NBA ROUNDUP : Celtics Show They’re a Few Birds Shy of a Flock

The last year the Boston Celtics had a losing record was 1979.

Larry Bird began playing for them the next fall.

Any more Birds out there?

The Celtics clinched their first losing season in 15 years Sunday with a performance that epitomized why they are heading to the draft lottery instead of the playoffs.

They shot only 33% and were outrebounded, 58-49, in a 101-80 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at the Boston Garden.

Kevin Willis had 31 points and 14 rebounds for the Hawks, and Mookie Blaylock added 18 points and 10 assists.

“Willis is having a great year, he’s doing everything we ask him to do,” Atlanta Coach Lenny Wilkens said. “He’s been providing leadership and he’s an aggressive offensive player.”

Stacey Augmon had 13 points and 11 rebounds, but Danny Manning was in foul trouble and had only 12 points--10 below his season average--for Atlanta.

Xavier McDaniel had 18 points for Boston.

“It’s easy to play when you’re winning, but basketball is a lot tougher when you’re losing,” McDaniel said. “When we were 6-2, basketball was fun. We’ve only won 16 games since then and that tells you we don’t respond well to adversity.”

It also tells you they have had plenty of opportunities to respond. The Celtics have lost six games in a row and 19 of 21.

“It was a fairly small effort we gave,” center Robert Parish said. “Atlanta is one of the top teams in the league and you’d think we’d come out with fire, but we were flat and lethargic.”

The Celtics went scoreless in the opening 2:34 and missed 10 of their first 12 shots, allowing Atlanta to open an early 14-5 lead.

Chicago 90, Minnesota 80--The Bulls, getting 18 points from Horace Grant, overcame some poor early shooting at Minneapolis to maintain their perfect record against Minnesota.

Chicago won its fifth in a row while increasing its record against Minnesota to 10-0.

Milwaukee 103, Philadelphia 101--Rookie Vin Baker made a slam dunk with 12 seconds to play to complete a late rally by the Bucks, who snapped a six-game losing streak by beating the 76ers at Milwaukee.

Seattle 124, Charlotte 115--Gary Payton scored a career-high 32 points, and Shawn Kemp had a triple double for the SuperSonics, who rode a 17-2 third-period surge to a victory at Charlotte.

Kemp had 15 points, 11 rebounds and a career-best 12 assists.

Kendall Gill had 22 points against his former team. He also had a brief shoving match with the Hornets’ Larry Johnson and exchanged unpleasantries with Charlotte Coach Allan Bristow.

Sam Perkins added 20 points, making four of six three-pointers, for Seattle.

Denver 132, Washington 99--The Nuggets set a season-high for points and margin of victory at Denver in rolling over the Bullets, despite a career-high 39 points by Washington’s Rex Chapman.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf led Denver scoring with 23 points.