging rights to the entire basketball world - Soviet Union, Italy, Yugoslavia and People's Republic of China included. There is a distinct connotation to the word "series." It has to do with the ongoing flow of events, and the adaptation of the principals to those events. The reason the Celtics are leading this series, three games to two, is that they have made their adjustments and the Lakers have not. There is also the fact that Larry Bird can only wear one uniform at a time, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Remember the Lakers' fast break? The Celtics do. They respect it so much they were determined to find ways to stop it. In Sunday's Game 3, the Lakers ran the Celtics for a whopping 58 fast-break points, successfully completing 28 of 32 fast-break attempts. The final score was 137-104, LA, and the Celtics were deeply embarrassed.

In the past two games, the Lakers have run for 43 fast-break points. But 25 of those were in the first half of Game 4. In fact, 17 were in the first quarter. Thus, the Lakers have scored but 26 fast-break points in the last 77 minutes of play, after scoring 75 in the preceding 72. This cannot be an accident, nor does it signal a change in the Los Angeles offensive philosophy.

It means the Celtics have found the keys to neutralizing Los Angeles' preferred method of attack.

The first improvement has been Boston's own offense. In Games 1 through 3, the Lakers were burning the Celtics with fast breaks out of Boston misses far more than from forcing turnovers. LA was not extending its defense; rather, it was packing five men inside the foul lane, daring the Celtics to force the ball inside to the likes of Robert Parish, Larry Bird or Kevin McHale into the teeth of the defense, or challenging the guards to take available outside shots.

In the beginning, the Celtics were continually indecisive. Starting on Wednesday, however, they began to see things more clearly. Perhaps they viewed the tape of Scott Wedman's winning overtime basket in Game 2 and realized that it had emanated from crisp, around-the-horn passing. Bird looked at a shot on the right wing, faked and passed to Gerald Henderson at the top of the key. He, in turn, looked for a shot, faked and passed to Wedman on the left baseline. Wedman knew exactly what to do. He drilled a 13-footer.

In Game 4, the Celtics emulated this approach. They made the extra pass and sometimes the extra pass after that. The Lakers found that instead of chasing one man they were chasing two, or even three. Dennis Johnson and Henderson shot with confidence, especially in the second half. Of equal importance was the fact that the men inside knew what was going on. They were more alert to offensive rebounds, since they had a clear idea of the time and location of their guards' shots. The Boston total of 27 offensive rebounds was due more to anticipation and hustle on the part of Bird, Parish and McHale than to any alleged thug tactics; you can take that to any financial institution you choose.

On Friday night, the Celtics broadened their game. First Quinn Buckner and then Johnson faked passes inside to posting-up big men, faked jumpers and drove down spacious boulevards for baskets. This gave the Lakers a new worry.

A lot was made of Boston winning Game 4 despite shooting 43 percent from the floor. The 27 offensive rebounds, good for 32 points on second shots, made up for the poor percentage. In Game 5, the Celtics didn't need as many offensive rebounds. With Bird shooting 15 for 20 (an act of nature nobody can take credit for) and with the Celtics again demonstrating excellent shot selection, they shot 52 percent from the floor.

By putting the ball in the basket, by having better defensive floor balance as a result of their more intelligent offensive approach and by simply making a point of getting back better on defense, the Celtics have prevented the Lakers from fast breaking.

And what has been the Lakers' response to this newly diversified Boston offensive approach?

Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

Score one for K.C. Jones and his coaching staff, and score one for the inherent basketball savvy of the Celtics, who realized that when engaged in a seven-game series, it helps to be flexible mentally as well as physically.

"We're adjusting more to their offense, and also to their defense," claims Cedric Maxwell, who has emerged as the Celtic with the most bravado in this series. "It took us time to get used to their rhythm of playing, because we didn't have to play a team with that style in over two months."

It's a simple case of a smart team learning what it would take to defeat a physically gifted team that depends inordinately on one facet of the game. The Lakers are capable of playing halfcourt basketball, but their self-image is that of a Ferrari, not a two-door sedan. They don't like having to play halfcourt basketball all the time.

The next Lakers' problem in this series is their entire mental state. They must believe the series should have been over in four games. There but for the Henderson steal of James Worthy's pass goes Game 2. There but for Parish's great three-point play, Magic Johnson's bad pass and two missed free throws and Worthy's missed foul shot goes Game 4. The Lakers arrived in Boston upset with themselves about the very fact there was a Game 5.

"Our close-game highlights have been positive," suggests Maxwell, "while theirs have been negative. They're in a position where they have to think What's happening?' I was listening to the radio in LA the morning after the third game and a guy was saying that The Fat Lady isn't singing yet, but she's warming up.' Well, she'd better be resting her vocal cords."

The shattered Lakers' psyche was surely not prepared for the conditions under which the fifth game was played. They arrived late Thursday afternoon at Logan Airport to play the game they believed should not even have been necessary, and what did they find? They found stifling heat (temperatures like Phoenix, with accompanying humidity). They found traffic equivalent to Thanksgiving weekend. It was like a scene from "The Year of Living Dangerously."

The Lakers found police preventing their bus from parking in front of the terminal. They piled into cabs instead, and it's fair to speculate that the seeds for 37-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 7-for-25 effort in Game 5 were planted when he stuffed his 87 inches into the back seat of a Boston cab. They couldn't have found more hostile conditions if they had landed in the middle of a Moscow heat wave.

Then came Friday night, and for that you are referred to Leigh Montville's Saturday column. It's all there.

We are also being told by the Celtics that they have banded together to answer the critics, specifically the members of the press who, they feel, had vilified them earlier in the series. Well, that's fine, if that's the crutch they needed.

The record only shows that Parish, Target A, and Dennis Johnson, Target B, have each played superb games in their last two outings. Robert has battled Kareem gamely, and he was never more noble in a Celtics' uniform than he was on Friday night, when he withstood the heat and debilitating leg cramps to outplay Kareem in that crucial game.

As for DJ, who was really only slapped on the wrist following his 14- minute washout in Game 3, his play in the past two games, wherein he has been a two-way player of the first magnitude, adds luster to his reputation as a noted money player. Bostonians were assured that the best of DJ would surface in the playoffs. Unlike Rick Blaine, who went to Casablanca "for the waters," Bostonians were not misinformed.

Finally, there is the omnipresence of one Larry Bird. Is he better than Magic? Who really cares? He is, unarguably, a treasure. What he did in the Cairo-like swelter of the Boston Garden on Friday night may not be fully appreciated until the series is over. Then, in the sober afterthought of postseries analysis, people may realize that Bird's was a triumph of will and heart over the forces of nature, just as much as it was a tribute to the thousands of hours spent in a lonely Indiana gym honing his skills.

The job is not yet complete. But the Celtics have already made their point. They have challenged the flashy Lakers to a complete battle of mind and muscle. In so doing they have guaranteed that the 1984 NBA champion, whatever its identity, will have a prize truly worth savoring, which is not always (or even normally) the case.

We all wanted a memorable championship series. Can anyone doubt we're getting it?

Larry v. Magic: Game 12 (part 13)

1984 NBA Finals Game 5

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Summary

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Media Coverage

Celtics Confidence Never Wavered

Plans for the victory parade through the streets of Boston have already been drawn up.

"If we win today, we march Tuesday," Todd Rosensweig, the Celtics' director of marketing and communications, said several hours after the Celtics routed the Los Angeles Lakers, 121-103, Friday night.

The victory gave the Celtics a 3-2 edge in the four-of-seven-game National Basketball Association championship series and an aura of confidence heading into Game 6 today at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.

As they gathered at Boston's Logan Airport yesterday for their flight to Los Angeles, they were assuring their fans, "We're going to get is over in six."

The Celtics, who are seeking their 15th N.B.A. title, have history on their side. Their last five championships have been won on the road.

Lakers' Plan Differs

The Lakers had other feelings as they boarded the team bus for the ride to the airport.

"How are you?" a friend asked 37- year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who struggled through a 7-for-25 shooting performance.

"I'll be better tomorrow," the Laker center said.

"We'll be back here for Game 7 Tuesday night," Earvin (Magic) Johnson said.

"Then we'll pray for rain," Coach Pat Riley added.

The reference by the Laker coach was to the oppressive heat and humidity in the antiquated Boston Garden, where the temperature read 97 degrees at tipoff and hovered near that for the rest of the game.

The heat sent Abdul-Jabbar to the oxygen cannister several times, and it hindered Magic Johnson's ability to get the Lakers running. Dennis Johnson asked to be taken out of the game, and Larry Bird almost passed out near the end.

But for the 42 minutes Bird played, he was outstanding, scoring 34 points on 15-for-20 shooting from the field, and grabbing 17 rebounds.

"The Birdman was sensational," said M. L. Carr, Boston's reserve forward. "It was just like a repeat of the seventh playoff game against the Knicks when he scored 39 points."

Two 3-Point Shots

That may be true, but Friday night, especially during his 11-point third period when the Celtics broke open the game, his performance appeared more well-rounded. He tossed in a pair of 3-pointers and hit a half-dozen long jumpers, overcoming the defensive efforts of Michael Cooper, Kurt Rambis, Jamaal Wilkes and James Worthy. But the best of all came when he faced up to Worthy on top of the key, faked right and went left for a 3-point play.

"It was an emotional game," Bird said, "One we needed and had to have."

There was more than just Bird in what Dennis Johnson referred to as "our best game of the series."

"This is the first game over all that we played our game," the Celtic guard said. "We set the tempo, slowed them down and controlled the boards." Johnson contributed 22 points.

After Los Angeles embarrassed Boston, 137-104, last Sunday and took a 2-1 series lead, the Lakers and Magic Johnson, who makes them run, created doubts that the Celtics could survive the blistering running game.

Johnson Blamed

Much of the blame for the two Celtic losses was placed on Dennis Johnson for his poor defense and poor outside shooting, especially when he contributed only 4 points and made two of his eight shots in the third game.

"Everybody kept saying, 'Let's make D. J. a scapegoat,' Johnson said. "I had bad games and took the hatchet for them. Nobody's going to rebroadcast or rewrite it now."

The criticism has stopped. Banners and signs at the Boston Garden have proclaimed him their new hero. All because he has found his shooting touch and shut down Magic Johnson.

At halftime of Game 4, Jones finally reverted to the Johnson and Johnson matchup most everyone had expected when the championship series began. Magic Johnson only got off five shots in the second half Friday night, when he was limited to an insignificant 10 points on 3-for-9 shooting.

At the same time Dennis Johnson has responded offensively. He has scored 44 points and handed out 20 assists in the last two games. Questioners hounded him Friday night, repeatedly asking, "What are you doing to Magic?"

The freckle-faced Dennis Johnson smiled, walked away and said, "I didn't do anything." "He has done a lot," Carr said.

Meanwhile, in the Laker dressing room, Riley said, "We'll make a few adjustments, not many."

Any adjustments would have to include getting the Lakers to run again, keeping the Celtics off the boards and hoping Abdul-Jabbar's sky hook finds its mark.

The Celtics are 9-0 when they have had a 3-games-to-2 lead in a championship series. . . . Nine of the last 11 championships have been won by road teams. . . . The Lakers, who entered Friday night's game shooting .544 from the field in the playoffs and .546 in the championship series, had their first sub-50 percent shooting game. They shot .428.

Larry v. Magic: Game 12 (part 12)

1984 NBA Finals Game 5

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Summary

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Media Coverage

No Sweat for Celtics

It was like the Fourth of July on the Esplanade. Through the steamy heat and haze, the maestro worked his magic and a storied Boston institution thrilled the assembled masses with a traditional performance of harmony and brilliance.

The Boston Celtics have taken their great expectations to the edge of flag 15. On a night on which a Bermuda air mass transformed the Causeway street train station into a fountain of sweat and Laker sorrow, the Celtics defeated theLos Angeles Lakers, 121-103, to take a 3-2 lead in the NBA best-of-seven championship series.

The victory was orchestrated by Mr. White Heat, Larry Bird. Bird broke out of a four-game shooting slump with 34 points (15 of 20 from the floor). He added 17 rebounds and controlled the night. He was equal parts of Arthur Fiedler, Bobby Orr and Andrew Wyeth. His teammates, especially Dennis Johnson, were similarly inspired and creative.

It was a game marked by absence of malice and of LA running, plus a sudden surge of Celtic board strength and defense. The Celts outrebounded LA, 51-37, and held the Lakers to an unthinkable shooting percentage of .428 (39-91).

Laker coach Pat Riley had portrayed the Celtics as nothing less than basketball's Hell's Angels after Game 4 in the Forum, but Bird and the oppressive heat were the most physical forces last night. Referee Hugh Evans left at halftime due to dehydration, Robert Parish sat out a stretch of the second half due to a leg cramp, and Bird was wrapped in towels when he wasn't playing.

The Celtics led by two at the half, but it seemed to be Boston's kind of game. The Lakers were held to nine fastbreak points in the first half, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (7 of 25 overall) struggled badly, and Dennis Johnson took the Magic from Earvin Johnson (9 shots, 5 rebounds, 13 assists, 9 points).

It started to get away from the Lakers when Boston opened the third with a 13-2 run, capped by a preposterous three-pointer by Bird. That made it 68-56. LA never got closer than three. Boston's lead was up to 21 when Bird scored on a pretty drive as he was fouled with four minutes left.

"The man who made the difference was Bird," said Riley. "He was just awesome. He made everything work. He was the catalyst, and that's what happens when great players come to the front."

LA's last ripple of a run came when Bob McAdoo (18) and James Worthy (22) rallied the Lakers to within three (68-65). However, K.C. Jones called time, and when play resumed, Gerald Henderson hit a 13-foot leaner and Bird socred off the break on a pass from DJ (22 points, 6 assists).

When the Lakers threatened, the inimitable DJ put his head down going to the basket for two. A DJ drive off the break made it 76-67 with 4:41 left in the third.

Danny Ainge came off the bench and hit a three-pointer to make it 86-75 with a minute left in the third.

The guys on the Celtic bench were helping in more ways than one. During every pause, the shock troops fanned the regulars with towels.

"The conditions were awful," said Celtic coach K.C. Jones. "Larry was about to pass out. He got a little dizzy."

Even when Bird sat down, the Celtics kept the heat on throughout the fourth quarter. When the Lakers closed to seven (95-88), Parish, Kevin McHale, and DJ ripped off seven in a row to make it 102-88 with 7:15 left. DJ's three- pointer (he made a jumper on the way down after being blocked and fouled by Michael Cooper) capped the drive.

While Parish (12 rebounds) contributed to Kareem's abysmal shooting night, the rest of the Celtics played with new-found confidence against the Lakers, who could not run . . . and Boston obviously was not going to need a fifth period to win its third game of the series. The Celtics lead reached blowout proportions when McHale hit two free throws to make it 111-93 with 4:28 left.

"We did a better job running the offense, running our stuff, and tried to be consistent at getting back on defense," said Jones.

"It was their night," Riley acknowledged. "They played a great basketball game, and we had problems with our shooting (worst of the playoffs). But you have to give both teams credit for holding up in a 48-minute steambath. They just held up a little better than we did."

"Overall, this is probably the best game we ever played," said DJ. "Everybody played well, offensively and defensively."

Jones cited the first half as crucial. "It was important that we stay close," said Jones. "We didn't want them to get another one of those big leads."

In the first half, the Celtics held the Lakers to nine fastbreak points. Bird had 8 points and 9 rebounds in the first quarter, 16 and 12 by intermission.

The pregame din was as loud as any all season. Scott Wedman (broken left fibula) watched the raucous proceedings from the sideline in streetclothes.

For the first time in the series, Dennis Johnson opened the game guarding Magic Johnson. DJ held Magic to five shots and forced five turnovers in the second half of Game 4 and did an even better job last night.

"I didn't shut him down," DJ said with a smile when asked about his defensive performance on the All-Star 6-9 point guard.

DJ gave the Celtics their first lead (24-23) with a transition jumper with 1:38 left in the first quarter. A turnaround by McHale (19 points, 10 rebounds in 21 foul-plagued minutes) put the Celtics ahead for good in the first minute of the second quarter.

When McHale scored on a fastbreak trailer jam, Boston had a 10-2 run and a 38-30 lead. Worthy and McAdoo, closed it to two by the halftime . . . then came the Green Wave in the heat wave.

Larry v. Magic: Game 12 (part 5)

1984 NBA Finals Game 5

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Summary

Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Media Coverage

BIRD WAS THE CELTS' MAN

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.