1984 NBA Finals
GAME 2
Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Summary
Larry v. Magic: Game-by-Game Media Coverage
It was a night/morning when New Englanders paused from pumping water out of their basements to enjoy a basketball jewel - emerald green, of course.
Moments after the clock struck 12, a full house filed out of Boston Garden into the early morning rain, while folks at home went to bed, secure in the knowledge that the Celtics were flying West with a fighting chance at world championship No. 15.
Thursday's pulsating, 124-121 overtime victory knotted the best-of-seven title series with the Los Angeles Lakers, 1-1, and cost untold man hours in factories and think tanks from Bangor, Maine, to Bristol, Conn.
The last time this many local sports fans stayed up so late was when Carlton Fisk clanged a Pat Darcy pitch off the left field foul pole at Fenway Park in the sixth game of the 1975 World Series.
It didn't matter where you went yesterday. In bait-and-tackle shops on Cape Cod, drugstore coffee counters in Groton, and high-rise offices on State Street, the dominating topic of conversation was The Game. The Olympics are tarnished and the Red Sox are hopelessly lost . . . so the Celtics have become Boston's Boys of Summer.
The most casual fans agreed that Thursday night's (a/k/a Friday morning's) game was flawed. The Lakers committed 25 turnovers and kicked the game away at the finish. The Celtics blew a 13-point lead, missed nine free throws in the fourth quarter, and shot a lowly 46 percent.
Nobody cared. With one minute left in regulation, the score was tied, and Laker fan Jack Nicholson, seated in section 30 of the loge, was recreating his R.P. McMurphy character. Meanwhile, WNEV-TV was close to a local record for the largest 11:30 p.m. audience in history. There were no refrigerators opening or toilets flushing.
Two free throws by Magic Johnson gave the Lakers a 113-111 lead with 35 seconds left. Boston's Kevin McHale had a chance to tie it with 20 seconds remaining, but missed two free throws.
Hearts sank when Magic rebounded McHale's second miss and called time. The Garden was quiet. Boston sports fans know the smell of defeat and disappointment the way Liz Taylor knows divorce proceedings.
Enter Gerald Henderson, an unlikely (6 feet 2) hero in this matchup of mastadons. Six seconds after the smug and secure Lakers inbounded, Henderson intercepted a lazy crosscourt lob by James Worthy and drove to the basket for a game-tying layup. Henderson's steal was etched in local sports folklore before his shot went through the basket.
Nineteen years ago, John Havlicek attained immortality with a steal of a Hal Greer-to-Chet Walker pass at the close of an Eastern Conference clinching victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. "Havlicek Stole the Ball" became a best- selling album and a local catch phrase - Boston's athletic equivalent of "The British Are Coming."
"Henderson Stole the Ball," doesn't have the same ring, but Havlicek, who was in attendance Thursday night/Friday morning, said yesterday, "Both steals were equally important, I think. Both steals were done well."
The game wasn't over. LA took a timeout with 13 seconds left and designed a a final play. They wound up with Magic dribbling out the clock and passing to Bob McAdoo as the buzzer sounded. Magic said he wanted to pass inside to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but couldn't.
Overtimes are often anticlimactic, but this one had its memorable moments. After midnight, Scott Wedman, much maligned in his two-year stint of inactivity with the Celtics, buried a 13 footer from the left corner to give Boston a one-point lead with 14 seconds left.
The Lakers kissed away their final chance when Robert Parish slapped the ball from McAdoo, setting up two free throws by Larry Bird.
Friday was four minutes old when Bird inbounded to Cedric Maxwell, who hurled the ball toward 14 championship flags as the buzzer sounded. The flags barely fluttered as legions swarmed the floor and the Celtics ducked into the halfcourt runway.
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