GAME 1 - It was a Boston blowout
BOSTON - It's becoming a Memorial Day tradition, like hanging out the flags or going to the beach.
Only the menu changes for the Boston Celtics.
A year ago they devoured the Los Angeles in the opening game of the NBA Finals. On Monday afternoon, the Celtics simply swallowed up the Houston Rockets 112-100 before a sellout crowd of 14,890 at Boston Garden.
Thus, the Celtics lead the best-of-seven series 1-0. Game 2 is Thursday at 8 p.m.
Of course, as is the case in the opener of any series, this one raised an abundance of questions.
Should the Rockets consider calling Rambo to head up a rescue mission to find Ralph Sampson, who was officially listed as an MIA?
And how will the Rockets be able to keep double-teaming pressure on the Celtics' big men without leaving themselves vulnerable to the outside shooting of Boston's guards?
Robert Parish finished with 23 points and Larry Bird and Kevin McHale 21 apiece. But it was the ability of Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson to take advantage of outside scoring opportunities in the third quarter that allowed the Celtics to pull away.
Johnson hit 6 of 12 shots for 19 points, Ainge 9 of 16 for 18, and the backcourt pair teamed up for 22 in the third period when the Celtics machine began to roll.
In the first half, the Rockets were staying at home," said Ainge. They weren't double-teaming. In the second half, they chose to double up and that opened it up for myself and for D.J."
And while Ainge and Johnson did not score every time down the floor in the period, it certainly must have seemed that way to the Rockets, who were flattened by a 30-17 steamroller and became the Celtics' 12th victims in 13 playoff games this spring.
The Rockets received 33 points and 12 rebounds from Akeem Olajuwon and 20 points from Rodney McCray.
But they might as well have been a two-legged horse trying to win the Kentucky Derby with both Sampson and Lewis Lloyd turning up as no-shows.
The strategy today was to try to go at Ralph and Akeem early," explained McHale. We wanted to go at their inside game as much as possible and put the pressure on their big men. We wanted to make them commit some fouls."
That strategy was definitely effective as Sampson found himself shackled by three personal fouls just 4:45 into the game and Olajuwon drew his fifth with still 4:49 remaining in the third quarter.
Sampson spent all but five minutes of the first half on the bench, played just 27 minutes on the day, shot 1 for 13 from the field and finished with 2 points.
In terms of mammoth flops, only Busty Hart - a local stripper and unofficial Celtics mascot - could compare with Sampson.
Just three days ago, he was the toast of Houston after his game-winning shot at the buzzer sank the Lakers. Now, he's being toasted by all of Boston after his own game sank into the Charles River.
It was Sampson's first game back on the fabled parquet floor of the Garden since the night of March 24 when he took that horrible fall and injured his back. But there were no ghosts haunting Sampson, only zebras.
The referees took me out of this game with some quick fouls," Sampson said. I could never get into my rhythm."
Indeed, Sampson showed all the rhythm of a guy with two left feet as he came back in during the third quarter and put up a parade of ill-conceived jumpers from the outside. Ralph's only basket was a 10-foot hook with 3:47 left in the third quarter and had all the effect of someone spitting on the Chicago fire.
By that time, Olajuwon had drawn his fourth and fifth personals, had to leave the game and the Celtics proceeded to burn it up.
Olajuwon hit 14 of 23 shots from the field and hauled down his dozen rebounds despite being dogged throughout the afternoon by four different defenders and a double- and triple-teaming blanket every time he touched the ball.
He already had 30 points when he knocked in a 15-foot turnaround from the left baseline that cut Boston's lead to 75-72 with 5:31 remaining. On the Celtics' next possession, Olajuwon drew his fourth foul on a drive by Johnson, then picked up his fifth just 33 seconds later.
If I'd have known that he was going to get his fifth foul that quickly, I definitely would have taken him out after No. 4," said Rockets Coach Bill Fitch. But you have no way of knowing. That was something that we thought about and talked about on the bench. But we decided to go with him, because it was obvious that we were a much better team with him out there on the floor."
Even minus Sampson, the Olajuwon-led Rockets were a good enough team to hang onto the Celtics' shirttails and trailed by only 61-59 at halftime.
They looked a couple of times in the first half, when they went in front by about 10, like they were going to pull away," said Mitchell Wiggins. But we surprised them and kept coming back. We showed them that we were not going to go away."
But when Olajuwon went to the bench with his fifth foul, the Rockets finally did go away.
McHale went to the line and hit two free throws to give Boston a 79-72 lead.
The Rockets then proceeded to cough up two turnovers and missed three of four shots on their next six possessions.
Houston's bad decisions, failure to make the extra pass and hurried shooting ignited Boston's running game and allowed the Celtics to move the ball.
Time and again, the Celtics simply passed the ball around the perimeter, inside and outside, and eventually found either Ainge or Johnson for open jumpers. This wasn't LA's Byron Scott the Rockets were dealing with. The Celtics made them pay, eventually pushing their lead up to 101-80 with 7:20 left in the game.
But while the Celtics guards played the hero roles, burying those shots, much of the credit belonged to Bird and Parish, who attracted the Houston double-teams.
Bird was only quietly wonderful with 13 assists and 8 rebounds, while Parish torched the Rockets for a dozen points in the second quarter.
Our guys were not two-timing and rotating properly on defense," Fitch said. We had some bad games by some people, but I still thought we were hurt more by our poor defense than our offense."
Still, the Rockets did have some rather painful offensive efforts. In addition to Sampson, Lloyd did another one of his disappearing acts, finishing with just 4 points on 2 for 5 from the field. Robert Reid had 16 points, but 10 of those were in the first quarter. Wiggins was only 3 for 7 from the field.
Meanwhile, Boston was shooting a sizzling .560 (47 of 84) and outrebounding the Rockets 42-40.
And in the end, it was just another Memorial Day. Hang out the flags and observe the traditions.
Only the menu changes for the Celtics.
To win, Rockets must mature quickly . . .
BOSTON - Harking back to his Oklahoma boyhood, Darrell Royal, the gridiron philosopher, adapted a term for situations such as this: "steady-knucks time." He recalled crucial situations in games of marbles, when the guy with the firmest knuckles under pressure would loose the surest shot.
The Rockets are a far piece removed, both literally and metaphorically, from a ring etched in the Enid top dust, but surely they can identify with the need for steady knuckles. In fact, tonight they must.
A victory over the Celtics isn't essential. Failing it, Paris won't burn, Tokyo won't re-arm and Houston won't sink. You won't have less chance of finding a job Friday than you do today. No doubt you find the thought reassuring.
If winning the NBA championship is the goal, though - and be assured these proud and competitive young men aren't happy just to be on the scene - success here tonight is as vital as air conditioning back home. Yes, we mean survival.
Unless you've been seeking employment in Saudi Arabia these past few days you're aware the Celtics don't like the 2-3-2 NBA Finals format and they haven't forgotten cratering to the Lakers at this point last year after their first-game blowout win. They say they will adopt a Game 7 approach to Game 2. That means they'll pump a few extra rounds into the corpse to make sure.
Shooting stiffs full of holes is the Celtics' strong point. They have what every sportsman covets, that essential and elusive killer instinct.
For the Rockets to avoid an 0-2 trailing position in a best-of-seven series with two games left in the Garden, they must grow up, and that's a tall order for a group which has matured enormously over the course of one season. In the case of Akeem Olajuwon especially, it's almost obscene to demand more. The circumstances, however, do exactly that.
Among the Celtics' many attributes is a magnum of experience, that soothing potion, and they hammered the Rockets' heads with it Monday as surely as with outside shooting, crisp passing and defensive pressure. More so, really, because the Rockets were still in the game until the Celtics ensnared them with their wiles.
Kevin McHale is in his sixth pro season, Larry Bird his seventh and Robert Parish his 10th. They say quite baldly they set out to put Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson in foul trouble and the measure of their success is that 112-100 Boston victory.
So effective were they that Sampson, a third-year man, was more than negated, he became a Houston liability with his erratic shooting. When Sampson fouled Bird for No. 3 the Celtics had accomplished half their main mission with 4:45 elapsed.
Fouls that appear to the naked eye the fruit of naked stupidity sometimes are instead the result of unbridled passion. Consider an entirely plausible scenario regarding the 25-year-old Sampson's state of mind:
Going into the final series, he was aching for his first championship, college or professional, eager to eliminate the stigma he has carried since his days at the University of Virginia. Yes, the one he says doesn't bother him. He had said early this season he had no patience for five-year plans, wanted to win a title now.
In addition, he basked in the glory of that last-second shot that gored the Lakers days before, letting him out of Akeem's shadow for the moment, and yearned for more adulation in the championship round. In his spot, wouldn't most of us?
And so he went out to slay the Celtics, intent on making block after steal after slam after rebound, and in his fervor played right into their hands.
Olajuwon, the 23-year-old wunderkind in his second year in the NBA, likewise can, and will, better regulate his zeal. His first and most obvious challenge is to check his temper and avoid early returns to a locker room which must be the loneliest place on Earth. He must also continue to adjust to his surroundings.
It was only eight days ago, in the fifth game of the Los Angeles series, that Coach Bill Fitch became so disenchanted with his laconic play that he benched Olajuwon for more than four minutes of the first quarter. Akeem came back a raging menace, of course, but he allowed the pendulum to swing too far and was pitched out for fighting with Mitch Kupchak.
He must learn, too, to monitor the mood of the officials and adjust his play accordingly. To date, he has instead persisted willy-nilly in playing my way" and later fumed at the injustice of his plight. He did pick up a cheap fifth foul Monday, but he got away with some others.
And then he joined Sampson in caterwauling over how the refs took them out of the game. This is usually an unproductive pursuit, valuable in winning sympathy from fanatics back home but of little use in winning games. Officials who are easily intimidated by postgame prattle usually aren't officials for long. More than talent is required to win the arbiters' grace; tenure is another requisite.
Parish, who has it, didn't absorb a foul. McHale took three, Bird four. Bill Walton, the 12th-year graybeard off the bench, suffered two whistles. The Celtics, pure and simple, have the height, the numbers and the acumen to execute their insidious plan if Olajuwon and Sampson oblige them.
By game time, their seniority will be only 78 hours more than it was for Game 1. The wisdom to play under control, but with intensity, against a more-than-worthy foe for an entire game will come, but it may take longer than that to develop. Indeed, it's unfair to ask; unfortunately, it's the only way they can prevail at steady-knucks time.
Defense is the key to Celtics' success
BOSTON - In a crowded Celtic dressing room, center Bill Walton sat on a chair with an ice pack on his sore right thigh. Walton had been forced to leave the game, limping off the court to a standing ovation.
The fans appreciated Walton's defensive effort against the Rockets' Twin Towers, but no one was more impressed with the Celtics' defensive performance than Walton.
"Defense is where our game starts," Walton said. "You watch guys like Danny Ainge, Dennis Johnson and Larry Bird darting in and out on every play trying to get their hands on the ball. What can I say, it's just a thrill to be a part of it."
The Celtics should be thrilled today after they embarrassed the Rockets again.
"I thought we played very well," forward Kevin McHale said. "We had a lot of steals and blocked shots, but it was the third quarter again that made the difference.
"It's the same story. It always seems to be that quarter. I don't know what it is. We played very aggressive, and then Larry got hot. His three-pointers really broke their back.
"This was a good, physical game. The Rockets played a lot more physical than the first game. We like games like this because we have a lot of big bodies to throw around."
The Celtics' big men limited Akeem Olajuwon to 21 points after he scored 33 in the opener. Ralph Sampson, who did not get in foul trouble, scored 18. I thought Ralph and Akeem had it going really good," McHale said. They were playing with more confidence than the first game. They were playing better, and I know they'll do even better in Houston.
When we get it going, though, find that flow, it's tough to stop us. Our defense was going well. So was our offense. We have to run, get it inside and be aggressive."
The Celtics wanted to concentrate on keeping the Rockets from fast-break baskets. That strategy worked well.
Every play, we kept saying to each other to get back, get back," Ainge said. It's not easy to limit their fast-break baskets because they've got such good rebounders. We did a good job of scoring, though. It's tough to fast break when you've got to take the ball out of the net.
In the third quarter, things were really going our way. We hit some tough shots. The ball was bouncing into our hands, and we got the breaks. It's tough when you're down by 25 points. We got the momentum. I won't say they quit, but the coach (Bill Fitch) put in the second squad.
I think the Rockets are a lot better team than they played today. Everyone in this dressing room has a lot of respect for them. We're in pretty good shape, though. Had we lost, we would be in real trouble."
Ainge and Dennis Johnson set the tempo out front, offensively and defensively. Johnson was a force on both ends of the court for the second game in a row.
Tonight was big," Johnson said. To have lost could have meant a lot of trouble for us. Now we're 2-0, and we're going to try to smoke them in the next game.
Our rotation defense was fabulous and played a big part in our second-half performance.
You know when things are going well. The third quarter was our, and it was exciting to watch. Before the series started, we planned on getting the first two wins, and that's what we got.
We weren't really thinking that this could be the last game in the Garden. We know the Rockets will be ready for the next game, and they're especially tough at home."
The Celtics got their usual well-balanced performance. Guard Jerry Sichting, who came off the bench to score 10 points, had his best game of the playoffs.
This is the best I've played in the playoffs in a long time," he said. Hopefully, it'll give me some momentum."
The Rockets are the ones who need some momentum.
I don't think they had any excuses," Sichting said. They just lost the game. If we lose to them, we're not a team that'll make excuses."
The Rockets are out of excuses for the moment.
This was a fantastic win," Coach K.C. Jones said. The last few years, when we lost the second game, disaster followed.
We were very much aware of Olajuwon and Sampson, especially Ralph. We had to try to double down on Akeem as much as possible and make him give the ball up. He takes that ball away but a very high percentage of those still go in.
Sampson was ready to go tonight, and so was Akeem, but we withstood their best shot, and now we have to do the same thing again on Sunday."
Bird soars as Celtics sprint in front by 2-0
BOSTON - If the Rockets only wanted a mountain to climb, they could have tried the lofty peak of Everest. If they wanted merely any river to cross, they could have taken on the mighty Mississippi.
But it is now obvious that the Rockets have gotten in way too deep and over their heads after once more failing to scale the Boston Celtics.
This time the Rockets were buried under a 117-95 avalanche Thursday night before a sellout crowd of 14,890 at Boston Garden in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
The Celtics lead the best-of-seven series 2-0.
Game 3 will be played Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at The Summit.
All of a sudden, the talk of the Rockets arriving ahead of schedule in the five-year plan has ceased. After two uglycollisions with the Celtics, it's back to the future for any rosy hopes.
This was the worst game of the season," said Akeem Olajuwon. I was ashamed. We didn't look like the team that brought us here."
Of course, the Celtics looked exactly like the green machine that has chewed its way through 80 wins in 96 games since October.
Boston's flag was planted in this summit, as usual, by Larry Bird.
As if he needed to, Bird went out and justified the third consecutive MVP award he won 24 hours earlier by hitting 12 of 19 shots - 3-for-5 from three-point range - in 44 minutes to finish with 31 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.
He was the inspiration for the Celtics at the start and the spark who lit their flame in a fiery 34-19 third quarter explosion.
He gets my vote as the best total player of all time," said Celtics Coach K.C. Jones. The things he can do, added to his determination and concentration and hustle.
He goes after loose balls and rebounds. And if he doesn't get the ball, he still is the first one down the other end.
What better deal can a coach have then if you have your superstar out there showing and doing exactly what has to be done to win the ball game?"
And win it the Celtics did. Though the Rockets won a slim 44-43 advantage in rebounding, the Celtics dominated every other area of the game.
It was Boston's 40th consecutive home-court win and the way the Celtics played, that string could grow to 140 before the Rockets ever break it.
The Celtics dominated Houston on the inside, capitalized on nearly every open opportunity from the perimeter, played aggressive, clawing defense and ran the fast break in the same classic fashion they've demonstrated since back in the days when the parquet floor was just old and not ancient.
Four different Celtics had 7 or more rebounds, including Kevin McHale, who was a consistent inside force, connecting on 9 of 14 shots from the field and 7 of 8 from the foul line for 25 points.
Dennis Johnson had 18 points, Danny Ainge 12 and even Jerry Sichting hit double figures with 10.
He's a bush-league player," screamed Rockets Coach Bill Fitch of Sichting during one timeout.
But it was that kind of night, where the ugliest of ducklings that Jones ran in off his bench grew into beautiful shamrock-green swans.
In fact, it was the Rockets who were clearly out of their league against Boston. They shot .413 (38 of 92) from the field and were able to stay with the Celtics for no more than one quarter.
Olajuwon finished with 21 points (17 in the first half) and 10 rebounds and Ralph Sampson 18 and 8, but the Twin Towers were no more than a pair of minor pests.
And while this may be the summer that Americans stay home to see the USA, don't expect Sampson to make any vacation plans to visit New England. In his last three games in Boston, Sampson has nearly suffered a broken back in a fall on March 24, shattered his reputation with a 1-for-13 tumble on Monday and now spilled blood on the Garden floor. During one scramble for a rebound in the second quarter, Sampson took an elbow from Boston's Robert Parish that opened up a cut that required six stitches under his left eye.
The Celtics opened their 31-30 first quarter edge to 60-50 at halftime, then rode on the wings of their team captain in the third period.
If a man could ever fly, it is Bird. At least he soared again near the limits of imagination, working inside and outside, passing, rebounding and confounding every double-teaming effort that the Rockets attempted.
In the first five minutes of the third quarter, Bird contributed 5 points, 2 assists, several skinned knees and tons of enthusiasm as he played the Rockets like a drum and worked the crowd like a maestro does the orchestra, eventually bringing down the house with his third three-pointer of the night.
By the time Bird was through for the evening, the Celtics had opened up as much as a 98-71 lead and the Rockets looked like a team that needs a lot more than the home-court advantage of Houston. They need a tourniquet.
Larry is a great player," said Fitch. Rodney McCray did not turn into a Class C citizen. But you're just not going to cover Larry Bird with one man.
When he starts getting into his rhythm, gets that picture machine going in his mind, he is in a world of his own. Nobody is going to stop him.
Until the third quarter tonight, we had kept him out of that Larry Bird backyard situation, where he is out there playing by himself."
The result is that an uphill task for the Rockets has been turned into one where they practically have to walk up the side of abuilding.
Only four teams in NBA history have ever lost the first two games of a playoff series and come back to win.
But that is now the unenviable - and improbable - task facing the Rockets.
To do it, they will need better production all around, but particularly from a backcourt that is providing the big men with no outside shooting help.
Lewis Lloyd, the self-proclaimed Magic Man, continues to be invisible, hitting just 4 of 9 for 8 points. Robert Reid was 3-for-10 for 6, Allen Leavell 2-for-7 for 5 and Steve Harris 2-for-6 for 6.
I have no words of wisdom about the third quarter," Fitch said. But I didn't think we were ever really in it in the first, second or third quarters.
We were humiliated. It's been so long, getting to the Finals and all, since this club has had a game where the bottom fell out.
But it is embarrassing to have a team dominate you like this.
Let's face it, if we play four games like we played the last two, we'll all be fishing in a week."
Perhaps they need a new hobby. For it's becoming increasingly clear that the Rockets aren't yet ready to climb mountains.
Rocket woes? Bird to blameACTUALLY, THE DEMOLITION had started long, long before the referees made the giants play skyscraper volleyball at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
The blueprint for these recent Rockets massacres has been in the developmental stages for several years now, ever since the tall guy with the lousy mustache decided he enjoyed playing basketball.
I don't know how many hours Larry Bird spent puttering around with a ball and a hoop when he was a wee tyke. But I know what I've seen the last couple of weeks as I've followed the Celtics through the obliteration of Milwaukee and now Our Darlings. The man is suffering from a terrible addiction. I would suggest a basketball detox center, immediately.
Everyone loves him in Boston but the gym janitors. He's there long before Celtics practice begins. Long after, he's picked his patsy from amongst his teammates, persuading some unfortunate green shirt to hang around a half hour or more so that Bird can play a little one-on-one.
This is unusual
His behavior is most certainly abnormal. He'll play and play and play, blithely unaware that right outside the gym windows a planet is whizzing by.
Hasn't he heard of the things that occupy the interests of most other young men in their 20s? Is there not some young lady to provide just a moment's distraction? Perhaps a new car - all these guys drop a bundle on their wheels. A new set of leather duds, maybe, a tailor in town who can whip up a sharp Italian suit for him?
No, the man is a stone junkie. He's the quintessential basketball nerd, a guy as addicted to this diversion as the Stanford engineering student is to his slide rule. Can you imagine what it would be like driving from Boston to Los Angeles with him? Seventy-two uninterrupted hours of talking hoops.
I watched him horse around with Bill Walton after Wednesday's practice. For 10 minutes or so the junkie did nothing but curl around the basket and throw up little left-handed hooks. These over a 6-11 guy who is certainly one of the top four defensive centers in .
Then he moved out 15 feet to the side and flipped in the fadeaway jumper that so frustrated Rodney McCray 24 hours later. Then he gave Walton the ball and went to work on his defense, trying to stop the power moves of a guy a couple of inches taller.
This was the routine at every practice I saw. Some days Kevin McHale would be the Bird foil, other days Walton. Every time, though, Bird was the man who wouldn't leave, staying overtime polishing what already is the best offensive game in the NBA.
Because he works twice as hard at this game as anyone else, he's become twice the player. For that reason, it is unfathomable to me that fans ever boo him.
In The Summit the audience will hoot in derision when he is introduced along with the other Celtics starters. They will cheer in unison every time he commits a foul. And all he will do for two hours is give them a basketball show that will rival anything Sinatra ever did with a microphone.
I can't understand how anyone, anywhere, could ever boo an Akeem Olajuwon or a Magic Johnson or a Julius Erving. What do these people come to the building for? The greatest athletes on Earth are giving them $1,000 of entertainment for every $10 they spend on a ticket, and the entertainers are treated like an intruder in the family bedroom.
Celtics fans welcomed Olajuwon into their presence with all the warmth they would accord the Boston Strangler. Bird will be greeted in Houston as if he was just another bum arriving in town to take someone's job.
But I digress. Did you ache for McCray like I did, watching Thursday night's horror show? I was reminded of a remark made once by Lem Barney on the difficulties of playing cornerback in the NFL.
"You feel like a man on an island," Barney said. "Everyone can see you, but no one can help you."
Time after time, the Celtics ran the isolation play with McCray the dupe. The other four Bostons while away their time on the other side of the court, taking their four Rockets with them.
That leaves McCray and Bird, as lonesome as two men on a Pacific atoll, to go at it in front of 15,000 people.
McCray knows what is coming. Everyone with functional eyeballs knows what is coming. Bird is about to undress a grown man in front of an arena full of witnesses, and the grown man is helpless to prevent it.
Rodney doesn't deserve this. He is a fine young gentleman, a studious, diligent worker who himself has toiled overtime to become a good basketball player. And yet it was happening time after time, in front of a nationwide television audience, the humiliation of one of our finest citizens by the Thing That Won't Quit.
Bird has got to be stopped. He's got to be stopped before he completely corrupts the youth of our nation. Can you imagine, five years from now, 10 million kiddies who refuse to learn their ABCs because they won't come in from the basketball court?
Come on, Larry, let up. This is un-American. A well-rounded patriot such as Ben Franklin would sneer at you in disgust. Develop a few outside interests, get your sneakers off the basketball court. Let some other people have a little fun out there sometime.
Hometown crowd got exactly what it wanted
At 1:20 p.m., nearly an hour and a half before game time, the ramp to The Summit from Greenway Plaza's underground garage began to disgorge a rainbow-colored throng, with red and gold dominating the occasional flash of green.
Greenies who came down from Boston for the game were apparently as scarce as cod's teeth. Most of those interviewed Sunday in The Summit were either former Bostonians or longtime Celtic fans from the Texas and Louisiana hinterlands that produce such freaks of nature as Dallas Cowboy rooters.
One couple in green turned out to be from Shreveport. "Robert Parrish (Celtic center) is from Shreveport," explained Fred Maddox.
"We watched him in college (Centenary) and high school (Woodlawn)," said his wife, Jo.
It was their first NBA game. Their son, a NASA employee, got the tickets. At $90 each.
Another Louisianian, Mark Talley, said, "We don't have a (basketball) team of our own, so we root for the best - Boston. Houston will probably be the champions next year, but this is the Celtics' year.
"The Rockets need to get one more good player and keep the big men (Akeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson) from commiting stupid fouls or getting hurt, and they'll be the greatest."
Mr. and Mrs. America came early for their seats - two nice people in their 50s. He was balding and sunburned and wore a pale green knit shirt; she was graying and pleasant looking, except for the T-shirt too brightly green to be an accident.
Celtic fans? Sort of. "We're Bill Walton's parents," the lady explained.
After a fabulous but injury-plagued career, Walton is now a Celtic, and Gloria and Ted Walton had come from San Diego, Calif., to see him play.
Several of what appeared to be the sports version of mixed marriages came up the ramp, unequally yoked. In couple No. 1, she was wearing a Rockets-red T-shirt, he a green pullover.
They were brother and sister, Bris and Mary Gannett. Both are from Boston, but he's lived here three years and is a die-hard Rocket fan. She's from Denver and was wearing the green. The loser would pick up the tab at the best restaurant in town tonight, he said.
A second couple, transplants from Boston, also demonstrated an internal rivalry, taking turns jumping up cheering for their respective teams.
"We're both from Boston, but I switched to a Rockets fan about halfway through my first season here," said Chuck Armstrong, adding that he likes underdogs. "I love the Rockets because they're a great, young team and they're moving up."
"He can root for anyone he wants," said his fiancee, Therese Colosi. "I'm a Celtics fan and always will be."
Another two couples were false alarms. Cathy Slattery's green shirt happened to advertise a brand of vodka - which her husband, Pete, sells.
The next husband was just careless about his clothes. "You've got five Rockets' T-shirts," his wife scolded. "Why did you pick that green one to wear?"
Most of the few Celtic fans down from Boston had bought package deals at about $800 a person. Among them were brothers Jay and John Harris, who said the trip price is a good deal, considering it covers round-trip air fare, lodging, tickets and transportation to all three Houston games.
"We went to Los Angeles last year with the same package deal, but there wasn't much to cheer about," Jay said. "We wanted to see L.A. again, but the Rockets definitely deserve to be here. I think it will be Houston in the finals again next year - and the Celtics, of course."
Like most Boston natives interviewed, John had only good to say about Houston's fans, The Summit and the city itself.
"The Summit is a nice building; the air conditioning feels great," he said. "The Garden (Boston's sports arena) has no a.c., and in the summer the temperature gets up to about 110 degrees. It's unbearable."
Also on a package trip, Bostonian Todd Finestone and wife Marian Miller predicted a 16th Celtic championship, but said they enjoy watching the finals in Houston.
"Last year we went to Los Angeles but weren't successful," Finestone said. "This year we'll take the championship - it's going to be easy."
Finestone said he preferred to be in The Summit, rather than in the Forum in Los Angeles or the Garden in Boston.
"In the Forum, the fans wanted to cut our throats (last year)," he said. "They were just vicious. The fans here are nice. Also, they don't tear the stands down like they would in Boston."
Miller said she wishes nothing but the best for the Rockets and hopes she and her husband can come back to Houston for next year's championship series. "People down here have been so nice to us," she said. "It's really a nice city."
Even die-hard Rocket fans were hedging their bets on this series with the attitude "we may not be best now, but wait until next year."
Hoke Gracely is one of those, saying he would love to see the Rockets win, but that for now he is happy just to be in the finals.
"I'd rather lose four straight in the finals than not even be here," he said. "Right now, the Celtics are the better team, but if we keep this team together and get maybe one more key player, we'll be the best.
"At least they're giving Houston something to get excited about. And who knows, we may take (the championship)."
Down below The Summit ramp before the game, another kind of green was being flashed.
Young men were holding bunches of tickets at belt level, fanned like a hand of cards, and other young men were peeling off bills from sizable wads.
"Got any tickets, man?" somebody called.
"One-oh-five, on top," said another.
"Super-Saver right here - two for $79.99."
One young man wore an advertising poster around his neck. That must have been a little too obvious even for the NBA Finals, because two men in plainclothes hustled him away. "I'm a Houston police officer," one said, "and I'm taking him to jail."
"They ain't gonna buy nothin," a competitor griped. "Ain't selling nothin today." It's still half an hour before game time, and the asking prices had fallen sharply.
"Thirty bucks front row," one guy hollered in a hesitant voice. Really? "Well, not quite the front row," he added. "This is the only ticket I have. I'm just trying to get rid of it for whatever I can."
"Everybody tryin' to make a buck," said another man, who described himself as a season ticketholder. "They ain't makin' nothin. It get closer to game time, them prices gonna really start goin' down. They'll be tryin' to get face value there at the last."
But hope springs eternal. At half time, a hawker was standing on the Edloe Street bridge, waving a fistful of tickets at passing cars.
The youngest fan in sight was 13-month-old Edwin Ralowicz. His mother, Vicki, said the cheerful-looking youngster had grown up enough not to demand a change during the Laker series. The deafening cheers and thunderous boos don't seem to faze him either, said his father, Peter. "Just give him a pretzel and he's fine," mom agreed.
Despite the educational efforts of some local sportswriters, the Houston fans booed loudly when the Celtics, especially Larry Bird, were introduced. Then they screeched like demons when it was the Rockets' turn. The din was so loud that Sharon, an usher who preferred not to give her last name, put her hands over her ears.
"The farther the Rockets have moved in the playoffs, the louder it's gotten," she said. "The fans are unbelievable."
Albert Brown, down from New York for the game, seemed to disagree about the fans' enthusiasm. "The rivalry is OK, but the crowd doesn't get into it enough," he said. "They're just not used to having a championship team."
But only when the Rockets were down by eight points with four minutes remaining did the fans become momentarily subdued.
Banners and T-shirts abounded with sayings such as "Belt The Celts," "Cage That Bird" and the encouraging "We Believe In Our Rockets." Handed out at the door and filling the arena were "BEAT BOSTON" placards, which underwent various changes depending where you looked. Some Celtic fans had cut off the "BEAT" and thanked The Summit people for free "BOSTON" signs.
Fans danced in the aisles during intermissions, screamed wildly at each good Rocket play and created a wave that flowed with hurricane force.
Even the music played throughout the game was unusual. The crowd cheered thunderously during the national anthem when it came to "and the rockets' red glare." Shortly after, Willie Nelson sang "Nowhere but Texas" and the fans let him know where their hearts were. A bagpiper in the audience played "Eyes of Texas" and "When the Saints Go Marching In" during intermissions.
As the game clock's final two seconds ticked off, with the Rockets ahead by two points, the energy in The Summit was so intense that, if you could have harnessed it, the entire city of Houston could have been supplied with electricity for a month.
Don't tell a Rocket fan he has no spirit.
Outside The Summit, the crowd was loud but peaceful as people cheered, honked horns and gave high-fives. On street corners, entrepreneurs sold T-shirts and other memorabilia to victory-drunk fans.
And on they went, the armchair sports critics, each with their personal predictions of this and championship series to come.
Bird laments poor shots in 4th period
In the first two games of the series, the third quarter belonged to Boston. Sunday's game was no different.
Trailing 62-59 at halftime, Boston began the second half with a 15-2 avalanche and appeared on its way to a third consecutive victory.
"We took control in the third quarter again," Larry Bird said. "We even had control in the fourth quarter, but we just lost it.
"We played extremely well. We didn't do a very good job of controlling the tempo at the end of the game. It's hard to lose a game like this."
Losing the lead was a combination of the Rockets playing well and the Celtics playing badly.
"They played a lot more aggressive in the third quarter," guard Dennis Johnson said. "When we got the lead, they came back hard. They hit the boards."
The Celtics had a 12-point lead in the third quarter, but the Rockets chipped away until they won the game. The Celtics insist they didn't start to take anything for granted. Considering the way they blew out the Rockets in the third quarter of the two previous games, no one could blame them if they did begin to feel particularly confident.
"You don't ever sense a victory until you play the full 48 minutes," Johnson said. "You have to attribute the way we played to the Rockets. They just played a heck of a game."
The Celtics don't plan on making the same mistakes.
"We'll be a better club in the next game," Bird said. "We'll come out a lot more fired up."
Sunday's victory should make the Rockets even more fired up.
"If I was in their situation, I'd be confident that I could win," Bird said. "We just made too many mistakes and didn't make the plays when we needed them."
The Celtics will be regrouping today in an attempt to keep the Rockets from tying the series on Tuesday.
"We didn't play that well," Johnson said. "We've got to work harder.
"Today, a win just wasn't to be. We made turnovers down the stretch. We took some bad shots, too."
The Celtics were still up by eight when Bird was wide open in the corner for a three-pointer. That was his spot.
"I missed that three-pointer, and it really hurt," Bird said. "Everything felt good. Everything was right on target. I just missed some easy shots in the second half."
The Celtics were unhappy with their performance, but they made sure to give the Rockets plenty of credit.
"We didn't let the Rockets have anything," Johnson said. "They earned everything they got. They played real well. They were patient when we got the good leads, and they moved the ball around very well."
The Celtics did not move the ball as well as usual, especially at crunch time.
"Once we got the lead, we kind of got stagnant on offense," Danny Ainge said. "We started standing around. We didn't move the ball well, and we made some turnovers. We didn't shoot well. They forced us into some bad shots. We've got to shoot the ball better in the next game."
The Celtics also have to do a better job of defensing Ralph Sampson and keeping him off the boards.
"He played better, and we didn't play him aggressively enough," Kevin McHale said. "He had a lot of rebounds, kept the ball alive. He had a very good game.
"It would have been nice to keep him under wraps, but we didn't. We've got to do a better job on him the next game. Coming down the stretch, he and Akeem (Olajuwon) did a very good job of establishing themselves in the paint and taking it to the basket."
Sampson had his best game of the series, scoring 24 points and pulling down 22 rebounds.
"He played very well, and he was a major factor in them winning," Bill Walton said. "He just played his game. He just did it better today. We're going to have to do our jobs better."
When it concerns backup center Greg Kite, the Celtics also hope the officials do a better job.
Kite, the native Houstonian who replaces Robert Parish and Walton, entered the game early in the second quarter. He took over for Parish. Kite, who was guarding Sampson, was called for five fouls during seven minutes of action in the second quarter.
"Some of those calls against Kite were ridiculous," Ainge said. "It was a situation where they were calling the fouls on the substitute and protecting the superstar.
"They were letting Ralph get away with murder. They let Ralph push and shove, and they called everything on Kite."
As Kite and Sampson ran down the floor and jockeyed for position, the referees warned them at least two times to ease up.
"You're asking the wrong person if I thought they were good calls because I'm hardly in an objective position," Kite said. "I was trying to beat Ralph down the floor to a spot and then body check him."
The frustrated Kite also was called for a technical foul.
"I think I made some mistakes," Kite said. "Once I saw how they were going to call it, I should have adjusted my defense accordingly. I should have adjusted to the way they were calling it."
The Rockets certainly adjusted to the Celtics in the fourth quarter, especially in the waning moments.
"We just didn't play well enough to win," Walton said. "We had a lot of opportunities, but we just didn't finish them off.
"When it came down the stretch in the fourth quarter, we just didn't play good basketball. We weren't aggressive on defense. The Rockets seemed to get what they wanted inside."
Now the Celtics have to make sure they get what they want on Tuesday.
"This was a game of ups and downs," Johnson said, "but we'll find a cure."
Olajuwon not satisfied with win, wants to bury opponent
Akeem Olajuwon did not come to edge the Boston Celtics, but to bury them.
"I am not happy yet," Olajuwon said after the Rockets had beaten Boston 106-104 to tighten the NBA Finals at 2-1.
"I don't think we have played our game yet in this series. I know we can do it and show people the kind of game that has won us so many games all year.
"But right now, we are still having problems. We are getting the rebounds, but we have not been able to get out with them and run.
"This game was good because we needed it to stay in the series with them. But I can't be happy, because I don't like this where we just win the game. It was too risky. It could have gone either way.
"When we come Tuesday night, I don't want to have another game like this. I want to really beat them."
By what, 20 or 30 points?
"Oh," said Olajuwon, "it doesn't have to be that much. But it would be nice."
Olajuwon said he was not offended by the Celtics pre-Game 3 talk of a sweep.
By the way they played and we played in the first two games in Boston, I could see their point in talking about a sweep," he said. If we were in that same position, leading 2-0, then we would have been thinking about a sweep over them, too.
But all I know is that now it is 2-1. They can't sweep us now. And if we can get it on Tuesday, this will be tied and they'll really be worrying."
NOTES - The loss was only the second in 15 playoff games for the Celtics. Boston is now 30-4 since March 11 and 80-17 on the season . . .Game 5, which is now a certainly will, be played Thursday at 8 p.m at The Summit. Game 6, if necessary, would be Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at Boston Garden . . .The capacity crowd of 15,876 was smaller than usual at The Summit. That's because the NBA took up 140 seats in the stands to use for the media. There have been more than 400 media credentials given out for the series dots Referee Jake O'Donnell offered a brief explanation on his inadvertent whistle with seven seconds left in the game that resulted in a jump ball at midcourt: It was an inadvertent whistle. When the ball is loose and they're an inadvertent whistle, it becomes a jump ball in the center circle between any two players." . . .Willie Nelson, with his left hand in a cast from a bicycle accident, was introduced before the game while a tape recording of "No Place But Texas" played over the PA system. A legal problem prevented Nelson from actually performing live . . . There is no truth to the rumor that a poster of Waylon Jennings will be held up to the crowd at midcourt while a record plays before Game 4.
. . .Bill Fitch drew his 13th technical foul of the season and second of the playoffs with 4:32 left in the second quarter when he complained to Joey Crawford.
Boston's Greg Kite picked up a technical with three seconds left in the first half from Jake O'Donnell. The Rockets are now 5-5 on the season when Crawford officiates and 6-2 with O'Donnell.
The Rockets are now 5-5 on the season when Crawford officiates and 6-2 with O'Donnell.
The Rockets victory Monday ensured a fifth game on Thursday. Tickets for Game 5 go on sale at 10 a.m. today at the Astrodome (not The Summit) box office. Tickets can also be purchased at the Downtown Ticket Center, Houston Sports Exchange, Showticks, Theater Under the Stars, Soundwaves, Texas Tapes and Records and Off the Wall Records and Tapes. . . .Celtic forward Kevin McHale on what losing Monday's game means to Boston: If we'd have won this game, it's tough to come back from 3-0. Now my motto is to win Tuesday. It's tough to come back from 3-1. This is a game we wanted here, but we had a couple of missed passes and miscues that changed things. I think the Rockets will come back and play even better Tuesday night, but I think we will, too. I don't think you'll see us shoot 42 percent again. We had them down by 10 and let them up. We don't normally let people up. I thought we had the game with a couple of minutes left when we were up by five." Rocket guard Robert Reid on Ralph Sampson's 22 rebounds and outlet passes: I got tired of calling out his name. Every time he got the ball, it was Ralph, right here.' " Rocket Coach Bill Fitch said the first-half fouls on the Boston big men, including center Robert Parish, who had three, could have contributed to Houston's slow start in the third quarter. Possibly we got ourselves in trouble the first two offensive plays of the third quarter, standing around and trying to isolate on Parish," Fitch said.
The Rockets were convinced that the Celtics still haven't seen the Houston machine working on all cylinders. "This is worth a whole lot of confidence," said Lewis Lloyd. "This is what we needed to get back on track. It lets us know that we can play with these guys. We still haven't played our best yet. The results were good today, but we still haven't played our best yet." . . .Added Allen Leavell: "They saw us in spurts that only lasted 4 or 5 or 6 minutes. We can still play a lot better - but then, so can they."
Bird made `the' shot when the chips were down
THE TAUNTS, THE jeers, were coming in tidal waves from the 16,000 pillared up around him. It was sort of like a bear captured by the Roman legions, then paraded through the streets back home for the mobs to berate.
Larry Bird had been lousy, let's be honest. Throughout the second half, perhaps the best player in the history of basketball had little impact on the game.
Yes, yes, everyone will remind today that he does all the "little things" when he isn't scoring, but for most of the final two quarters Tuesday night, he had been a quiet participant indeed. He had contributed only two assists and four points in the second half, and that's not Larry Bird basketball. That's not even Tweety Bird basketball.
It was almost as if he was trying to effect the maximum drama. If he had been playing his normal Birdian basketball, the game might have gotten out of hand early. However, thanks in large part to an entangling net the Rockets threw over him in unison, here the game was, down to the 2:30 mark, and it was still tied at 101.
It was time for Bird to dramatically thwart the Bird-busters. He was about to shoot the fatal arrow from the Bird longbow, the one that would subdue the plucky Rockets with finality.
The play began with the Rockets running their kamikaze defense at any Celtic who touched the ball. The Bostons passed the ball around from hand to hand, finally creating a mismatch with Rodney McCray stationed down low on Bill Walton.
Realizing a pal was in trouble, Akeem Olajuwon dropped back inside to help his little buddy McCray. That was like leaving Willie Sutton all alone at midnight to guard your bank.
For there was the blond bomber, Bird, suddenly all alone out at the three-point line. It was as lonesome as Bird had been all night, the first time he wasn't shadowed like a Libyan jogging on the White House grounds.
Walton noticed. Walton flipped him a pass, Bird launched it with that funny little 45-degree-angle body turn, and it settled softly, devastatingly, into the basket without disturbing a single twine.
The difference in the score was now three points. Three points is Mount Everest late in the game, a maddening obstacle that confounds strategy and reduces your offense to a helter-skelter, fire-and-pray sort of thing.
It was a mountain the Rockets never could scale. It was "the" play, the one shot that may very well have won the series.
Today most of the talk will be about Bill Walton's determined offensive rebound on Boston's next series and the layup it produced, but it was Bird's three-pointer that broke the hearts, and the backs, of the Rockets in the game's most critical moment.
"Larry was waiting and waiting and waiting, and then `wham,' " said teammate Kevin McHale.
"That was unbelievable. That was the one that broke them."
Bird, naturally, tried to shrug it off. He gets bored talking about Bird Believe-It-Or-Nots. This one, as monumental as it was, didn't provoke a great deal of analytical discourse.
"It wasn't a designed play," he said, overstating the obvious. "It was just what happened out there.
"We moved the ball around and swung it to me. The shot clock was running down and I had to shoot it.
"I shot it and it went in."
And Neil Armstrong just took a little step off a ladder on the day he touched his foot on the moon.
In the Rocket locker room, Robert Reid was saying, "That wasn't the shot that beat us. We let Walton get the big rebound, that was the play that hurt."
That was the play that hurt, only because it once again gave the Celtics a three-point lead. It was a three-point lead gained on the preceding possession by Bird's rainbow.
A team down by three points in the final minute is staring down the barrel of a cannon, needing two baskets, two possessions, to overcome the deficit, or else a similar three-point play.
What effect did it have on the Rockets? Only that, when the Rockets got possession for the final time of the evening, they had to scramble around 23 feet from the basket trying to get off a miracle shot, instead of being able to methodically work the whole court for the much more feasible two-point play.
They couldn't pull it off. The Celtics, ahead by three, didn't have to worry about the area of the court inside the three-point line. All they had to do was settle into the trench within 3 feet of that line, then dare the Rockets to get off a bomb that would tie the game.
The Rockets never came close, a pass from Mitchell Wiggins to Ralph Sampson finally hitting Kevin McHale's waving arm and falling to the floor. From there Dennis Johnson plucked it up, and at the same time plucked away the Rockets' chance for a victory.
The Rockets have to be damning themselves today. They played a beautiful game, despite their .434 shooting percentage. They were at home in front of their fanatical brethren, they did an outstanding job putting the game's best player in leg irons.
And yet, like some sort of besneakered Houdini, he still managed to wriggle out just in time to win the game. It was a maddening turn of events for the unfortunate Rockets. Bears in chains are still dangerous, and so is a Bird that hasn't yet been winged.
