C's Maul Jazz, 132-90

Celtics Improve to 38-15
1981-82 Boston Celtics

There are blowouts and then there are blowouts. What happened at Boston Garden last night wasn't your mere Garden-variety blowout, but an all-out Hiorshima-Nagasaki-Dresden bombing of 15 unfortunate souls from Salt Lake City. May they rest in peace but never again in Boston.

The Jazz may have set back music, basketball and competitive sports 50 years with its non-performance. Utah (a) disappeared from its scheduled 48- minute game with the Celtics after only three minutes; (b) fell behind by a mere 38 points in the second quarter, (c) trailed by a paltry 48 in the second half and (d) finally expired under a 132-90 all-out destruction by the Celtics before the 53rd consecutive sellout of 15,320 at the Garden.

"We were hopeless," said Jazz coach Frank Layden, but that's only one chapter of this story, because Utah was also helpless, hapless and every other "less" you could list. Seldom has an NBA team put together 48 minutes of worse all-around, self-destructive basketball.

But there are two ways of looking at a glass of water, partially empty or almost full, and the Celtics could look at a full night of near-perfect basketball - defense, passing, shooting, rebounding, running and gunning. "We were clicking," said M.L. Carr.

Indeed. After Utah's Adrian Dantley teased the crowd with a layup for the first basket of the night, Boston scored on eight of its next nine possessions for a 16-2 run that effectively ended this one. The charge was fueled by three Larry Bird jumpers from 18 to 21 feet, fast-break layups by Cedric Maxwell and Robert Parish, a Parish block of James Hardy floater, then the outlet pass to Carr for a through-the-middle scoop and a 16-4 lead.

By now, Maxwell was denying Dantley and his 34-point average ("Max did as good as job as anyone on Dantley in the first quarter," said Celtic coach Bill Fitch. "Max's defense on Dantley was as instrumental as anything in getting us off to our good start."), and the Jazz was self-destructing. Before the quarter was over, Utah turned the ball over 10 times (for 15 Boston points) and the Celtics ran away with 22 fast-break points in the quarter.

Bird was his usual brilliant self (his stat line of 27 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists just missed another triple-double game despite only 35 minutes of action), but the Celtics' General Hospital backcourt of Carr and Gerald Henderson replaced the injured Chris Ford and Tiny Archibald without missing a beat.

Carr (19 points, 6 assists) and Henderson (15 points, 6 assists) "played great," according to Fitch. "Henderson has really been coming into his own the last four games and M.L. filled in like the old veteran he is."

Utah's Layden, when his eyes weren't shut to the basketball abuses before him, saw the same view. Henderson and Carr "had to control the game early and they certainly did that," said the Jazz coach. "They played beautifully together."

So the first quarter ended with Bird threading a full-court TD pass between two Jazz to Carr ("Just call me Harold Carmichael; do you think the Sullivans want me in Foxborough?") for a layup, Henderson sneaking inside for a basket in traffic, Henderson hitting a 10-foot leaner and Carr sneaking away for another TD pass from Bird, yet another layup and a 37-13 lead at the period.

A fast-break layup by Danny Ainge and a 12-footer from the baseline by Bird upped the carnage to 57-19 midway through the second quarter, and the Jazz was down for the count at the half, 70-33.

"We'd been having trouble playing well with a big leads," said Fitch, "so at the half I told them our goal was to see if we could keep playing well."

Well? Well, Boston's bulge was 104-64, after three, and the fourth quarter was for Charles Bradley (9 points), Ainge (10 points, 6 assists) Rick Robey (12 points) and . . . finally, an Eric Fernsten standing-O jumper with 3:12 left in the game.

All road trips should end with such homecomings.