Celtics Are on Rebound

When Ed Pinckney goes 6 for 6 from the field, scores 16 points in 14 minutes, and takes it to Patrick Ewing as if he’s J.R. Ewing, when the Boston Celtics’ reserves make 26 of 33 field-goal attempts while the starters yuk it up on the bench, you know something’s up.

“I know how competitive we can be,” Larry Bird said. “We can be as good as we want to be. We can be the team everyone visualizes.”

A year ago, with Bird hobbling around in moon boots and designer sweaters after foot surgery, with Robert Parish’s elbow ailing, with Dennis Johnson looking so far over the hill you couldn’t have pulled him back with a 50-foot tow rope, you’d have been tempted to laugh at such talk. As recently as a few months ago, when the Celtics were still struggling, you might have snickered.

But not now.

In dreams, Bird and the other Celtics immortals -- Kevin McHale, Parish and D.J. -- always will be forever young. In the sweet reality of Game 2 Saturday afternoon, they played like it. In these, its final days, perhaps the Monet exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts was the hot ticket, but there was no finer art on display in Beantown than the 48 minutes of near-flawless basketball the Celtics laid on the Knicks at the Garden.

Yes, they are old men by the standards of their sport. Parish is 36, D.J. 35, Bird 33, McHale 32. They total 45 years of NBA experience and endless yards of Ace bandages, and it shows.

No frantic high-fives for them. When they come to the bench and salute each other, they touch hands gingerly, like English gentlemen setting teacups on fine china at afternoon tea. They talk confidently, but they don’t talk trash about their opponents, as they were wont to do when their limbs were always limber and they were brash young men. They often walk as if imitating Amos McCoy or Fred Sanford.

But see how they run. When they are “on,” as they were “on” in Saturday’s matinee performance, their passes crisper than a starched collar, their sneakered feet automatically finding their pet spot on the precious parquet, their shots nestling effortlessly in the net, they are a sight to behold.

Unless you are a New York Knick.

“If you look at paper and look at the ages,” Pinckney said, “you’ll be fooling yourself. These guys have been playing together too long, and they’ve been in too many playoffs to say that they’re too old. That’s not part of their makeup.”

We all like to say that as we get older, we get better. Athletes have the hardest time saying this with a straight face. They know that experience can only take you so far when the legs are no longer willing. But when there is still life in Celtics legs, when they are able to blend their talents so effortlessly after so many seasons in the sun, isn’t there real hope that there is playoff life beyond the Knicks? Isn’t there reason to believe the Pistons aren’t necessarily a dead end?

If the first two games of this series are any indication, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Yes, the Knicks are in disarray. They have lost 18 of their last 23 games. The wheels have come off their wagon, and after the Celtics’ record-breaking 157-128 victory, only a Ewing extravaganza Wednesday night in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden is likely to save the Knicks from playoff extinction.

For that, credit the Celtics. Where last season and in stretches of this one, they played defense as if wearing cement boots, now they come quickly to each other’s aid. Now Coach Jimmy Rodgers’ substitution pattern is cohesive and consistent, not muddled. Now the starting five’s young lion, Reggie Lewis (he’s 24), has taken some of the scoring burden off Bird’s shoulders. Now Bird has the occasional luxury of giving the offense just what it needs, roughhouse rebounding (a game-high 18 in Game 1) or spectacular sleight-of-hand assists (16 in Game 2, tying a Celtics record with 11 in one half) without having to be on a shooting spree.

After Game 2, in which the Celtics set an NBA playoff record by shooting 67 percent from the field -- they shot 81 percent in the third quarter -- Bird could afford to smile about being the team’s resident bricklayer (5 of 15).

But only to a point. When you put the ball in the basket the way the Celtics did Saturday, basketball becomes a simple and delightful game.

When someone tried to assign significance to an atypically outstanding John Bagley defensive play, Bird reminded him that, “It’s more important for him to hit the open jump shot (Bagley was 5 of 7 from the field, as was D.J.).

“Today, he and D.J. were hitting the shots. When they do that, it’s so easy (for the team) to score. We’ve got Robert and Kevin down low. That’s a tough matchup for anyone. Robert’s going to score with his jump shot. And Kevin, all you’ve got to do is throw him the ball and get out of the way. He takes care of the rest. Reggie (17 points in the first half) is picking up those extra 10 points a game so I don’t have to score 30 or 35, I can just play solid. He’s got the type of mentality where if he misses his shot, it doesn’t bother him. Which is great. It reminds me of myself.”

Lewis didn’t miss many shots Saturday. Nor did any of them.

“That’s the coach’s dream,” Bagley said. “Take the shots that are good shots.”

And now, the Celtics have a good shot at eliminating the Knicks Wednesday night. When a CBS reporter suggested to McHale that the Knicks might come up with something different in Game 3, McHale shrugged and smiled.

“The nucleus of this team has seen a lot of those things,” he said. “We’ve seen just about everything in the playoffs. So we’re not too concerned. We’re old in age, but a lot of times, we’re young in playing.”

Could be a tough combination to beat.