Commentary : Celtics Getting Older, but Bird Insists Age Can Become a Sword

The bad-mouthing started before the season: The Boston Celtics are too old. They’re not a good defensive team. Larry Bird doesn’t have it anymore.

The Celtics lost four in a row and critics said, “I told you so.” But Boston is in third place, three games out of first, in the Atlantic Division and clearly in the playoff picture.

That’s not exactly what the predictions said. Before the season, Sports Illustrated questioned whether Bird, who missed all but six games last season because of injured feet, would provide any help.

The Providence Journal wrote, “It was obvious two years ago the Celtics had gone as far as possible. Advancing age. No bench . . . it would be nice to believe the Celtics once again will be among the NBA’s elite, simply because Bird is back. But that’s just not the case.”

Philadelphia’s Charles Barkley joked, “I can’t wait for the season to start. I’m just going to start slobbering from the mouth because (Bird) is going to have to guard me this year.”

Other writers jumped on the bandwagon, with one calling Bird “a legend in his own mind” while a Boston headline tagged him as the “Root of Evil on the Celtics.”

But Bird is still doing it, as he has done year after year, tops in free-throw percentage (.940), averaging 22.6 points and 7.5 assists. And there is teammate Robert Parish, third-best in the league with a .588 field-goal percentage and seventh-best in rebounds, at 10 per game. And there is Kevin McHale, who scored 34 the other night, averaging 19, shooting .925 at the free-throw line and .538 from the field.

“We’re basically doing the things we’ve always done,” Bird said. “We’re on an even keel.”

There’s a lot of talk about the Celtics getting long in the tooth, acknowledged Bird, “but that works both ways. There are nights we don’t get back on defense, nights that teams run on us. But as far as age--there are guys 23, 24, 25 years old who can’t play on a consistent basis like me and Kevin and Dennis (Johnson) can.

“The reason people think we’re so old,” said Bird, 33, “is because we’ve played together so long. All you’ve heard about for years are the Celtics with Larry and Kevin and Robert and D.J. If we’d moved around to other teams, maybe they wouldn’t see it that way.”

Asked if the negative press has bothered him, Bird said, “Not really. I know I can play. The rebounds, the assists, playing the game, is no different than any other season. It’s just the scoring. If I had three, four more points a game, people wouldn’t be saying anything.

“I’ve been satisfied with everything but my shooting--there have been situations where I’ve had some shots that I usually put down that I haven’t made.”

It’s also been tougher getting up and down the court than he thought it would be.

“I felt pretty good 10 games into the season, but then I found my legs aren’t as strong as they usually are,” Bird said. “I found it hard to get them back. I go through stages--some nights my legs feel really strong, some nights they don’t feel strong at all.”

Boston Coach Jimmy Rodgers said Bird “has responded very well” to the demands made on him, as have Parish and Johnson and McHale, whose playing time has dropped by more than six minutes per game from last season.

McHale says he hasn’t felt this good in years.

“There’s a huge difference playing 10 less minutes a game. For every four games, it’s like getting one whole game off.”

But McHale, like other Celtics, has been inconsistent. Before his 34 against the Utah Jazz earlier this month, he scored a season-low four in a loss at Phoenix. Consistency has been a team problem, Rodgers admits.

Bird said there’s a gnawing sense that, at times, the Celtics are giving in.

“We have periods where we break down for four, five minutes and other teams take advantage of it. We had a breakdown of six minutes in Portland and they ran off about 16 points.”

That’s what makes Bird nervous about Boston this season.

“One thing we’ve always been pretty famous for is taking advantage of mismatches, not letting any breakdown last too long. Now, when we have breakdowns, it seems like everybody goes along with it, everybody on the team, and it’s been disastrous for us.

“We show signs of being a great basketball team and then the next night we don’t look good at all. We’ve got to be mentally tougher.”