Celtics Push Pistons Toward Point of No Return : Detroit Loses Again, and Nobody Has Come Back From 0-2 Against Boston

It’s that time in every Celtic playoff series when history rears its hoary head and the losers find out just what impossible long shots they are.

Thus, get ready to say goodby to the Detroit Pistons, who lost to the Celtics again Thursday night, 110-101. They may only trail, 2-0, and it’s still a best-of seven, but the Celtics haven’t lost any of the 15 playoff series in which they have had 2-0 leads.

With that in mind, the Garden crowd celebrated by chanting, “Beat L.A.!” As if Detroit wasn’t even worthy of a chant. Up here, everyone’s a historian.

This time, the Pistons played better but then, so did the Celtics. The better the Pistons played, the better the Celtics played, until the Pistons seemed to note the handwriting on the wall and went down the tubes.

Isiah Thomas, 6 for 24 in the opener, staged one of his Isiahland spectaculars in the first half but faded in the second. He had 25 points in the first 24 minutes, laughing as he went, but 11 in the last 24 when smiles came harder.

“Red (Auerbach) asked me if he got tired,” Kevin McHale said. “I said, ‘Yeah, our game plan was to let him run himself to death.’ I hope he killed himself.”

The Pistons led, 59-54, at the half and, 65-56, early in the third period when the Green Meanies called timeout and plotted the end of recess.

“They played great,” McHale said. “They were having a great time, going between their legs. We said, ‘We can’t let this happen.’ We dug down and came back with a vengeance. The level of play, you could just feel it rise on our side.”

When that timeout ended, the Celtics came back onto the floor to a huge ovation. Moments later, McHale hit a 15-footer and the roar of the crowd became something you could lean up against.

The Pistons, who have ears too, staggered. Thomas missed a 15-footer. Adrian Dantley’s threw a pass away. Larry Bird hit a three-pointer. Joe Dumars lost the ball twice in a row.

The Pistons righted themselves and ended the third period trailing, 82-81, then collapsed in the fourth. They went scoreless for 6:05, a stretch in which they went 0 for 5 from the field, 0 for 6 from the free- throw line and turned the ball over twice. Isiah had both turnovers and two of the misses from the field.

By the time Vinnie Johnson hit a reverse layup to end the drought, the Celtics were ahead, 95-88. It stayed that way.

What happened to the Piston offense?

“We’ve got a fine line between execution and going one-on-one,” Coach Chuck Daly said. “It’s a fine line with Isiah. When he’s got it going, you’ve got to ride that horse.”

What happened to Isiah?

“They were really keying on me,” Thomas said. “And the other guys were open.”

Why not keep doing what he did in the first half, when the Celtics seemed to key on him no less?

“You have to make the basketball play,” Thomas said. “You can’t go out and say, ‘I’m going to keep doing it by myself.’ If the shot is there, you take the shot. If the pass is there, you have to make the pass. It’s that simple.”

How can you blame a man for failing to play two unreal halves?.

“He was amazing,” McHale said. “He went wild. When he’s hitting jump shots, you can’t guard him. If you get up on him, he blows by you. He’s like Dominique Wilkins. If he’s hitting his jump shot, you don’t have a chance.”

And the showboating?

“That stuff doesn’t bother me,” McHale said. “I like Isiah as a person. I kind of enjoy it. I’m sure everybody else is kind of upset.”

For upset people, there was no place like the Piston dressing room. People were being asked why the Pistons expected to come back from 0-2 when all those other teams couldn’t.

“Nobody had Isiah on their team,” Isiah said.

Notes

The Pistons have lost 16 in a row in the Garden. . . . The Piston rookies shoveled youthful mistake upon mistake. John Salley missed two dunks. Dennis Rodman got the rarely-seen double airball on back-to-back free throws. . . . Larry Bird had 22 points by halftime, but shot 3 for 10 in the second half and finished 10 for 23, with 31 points, 12 assists and 9 rebounds. It was, however, the fifth straight second half in which he hasn’t made half his shots. . . . Chuck Daly got a technical foul and registered a subtle complaint about the refereeing. “The Celtics just did a remarkable job of staying out of foul trouble,” Daly said. . . . And Daly: Asked by a TV person, “How about the combination of Bird and Robert Parish?” He answered: “How ‘bout it? They should be on Broadway. They’d make more money.”