Detroit Wins With a Piston Missing

Bill Laimbeer spent the entire fourth quarter in the Detroit locker room Wednesday night, listening to the Pistons’ playoff game against the Boston Celtics.

Not listening to the radio. The locker room didn’t have a radio.

Listening to the crowd.

“That’s the only way I knew what was going on,” Laimbeer said. “When our team scored a basket, the fans would go: ‘Oooooh.’ When their team scored a basket, the fans would go: ‘Aaaaah.’ ”

More often than not, the crowd went oooooh.

The Detroit Pistons, with their starting center, Laimbeer, sitting out the final 19 minutes with a bruised shoulder, still bumped off the Boston Celtics, 104-96, behind Isiah Thomas’ 35 points, in Game 1 of the National Basketball Assn.’s Eastern Conference finals.

It was Detroit’s first win at Boston Garden since Dec. 19, 1982. The Pistons bombed out here 21 times in a row, including Game 7 of last year’s Eastern Conference championship series, when leading scorer Adrian Dantley missed the entire fourth quarter with a concussion.

X-rays of Laimbeer’s right shoulder at a Boston hospital showed nothing broken, but Piston officials describe him as “questionable” for tonight’s Game 2.

Laimbeer was pursuing a rebound with a little more than seven minutes left in the third quarter, when: “My arm got pulled. I heard a pop--a real bad pop. My whole arm went numb. I couldn’t use it. Then the feeling came back a couple of seconds later, and I thought I could play.”

He took himself out. Piston trainer Mike Abdenour made Laimbeer lift his arm above his head. Laimbeer screamed.

That’s when he retreated to the locker room, to listen to the baskets.

Thomas had them ooooohing. The Piston point man got the points, popping in 15 of his 35 in the fourth period. No teammate scored more than 14 for the whole game.

“He single-handedly beat us,” said Boston forward Kevin McHale, exaggerating a mite. Rick Mahorn’s 10 rebounds and a bench scoring advantage of 33-4 didn’t exactly hurt Detroit any.

The game was tighter than tight, 80-80, before Thomas truly took over. It was his three-point play, a storming of the lane on which he got fouled, that pushed the Pistons in front by 87-82.

Next time down, he made it 90-82.

Thomas was standing by himself in three-point range. Guard partner Vinnie Johnson passed him the ball and shouted: “Shoot it!”

Thomas declined. He didn’t like the percentages, so he weaved toward the hoop.

“Vinnie gave me a weird look,” Thomas said. “It was like, ‘Why didn’t you shoot it?’

“So, I went all the way back behind the three-point line and shot it. Thank God it went in.”

For Boston, the rest of the game wasn’t worth a hill of beans. The Celtics never got within 3 points again.

It’s true, then. The Celtics can be beaten at home. Atlanta did it, just a week ago, and at long last Detroit has done it. Only Thomas, Laimbeer and Johnson remain from the last Piston team that defeated the Celtics at the Garden.

Are other teams that much better, or are the Celtics a little worse?

“I don’t know what went wrong,” McHale said. “Maybe the stars were fouled up. You know, not in line. I’ll have to check with Nancy (Reagan).”

The Celtics should have been looking up at the ceiling, not the stars. They should have been hoping that, for the second time in two nights, Boston Garden’s lights would go out.

They shot as if in the dark. For the game, they got off 91 shots--far more than they usually do--but made less than 42% of them. The reason for their defeat “was just our inability to put the ball in the hole,” said Larry Bird, who holed out 8 of 20.

“Our problem, for some strange reason, is offense,” said McHale, whose 31 points on 13 of 17 marksmanship led the losers. “You can’t afford to get into a jump-shooting contest if you’re not making them. Detroit doesn’t have any real shot-blockers. We should have taken it and tried to ram it down their throats. We self-destructed.”

Coach K.C. Jones concurred. “There was some very bad decision-making, so far as shots are concerned,” he said. “We’d push it up court and then take long shots. Just fire it up. That’s the part of the game that really killed us. We did all right on defense, but our offense was helter-skelter.”

Possibly, the offense was still dragging after Sunday’s exhausting game against Atlanta. Detroit hadn’t played in a week. And, due to the hockey conflict with the Bruins, the Celtics are unlucky enough to be playing back-to-back nights at home. They must spend four nights in Michigan hotels, away from families and favorite beds, for Games 3 and 4.

Rest might not be so important if Boston’s bench would give the starters some. Five substitutes combined Wednesday for two baskets.

Detroit, on the other hand, played nine people in the first half, and all of them scored. Backup center James Edwards bailed out Laimbeer with 6 points and 6 rebounds. Second-string forwards John Salley and Dennis Rodman combined for 15 points and 12 boards. “Microwave” Johnson heated up quickly for 12 points. Detroit showed considerable depth.

Muscle, too. It was clear from the start that the Pistons intended to manhandle Bird and the Celtics the same way they did Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in their Eastern Conference semifinals. Dantley did everything but wrestle Bird while on defense, and the rough-housing of Mahorn, Edwards and Laimbeer led to more than one shoving match or dirty look. Mahorn and McHale drew double technicals after one run-in.

Not one Celtic complained. “You just go with it,” McHale said. “If they hold you, you gotta hold them. If they grab your shorts, you gotta grab theirs. That’s why I always enjoy playing Detroit. They get your attention. They get you into the game.”

Neither side led by more than four points during the first half. Not until the third period did anybody break away--and it was Boston, taking a 61-54 edge on McHale’s drive with 9:05 left.

Laimbeer missed two free throws, much to the delight of an audience that particularly dislikes him. He flapped his arms in frustration, delighting everyone even more.

Thirty seconds later, the Piston center grabbed his shoulder in pain. He tried to shake it off but eventually left with 7:02 remaining in the third period, never to return.

Although the Pistons led, 75-73, after three quarters, they looked tight, missing 7 of their last 8 free throws in the period. They got another bad break when Johnson’s buzzer basket was judged to have been released too late.

Thomas opened the final period with a three-point shot, followed by Johnson’s leaner from 18 feet. Quickly, Detroit had its largest lead, 80-73.

In less than two minutes, Boston tied the score, 80-80. Danny Ainge nailed a three-pointer, McHale flattened two Pistons on his way to a layup and Bird made a jumper. With 8:50 left, it was even.

Dantley answered with two jumpers, the second one a spectacular fade-away from 15 feet. After McHale’s basket, Thomas strung together his two three-point plays, and Detroit had itself a basketball game.

The series, too? Well, maybe. None of the Pistons are doing any talking about it, though.

Thomas said: “It’s not the first to win one, it’s the first to win four. This team we’re facing is the same team that game back from being down, 3-1, against Philly a long time ago. I still remember watching that one, when I was a little kid.”

Daly added words of caution, saying: “I think we’ve seen this year how teams can go into other places and win. Atlanta did it, Utah did it, Washington did it to us, we went into Chicago’s place and won, and Dallas did it in Denver. So, it’s not smart to get too excited.”

Excited is out. Hungry, though, is another matter.

“I want more of this,” Detroit’s Mahorn said. “I’m greedy. Give me more.”

Same for Laimbeer. He can’t wait for tonight’s game. Wednesday’s was the best game he ever heard.