Against All Those Hawks, One Bird Is Enough for Celtics

Listen my children, have you heard . . . of the fourth-quarter ride of Larry Bird?

On a warm, muggy Sunday afternoon in Boston Garden, with the red-shirted Atlanta Hawks shaking the Boston Celtics right down to the foundations of their proud tradition, Larry Bird came through again.

Bird merely scored 20 of his 34 points in a gripping fourth-quarter shootout with Atlanta’s Dominique Wilkins, who finished with 47 points, as the Celtics won another seventh game, defeating the Hawks, 118-116, to win their Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series, 4-3.

In Celtic history, there have been 16 seventh games at Boston Garden, and the Celtics have won 14 of them. They have won 6 of 7 since Bird joined the team in 1979. But this one took everything the Celtics had to offer, which was, of course, all that Bird had to give.

From the opening tipoff, the outcome was always in doubt. Even Bird thought so.

“Just who was going to miss the last shot was going to lose,” he said.

It would not be the Celtics, who came back from a 3-2 deficit against the Hawks to beat them on their home floor, then beat them again at the Garden to move on to the Eastern finals against the Detroit Pistons.

“They played a great game,” Celtic Coach K.C. Jones said of the Hawks. “If they had played this kind of game Friday (Game 6), then we’d have been on vacation. They can go out and have a good time and we have to look forward to playing Detroit.”

The best-of-seven series opens at the Garden Wednesday night, with Game 2 the next night. The Celtics and Pistons can’t play a Tuesday-Thursday schedule because the Bruins and Edmonton Oilers play at the Garden Tuesday night.

The Pistons have lost 21 straight games at the Garden, dating back nearly six years.

What does Bird think about the Pistons?

“I’ll worry about them tomorrow,” he said.

First, there was this Celtic victory to savor, one that came at the expense of the young and talented Hawks.

The fourth quarter Sunday will keep them talking in Boston Garden for a long time to come.

“Some of the best basketball I’ve ever seen or been a part of,” Jones said of the final 12 minutes.

You needed a set of wings to play in this thing. It quickly elevated into an airborne duel between Bird and the Hawks’ shooting star, Wilkins, who had 16 points in the quarter.

The score was tied 9 times. In the first 7 1/2 minutes, the Celtics had the ball 13 times and scored on 10 of their possessions. Atlanta scored on 11 of 12 possessions.

There were eight other players on the floor, but Bird and Wilkins were dominant. Bird made 9 of his 10 fourth-quarter shots and Wilkins made 6 of 9.

The score was tied, 90-90, at 8:56. Bird threw in a running left-hander off the glass, was fouled by Cliff Levingston, and made the free throw for a three-point Celtic lead.

Fourteen seconds later, Wilkins sank a three-pointer from beyond the fringe to tie the game at 93.

Then it really got hot. Wilkins hit a 20-foot fall-away jumper to tie the game, 99-99. Bird turned in the lane for a 10-foot left-handed leaner, 101-99.

So it was Wilkins’ turn. Dominique sent a 17-footer from the right top of the key hissing through the basket, 101-101.

Bird was next. He sank a 17-footer on a nice assist from Dennis Johnson. Wilkins tied the score again at 103-103 with a 10-footer off the glass from 10 feet.

The sellout crowd of 14,890 gasped, knowing full well what they were seeing. Kevin McHale knew also.

“It was like two gunfighters standing blink-to-blink seeing which would draw first and which would drop first,” he said.

“Dominique would make one, Larry would make one. Dominique would make one, Larry would make one. There was a stretch there that was some of the purest basketball you’ll ever see.”

Someone, however, would have to lose. The Celtics pushed ahead by four, 109-105, and got the ball again with just under two minutes remaining.

Guess who took the shot?

Bird accepted a pass from Johnson beyond the three-point line just in front of the Atlanta bench. With Wilkins in his face, he made the jumper and the Celtics’ lead was 112-105.

Wilkins fully realized what that basket meant.

“It really broke our backs,” he said.

Dominique wasn’t through, though. He scored on a 14-foot jumper, then sank two free throws with 47 seconds left to get the Hawks back to within three points, 112-109.

Bird wasn’t through, either. Double-teamed on the left wing, Bird spun around Wilkins, drove the lane and sent a left-handed scoop shot into the basket.

Johnson missed two free throws in the last 10 seconds, the last with five seconds to go and Boston ahead, 118-115, allowing the Hawks a very small chance.

Wilkins, fouled by Danny Ainge with one second left, sank the first free throw to make it a two-point game. The Hawks’ only chance was for Wilkins to miss the second and score on an offensive rebound.

Wilkins missed, but Johnson wound up with the ball as time ran out on the Hawks, just as it had in Game 6.

For the Hawks, it was the end of the line. And even though his team had messed up its chances to eliminate the Celtics by losing back-to-back, Atlanta Coach Mike Fratello was not devastated, just defeated.

“We lost to a great, great team,” he said. “It was maybe one of the greatest basketball games you’re ever going to see.

“I am proud of our team,” Fratello said. “I thought Wilkins really answered the bell and showed you what Dominique Wilkins is really all about. We’ve had a good year.”

Wilkins hit 19 of 33 shots under terrific pressure, while Bird made 15 of 24 shots and teamed with McHale, who had 33 points and 13 rebounds, in the Celtics’ finest shooting game of the playoffs.

Boston shot 60.8%, which the Celtics needed because the Hawks shot 57.1%. Randy Wittman, who scored 22 points, was 11 for 13.

There were only 13 turnovers between the two teams and if Atlanta has anything to second-guess itself about, it could probably point to the slam dunk Kevin Willis missed, or Johnson’s steal from Doc Rivers and his breakaway layup that ended the third quarter.

But in the end, the game was in Bird’s hands and in the minds of Celtics past and present, there is no better place for it to be.

“Before the game, he had that look in his eye,” McHale said. “I’ve seen it before. It’s ‘get out of the way, boys, I’m going to work.’ It was like, ‘I want the ball.’ When he gets that look, it’s Katie bar the door.”