Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 5, 1993 TAG: 9305050030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Does that mean their season is over? Not so fast, say the Celtics, describing how they must keep tonight's Game 4 of their opening NBA playoff series against Charlotte a half-court struggle.
Can the Hornets serve their sellout crowd another Boston cream pie as they did Monday night when Dell Curry served up a jump-shooting feast? After becoming the first of the four most-recent expansion teams to win a playoff game, can they now be the first to win a series?
Certainly, the Charlotte Coliseum was abuzz with that possibility after the 119-89 crunching of Boston in Game 3. For tonight's game, the 2,300 seats that don't belong to season-ticket holders were sold in 11 minutes. That will make 196 straight sellouts at the so-called Hive.
The Celtics aren't impressed. They've sold out 582 straight at the Boston Garden - since December 1980, when soon-to-retire Kevin McHale was a rookie. McHale and fellow veteran Robert Parish saw a Game 3 wreck like Monday's game nine years ago, when Boston lost by 33 to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals - then came back to win the title.
The Celtics perish? Parish, the thought:
"They should be celebrating the way they played," Boston's "Chief" of the paint said, having taken several mental snapshots of the repeated fist-pumping by the Men of Teal. "They were doing all that high-fiving and stuff. They were trying to humiliate us. Hopefully, that will be like a salt in a wound to us. That got us p----- off."
It didn't get them back into the game, however.
"We stunk up the place," Parish said. "We played poor on offense, defense, shot selection and turnovers. It was a complete inability to get anything going."
McHale smartly summed up what will be the 457th playoff game in Celtics history.
"You don't have to be Einstein," said the Hall of Fame-to-be forward, "to figure out we need to play well."
Yes, the Celtics were embarrassed, but they are not going solo in the stunning developments in the NBA's best-of-five opening round. Six of the eight higher-seeded clubs lost their home-floor advantages. Since the NBA went to best-of-five first rounds in 1984, teams with the homecourt advantage are 54-18 in series success.
The Hornets have won two straight, but it may have been their first-game loss that put them in position to clinch tonight and start the conference semifinals - perhaps as early as Sunday in New York.
"What we learned in Boston was how we had to raise our intensity level," Charlotte coach Allan Bristow said. "Playoff basketball is different. The Celtics know what that is. Chicago knows, New York knows. Now, we know. It's something you have to experience to be able to win. There's no room for complacency in the playoffs."
Whatever happens in this series, there's no question that the Hornets and Celtics are franchises headed for different fortunes in the near future. Charlotte has the youngest regular unit in the playoffs and needs just one tough small forward who can rebound to be a conference finals contender. In Boston, Lewis' heart abnormalities have likely ended his career. McHale is retiring, and Parish soon will follow.
There was a notion Monday night that some Celtics had accepted the bad news about Lewis as defeat. However, the short-term problem for Boston has been the woeful perimeter shooting - 26-of-67 - by starting guards Sherman Douglas and Dee Brown.
"I've never used any excuse since I've been here, and I'm not going to start now," Celtics coach Chris Ford said.
"Everyone's concerned about Reggie and his health," McHale said. "The excuse is sitting right there on the table, if you want to use it. But that's too easy. The reality is, guys here better suck it up and play better basketball."
The Celtics have been here before. At this point, that may be their only advantage.
by CNB