Road Trip Projections

FEBRUARY	OPPONENT	TIME (ET)	TV	LOCAL TV	RESOURCES
Tue, Feb 16	@ Sacramento	10:00 PM		CSNN	Tickets | Travel
Thu, Feb 18	@ LA Lakers	10:30 PM	TNT		Tickets | Travel
Fri, Feb 19	@ Portland	10:30 PM			Tickets | Travel
Sun, Feb 21	@ Denver	3:30 PM			Tickets | Travel

I'll say 1-3.

Interestingly, the Raptors next three opponents include the Grizz, the Nets, and the Wiz. Do the Celtics have another gear? We should find out in the next four games. The real question might be whether the Celtics have figured out a way to finish games off.

Last year, the Celtics dealt the Kings their worst home loss in franchise history. So Vlade Divac and company (er, I mean Paul Westphal and company) will be motivated. How will the Celtics respond to a home team hungry for payback?

C's (67-15) End Season with a Win

Green Finish Season at 67-15, Second Best Record in Team History

So much for the Big 82, and so much for the most dominant home-court advantage in modern NBA history. The Celtics are in the books with a season's record of 67-15 and a home-court mark of an astonishing 40-1.

They took care of the final details yesterday afternoon by breaking loose from an irritating 51-51 draw at the half with a season-high 46 points in the third period, an eruption that set up a 135-107 destruction of the New Jersey Nets in the season's finale. In so doing, they looked far more like the team that had locked up the league's best overall record with five games remaining, and a lot less like the daydreaming, October-like outfit they have been in the past week.

There was absolutely nothing pretty about the first half, a dismal 24 minutes in which the Nets were allowed to get where they were despite 37 percent shooting because the lazy Celtics allowed them 14 offensive rebounds and 20 more shots attempted from the floor. This business of the opponents getting too many offensive rebounds was getting to be a regular thing, and one had to wonder when the Celtics were going to start doing something about it.

It's obvious K.C. Jones had a few things to say about that, and about some other matters, too, because when the Celtics came out to play the third period they were a much different club.

"I was a little upset with them at halftime," Jones said. "We discussed it. Then in the third quarter we played with some intensity. I didn't like the idea of New Jersey using us as a battle cry to get ready for the play-offs."

The third quarter showcased what the fans would like to think is the real Celtics team. They ran a halfcourt offense of such variety and precision that by the time the score was 82-69 (a Larry Bird pull-up, fast-break jumper) they had shot 12 for 14 from the floor. They played good team defense, and eliminated the troublesome New Jersey second shots. And they got some needed production from a fast break that had resulted in a skimpy first-half total of one field goal and four free throws.

The third quarter was an artistic delight, featuring a pair of nice Dennis Johnson feeds to a cutting Bird, the obligatory Bird three-pointer, a perfectly executed Danny Ainge-Kevin McHale post-up and roll-in collaboration and, to the surpise of everyone, a Johnson lane drive and violent two-hand stuff.

There was also the matter of the Great Free Throw Derby, an enticing subplot pitting an idle Chris Mullin vs. Bird vs. Ainge vs. The Coach.

Bird entered the game trailing Mullin (189 for 211, .896) by a hair. He was 434 for 485, .895, and he needed to go at least 5 for 5 to catch Mullin. If he missed even one, he would have needed to go up to 13 for 14, an unlikely prospect on the last day of the season.

Nos. 1 and 2 came on an off-the-ball bonus foul near the end of the awful first quarter (Boston, 23-22). No. 3 resulted from a second illegal defense violation on New Jersey early in the second quarter (thank you, Joe Crawford). No. 4 came on a technical assessed on Mike Gminski late in the half (thank you, Dick Bavetta).

Needing one chance, Bird posted up Albert King and sank a right box turnaround at the 5:11 mark of the third quarter, picking up a switch-off foul on Gminski. He swished that one, and padded the lead with two more four minutes later. He left the game five seconds before the end of the third quarter, having shot .8963 from the line to Mullin's .8957.

But here came Ainge, who started the day needing to reach 125 made to qualify. His career high for attempts in a game had been 10. With 7:50 left in the third quarter, Ainge started picking up fouls, going to the line six times (12 attempts) in the next 11 minutes. He even got there once by passing up a 15-footer to head into traffic, something he never does. But Jones denied Ainge his bid by yanking him in favor of Rick Carlisle with 8:58 to play.

The rest of the quarter featured Grade A garbage time performances by Carlisle (10), Sam Vincent (4 points, 2 assists) and, especially, David Thirdkill (8), who is rapidly becoming an end-of-the-game crowd favorite.

Whatever happens in the play-offs, be assured of this much: Rudy Vallee will be back on the charts before a team goes 40-1 at home again. Meanwhile, frame that Portland ticket. We're talking about a future hot item at a collectors' show.

C's Lose, Fall to 65-15

Celtics Fall to 65-15 with Loss

Mike Gminski deserved to win. The Celtics deserved not to win. Life can't get simpler than that.

Of course, in the case of the Nets vs. the Celtics , virtue isn't always properly rewarded. Mike Newlin once threw in 52 against the Celtics without winning.

But justice triumphed last night, when Gminski's career highs of 41 points (the first 39 of which were truly meaningful, the last two of which were frosting) and 22 rebounds carried the Nets past the Celtics, 108-98, at Brendan Byrne Arena.

Was K.C. Jones worried about this game? What do you think? He had a backcourt of Sam Vincent and Rick Carlisle out there for a long stretch of the second half, and David Thirdkill even joined them for a spell. Jerry Sichting, who was the only Celtic in double figures at the half (10), played one more minute.

"We got a run," K.C. said. "We got a good sweat. It was a good test of keeping up our conditioning."

In other words, as long as nobody got himself injured or arrested, K.C. was happy.

They had a pretty good shot at winning, anyway. The Celtics led by 14 (51-37) in the second quarter, 12 (64-52) in the third quarter, six (83-77) after three quarters and eight (85-77) early in the fourth period. The effort they put forth, as basic as it was, very well might have earned them victory No. 66 had Gminski not played what had to be the best game of his professional career.

It was Gminski who carried the Nets to the 1-yard line with his sturdy inside play, but it was Otis Birdsong who had the honor of actually taking them into the end zone. With the score 97-95, New Jersey, Birdsong scored the next seven Nets points. The Celtics never scored again from the floor, their last basket being a jump hook by Kevin McHale with 3:13 remaining which created that 97-95 situation.

Be not deceived, however. Birdsong cannot be characterized as a hero, not when it was Gminski who twice brought the Nets back from important deficits (such as when he scored six straight Nets points when they were down, 85-81, earlier in the fourth quarter), and not when Birdsong had so much to do with the Celtics building up some of their previous leads with his ill- advised, off-balance jumpers.

Boston had stretches of embarrassing dominance in the first half, moving ahead, 51-37, at one point, thanks mainly to a jump-shooting spree by Sichting, who hit his first five shots. But at no time were the Celtics especially intense defensively, or on the boards (New Jersey would outrebound them, 57-39), and the Nets were thus allowed to hang around the game and develop the thought that victory was possible.

Through it all, Larry Bird was busy playing one of those Basic Contempt games, wherein he alternates prolonged stretches of not shooting with concentrated bursts of weird shooting. You know he's fooling around when, after hardly shooting at all, he suddenly cranks up three-pointers on successive trips downcourt. He was something of a presence on the boards (10 rebounds) and he passed creatively (7 assists), but he drifted in and out of the offense all night.

Gminski, meanwhile, started off quickly with 12 of the first 23 New Jersey points, and he never let up. Only one other rival -- Dominique Wilkins -- has scored more points against the Celtics this year, and nobody has gotten more rebounds. Any man playing this hard on April 9 clearly deserves to be on the winning side.

McHale established a career high with 8 assists. Asked what it means when McHale leads the team in assists, Bird said, "It probably means that when we get out to our bus, it will have a flat tire."

1986 Cs Beat Nets, Improve to 61-13

Here's how you take a first period clinic that indicates you might win by 50 and turn it into a 122-117 finale.

You start thinking about: Mass. Pike traffic that might get you home late for Easter dinner; whether you will get to Cleveland in time to watch the NCAA title game on TV; filing your income tax; Don Baylor's chances of hitting 30 home runs in Fenway; or the latest plight of your favorite soap opera heroine; and perhaps you even start debating yourself about the root causes of World War I.

In short, you start thinking about anything except the New Jersey Nets, at least until you look up at the scoreboard with 2:55 left and notice that your 21-point third-quarter lead is down to four (111-107).

"We got up by 20 points and then we relaxed," said Dennis Johnson.

Yesterday's game at the Garden never got any closer than four when it mattered (two Darwin Cook three-pointers in the last 19 seconds affected bettors more than real fans), but it certainly could have become serious had not Mickey Johnson overthrown an open Otis Birdsong on a transition opportunity (2:36) or Johnson air-balled from 22 feet after a blown assignment (1:59).

Given those two reprieves, the Celtics finally awakened offensively. Robert Parish (21 points, 14 rebounds) and Larry Bird (40 points) went into their vaunted two-man game on the right wing, and when Johnson, guarding Bird, made the mistake of honoring Parish too much, Bird stepped back and swished a 21- footer at the 1:42 mark. It was Bird's first basket after four straight misses and only the second Celtics hoop since Bird's own clock-beating followup had given Boston a 105-93 lead with 8:14 to play.

Jersey had to have one on the next possession, but Buck Williams missed and Parish rebounded in traffic closely resembling that found on Route 3 at 6 p.m. on any July or August Friday. The Chief was fouled by Johnson, and his two free throws gave the Celtics a safe 115-107 lead with 1:36 remaining.

Mike Gminski (24 points, 13 rebounds) kept New Jersey breathing with a second-chance jump hook, meaning that Boston needed one more sound possession to put the game away. They got it, too, for after the ball was knocked away from Parish with seven seconds left on the 24 (actually, Parish was fouled by every New Jerseyite but Bruce Springsteen, even if Jess Thompson didn't see it that way), DJ sank a buzzer-beating jumper behind a Parish pick to restore the eight-point margin.

These last-minute heroics never could have been forseen back in the first period, when the Celtics did everything but summon the Hall of Fame voters for an emergency session as they artfully constructed four 18-point margins.

Birdsong (26) scored the game's opening basket for New Jersey, but after that it was Parish (a very impressive 10 of his 21) or Kevin McHale (24) posting, Johnson (17) or Danny Ainge burying jumpers, the ball moving inside- out or side-to-side a step ahead of the Nets in the halfcourt or the Celtics executing a textbook fast break. Bird was orchestrating everything. He sank a three-pointer (one of three). He went back door. He posted up. He found open men and saw to it that others got open. He hit the boards. He, well . . . you get the idea.

The Celtics were so devastating that they were up by 18 (32-14) before Friday hero Bill Walton first shed his warmup jacket.

"I've seen great LA teams play like that before," said New Jersey coach Dave Wohl. "They just get into a bubble where they make every open shot, get every available rebound and get every available loose ball. You've just got to convince your team that the game isn't over after the first period."

It was, and it wasn't. The scoreboard suggested that it wasn't, but the mind tells you that in the next two periods Boston only played as well as it needed to. The lead grew to 22 (48-26), but this time the subs couldn't maintain the lead (DJ would wind up playing 46 minutes and Bird 43, much to the crowd's benefit, of course), and the margin was down to 10 (62-52) at halftime.

A three-point play on the break by McHale boosted the lead to 21 (80-59) with seven minutes left in Period 3, but the Celtics went back to snooze alarm. The offense got a little too casual, and New Jersey started playing very hard, chipping away at the lead until a nice baseline drive by Birdsong created that 111-107 situation.

Was Jones angry with all this? Nah. It will provide him with a little motivational tool, which is nice when you've won 11 straight overall and 27 straight at home (tying a 36-year-old record set by the Minneapolis Lakers) and you've all but wrapped up the league's best record.

"These kind of games are what you call 'wake-me-ups,' " said the mentor. "Something bad will happen and you say, Hey, we're not as good as we've been reading. We'd better start playing basketball."