NBA PLAYOFFS : Parish’s Awakening Helps Celtics Get Even, 104-98

Once again, thoughts that Robert Parish was too old were premature.

Boston’s 38-year-old center bounced back from two miserable performances, scoring 27 points and grabbing eight rebounds Monday night as the Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 104-98, tying their Eastern Conference NBA semifinal series, 1-1.

Parish made only two of 12 shots and scored six points in the Celtics’ previous two playoff games. At his age, every slump is perceived as a crisis--by everyone but his teammates.

“He answered every question after he played bad,” Kevin McHale said. “He answered questions about being too old. He answered questions about Brad Daugherty being too good for him. Today, he played well, and he’ll let others do the talking.”

Despite aggravating his sore left ankle in the third quarter of Saturday’s loss to the Cavaliers, Parish sank 13 of 18 shots while helping limit Daugherty to 22 points on 7-for-15 shooting. Daugherty scored only two points in the fourth quarter.

“Robert Parish is a vintage player, and he played like fine wine tonight,” Cleveland’s John Battle said. “He’s a veteran, but he’s young at heart. They shot the ball extremely well, and our intensity went up and down because of it.”

Reggie Lewis scored 26 points and McHale finished with 18 for the Celtics, winners of 12 of their last 13 games. Larry Bird has missed all 13 games because of his sore back.

Boston, which plays host to the Cavaliers in the next two games, Friday night and Sunday, was behind, 76-75, entering the fourth quarter. But a 16-6 run, capped by Parish’s two inside baskets, gave the Celtics a 91-82 lead.

Cleveland closed to 91-87 on a three-pointer and two free throws by Mark Price before McHale sank a jump shot that quieted the sellout crowd of 20,273 with 4:44 to play. The Cavaliers got no closer than six points after that.

Price scored 20 points and Larry Nance and Battle each had 14 for Cleveland, which lost for the seventh time in its 22 home playoff games.