NBA Playoffs Roundup : Without Bird, Celtics Lose to the Cavaliers

In honor of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first playoff appearance since 1978, there were 20,900 fans on hand to celebrate at Richfield, Ohio, Tuesday night, and they had something to cheer about.

With the league’s best player, Larry Bird, staying in his hotel room with a very sore right elbow, World B. Free led the Cavaliers to a 105-98 victory over the Boston Celtics to keep their hopes alive in the opening round of the playoffs.

Although Bird’s replacement, Scott Wedman, had an outstanding game, Free scored 32 points and the Cavaliers ended the Celtics’ string of consecutive victories over them at 17. They also cut the Celtic lead in the best-of-five series to 2-1.

The status of Bird, troubled by bone chips and bursitis in the elbow on his shooting arm, is unknown for the fourth game Thursday night. Most of the season the 6-9 forward, generally considered the best player in the game, has complained of pain in the elbow. In Sunday’s game at Boston, the elbow was bruised and battered and the Celtics decided he should not play. Bird scored 70 points while leading the Celtics to victories in the first two games.

“We left Larry at the hotel,” Coach K.C. Jones said. “He has (bone) chips and bursitis in his elbow and it’s been taking a beating. I don’t know about Thursday. We’ll see how it feels and go from there. Our concern is for Larry Bird, not for when he’ll be able to play next.”

Wedman scored 30 points, sinking 13 of 20 shots from the field, before fouling out late in the game. But Free, scoring 13 points in the first period, got the Cavaliers out in front early, and they never let the Celtics get even. Several times in the fourth quarter, the Celtics were within two points.

The last time, it was 92-90, but Phil Hubbard made six points in a spurt that put the game out of reach.

“I said to the players after the game, ‘Be proud about tonight. Don’t let Larry Bird not playing take away from what we did,’ ” Coach George Karl said. “That team probably wins 55 (regular-season) games without Bird.”

Portland 122, Dallas 109--Kiki Vandeweghe and Kenny Carr triggered a second-half surge at Portland that carried the Trail Blazers to a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series to decide who gets the next shot at the Lakers.

In the first non-overtime game of the hotly contested series, the Blazers trailed, 62-56, at halftime and fell behind by nine in the third quarter.

Portland reeled off 12 points in a row, 10 of them by Carr, and grabbed the lead.

The Mavericks made one more run in the final period and cut the lead to 100-99 with 7:36 to play. But Vandeweghe scored 10 straight Portland points and the lead reached 117-106 with 45 seconds left.

Denver 115, San Antonio 112--The Nuggets built a 94-79 lead after three quarters at San Antonio and then almost blew the game. George Gervin, who scored 30 points, led the rally that cut the lead to 100-99 with 4:39 to play.

The Nuggets then surged behind Alex English to a 111-103 lead, then almost lost that. The Spurs, trailing, 113-112, fouled T.R. Dunn in the closing seconds. He made both free throws, and John Paxson missed a three-point shot at the buzzer.