NBA Roundup : Bird Saves Celtics at Buzzer Again

Maybe, it’s time to change his name to Larry Superman. For the second game in a row, Larry Bird, the fabulous forward of the Boston Celtics, provided a miracle at the buzzer to lift his team to victory.

Last Sunday, with three seconds remaining, Portland grabbed a 127-126 lead. With time running out Bird, from the corner, threw up a jumper and it swished through for the victory.

In the game Tuesday night at Hartford, Conn., Detroit took a 130-129 lead with four seconds left on an 18-foot jumper by Isiah Thomas. Everyone in the place knew who would take the shot for the Celtics. Somehow, Bird freed himself for an 8-foot jumper. It hit nothing but net and the Celtics had a 131-130 victory to end the Pistons’ eight-game winning streak.

“I won’t describe the play,” Bird said, “because we may want to use it again. As you could tell, I got the ball, we won. That’s all there is.”

Bird’s heroics took some of the luster off another spectacular performance by Thomas. The league’s assist leader scored 33 points and had 19 assists. The flashy guard had 18 of his points and 13 assists in the second half to lead a rally that overcame a 78-64 halftime deficit.

The Celtics, who play another tough rival tonight----the 76ers in Philadelphia----have the best record in the league, 37-8. Of course, Bird is the big reason. Another big reason is health. In tough games the Celtics rely on six players. The six, Bird, Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Cedric Maxwell have avoided injury. Among them, they have missed only a total of six games. One of those was missed by Maxwell because he was a holdout.

On the other hand the Pistons have played well, although they seldom have had all six of their top players ready to play. For this game, the Pistons’ starting forwards were Kent Benson and Terry Tyler, not exactly All-Star quality.

Kelly Tripucka is out two or three weeks because of a sprained ankle and the other starter up front, Dan Roundfield, recently underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee and also will be out three weeks.

Thomas, Bill Laimbeer and Vinnie Johnson have played in all 44 games for the Pistons, but the other three, Tripucka, Roundfield and John Long have missed a total of 38 games.

The Pistons backup forwards had 16 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists between them in 65 minutes. Bird, in 37 minutes, had twice as many points (32), 10 rebounds and 5 assists.

Milwaukee 108, Golden State 101--The Warriors led by six at halftime at Oakland and trailed by only three with two minutes left, but they finally managed to lose their 15th in a row. They need just two more to tie their own record for consecutive defeats.

Sidney Moncrief scored 30 to help the Bucks win their ninth in a row.

San Antonio 130, New Jersey 127--The Ice is no longer melting in San Antonio. George (Ice) Gervin, who had his worst start ever this season, scored a season-high 47 points and the Spurs needed every one of them to win for the sixth time in the last eight games.

Gervin, who was averaging only 21 points going into last week, had a 42-point game Friday in a win over Houston.

“It sure is nice watching him score this way when I’m his coach,” Cotton Fitzsimmons said. “He used to do those things to me when I was the opposing coach.”

Denver 128, Phoenix 100--Alex English and Calvin Natt led a second half spurt at Denver that stretched the Nuggets’ winning streak to seven games and the Suns’ losing streak to six.

The score was tied, 70-70, near the middle of the third quarter. But Denver held Phoenix to 30 points in the last 18 minutes, while scoring 58. English finished with 27 points, Natt 25.

Chicago 103, Kansas City 97--Michael Jordan scored 26 points to lead the Bulls to their fourth win in a row and their eighth in a row at home.

Quintin Dailey, involved in a beef with Coach Kevin Loughery, came off the bench in the third period to spark a rally that gave the Bulls an 83-77 lead after three quarters.

Atlanta 115, Indiana 104--Dominique Wilkins scored 40 points at New Orleans to lead the Hawks. It was the seventh of 12 games the Hawks will play in New Orleans.