THE NBA PLAYOFFS : Thomas Puts the Pistons in Driver’s Seat : Celtics Miss 9 of First 10 Shots in Overtime to Lose

It was going to be a dark and stormy night. Anxiety ate away at Isiah Thomas’ insides all day. He and the Detroit Pistons were about to play a basketball game as meaningful as any they had ever played, a game at Boston Garden that few people seemed to think they could win. He was up tight.

Wednesday afternoon, while killing time before the game, Thomas stopped in a Boston shop. A white cotton cap with a black plastic bill caught his eye. Thomas paid for it, took it to his hotel room and tried it on. He turned to a friend and asked: “What kind of cap is this, anyway?” The friend replied: “Isiah, that’s a sailor’s cap.”

What he resembled was precisely what the Pistons needed him to be--their captain. Thomas happens to be his team’s captain, and, because of Cap’n Isiah’s crunch-time play in Wednesday’s 102-96 overtime victory over the Celtics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, Detroit took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Thomas scored 35 points--including 25 of Detroit’s last 42--as the Pistons overcame another of their patented horrible first halves. The men of Pontiac, Mich., can arrange the Motor City’s first trip to the National Basketball Assn. finals just by winning Friday’s Game 6 at the Silverdome.

“Clinching against the Celtics is going to be the hardest thing we’ve ever done,” Thomas said.

“It’ll be the hardest game we ever play,” center Bill Laimbeer said.

“We’ll never play a harder game in our lives,” Coach Chuck Daly said.

Somebody has been coaching these guys on what to say.

You can hardly blame them, though. They know this will be no cruise--partially because it’s the Celtics, and partially because home-court advantage is something they enjoy in the Western Conference, not the Eastern. Three of the five games of this series have been won by the visiting team.

Maybe K.C. Jones has won his last game as Celtic coach. Then again, as the retiring boss’ successor, assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers, said after Wednesday’s setback: “We definitely have a mountain to climb, but this whole series has been unusual. You can never discount the fact that more unusual things may happen.”

What could be more unusual than the Pistons trailing by 16 points in the second half of a game at the Garden--then storming back to outscore the Celtics, 35-14, over the next 13 minutes? What could be more unusual than Boston scoring four baskets in the fourth quarter of a playoff game at home?

What could be more unusual than four players scoring Boston’s first 90 points of a game and only five Celtics scoring in an entire game? What could be more unusual than Danny Ainge going 47 minutes without a point? What could be more unusual than the Celtics going 8 minutes 48 seconds of the second half without a basket?

Crazy game, crazy series.

Detroit, down 50-34, soon was leading, 75-70. With the Garden’s sellout crowd as shocked as though they had just seen Larry Bird in a sailor hat, the Pistons kept pecking away. Thomas scored 16 points in the fourth quarter alone. Although he missed twice with wild shots in the final minute, Detroit’s captain kept cool.

“I don’t think last year I would have had the poise to relax,” Thomas said. “Tonight, even when we were behind by so much, I knew it was going to be a long basketball game. I knew they (the Celtics) had expended a lot of energy, and I knew that I had a lot left. It was just a matter of calming down. Calming down is important.”

It was Game 5 a year ago that Isiah made the most careless move of his career, passing a sure thing into Bird’s hands, and maybe a championship bid along with it. This time, there was no such screw-up.

Thomas drained jumpers from 18 feet or more 5 times in the fourth period. One came with 2:31 to play and gave the Pistons an 87-86 lead, but Bird’s two free throws erased that.

Then came bad news for Boston. After having trouble all night working the ball inside, Detroit lobbed one to Laimbeer, who scored while being fouled by Kevin McHale. It was McHale’s sixth, so he had to go, taking his 26 points with him. Laimbeer’s free throw made it 90-88 with 1:59 left.

“Where’s (General Manager) Jack McCloskey?” Laimbeer wondered later, laughing. “Hey, Jack! Don’t ever tell me anything about my lousy post-up game again! I get a three-point play and foul Kevin McHale out of the game, so get off my back.”

An exchange of free throws kept Detroit up by two, but Fred Roberts, in for McHale, curled in a 7-footer from the lane with 1:09 remaining. Nobody but Bird, McHale, Dennis Johnson and Robert Parish had scored for Boston until this moment, 47 minutes into the game, but Roberts’ two points turned out to be the last ones scored by either team in regulation play.

Thomas missed a forced left-hander. Bird missed a forced jumper. Thomas tried a leaner that went in and out. Ten seconds left.

Bird went for the winner. He took a clumsy 17-footer, with Dennis Rodman in his face, arms up, like a traffic cop. A typical Larry miracle? No, a Larry airball.

Overtime:

Boston missed 9 of its first 10 shots. Detroit, meanwhile, glad to be rid of McHale, picked on Roberts. Pistons drove on him, Dantley twice, Thomas once. Three Fred fouls. He got the rest of the night off.

Thomas’ free throws made it 98-94, and then his driving layup sealed the deal with a minute to play, 100-94. The last gasp Boston had was snuffed by Jim Paxson’s offensive foul with 23 seconds remaining in the overtime.

Bird had his best day personally in the series, with 27 points, 17 rebounds and 5 steals, but was discouraged. “We can’t put the ball in the hole,” he said. “That’s our problem. Everybody’s missing at the same time. We’re doing everything else well, except making baskets.”

McHale was more explicit.

“It’s getting to the point right now where we’re wondering what the hell’s wrong with the offense,” McHale said. “We’ve never had problems scoring points before. All of a sudden, we’ve got big problems. We just can’t score a hundred points. We haven’t scored a hundred points this series so far.”

The way Detroit started out, it looked as though 79 or 80 might be enough for Boston to win it, same as Game 4. The Celtics went off on a 20-4 run against them during the first half. The Pistons were 16 points behind, and foundering. Cap’n Isiah was 3 of 10 from the floor and about to go down for the third time.

“I told myself, ‘If we’re going to lose, I’m going down shooting,”’ Thomas said. “I was going to shoot us out or shoot us in.”

He shot them in. He shot them in against an outfit that he had decided beforehand to flatter without limitation. At practice, Thomas called the Celtics “better than us, definitely the better team,” and even after beating them, he described Boston’s lineup as “the best starting five ever assembled.”

Last year, Isiah called the Pistons the better team, even after they lost the series.

“We haven’t won anything,” Thomas said. “They’ve won championships. We’ve won nothing. All we won tonight was a game. Until we can eliminate them, we can’t say anything about them. They’re champions.

“But, dammit, we’re learning. Last year we had the bad experience, and we learned from it. We’re older now, wiser now. That’s the thing I’m most proud of about this basketball team, that we’re learning. It’s like being in school and finally passing the algebra test. We didn’t flunk it for once. That makes me feel, you know, rewarded.”

Playoff Notes

The Celtics hit only 37% of their shots, and Danny Ainge hit 0%. . . . Instant-offense Vinnie Johnson worked only nine minutes, as Detroit stuck with its starting guards. He didn’t have a basket. . . . Boston guard Jim Paxson said: “I’ve been around this league long enough to know that if you rely on winning games at the last second all the time, it’s going to catch up with you. Even if you’re the Celtics.” . . . Some local TV reporter kept asking the Celtics at practice Tuesday why the world hates Bill Laimbeer. Nobody bit. Kevin McHale finally said: “Hell, I don’t know. Why don’t you ask his wife?” . . . If there’s another overtime or some such thing in Friday’s Game 6, it might not end until Saturday. Starting time at the Pontiac Silverdome is 9:05 p.m. (6:05 PDT), so the clock literally could strike midnight for the Celtics.