CELTICS ARE KNOCKED OUT BY PISTONS, 95-90

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1988/06/04/celtics-are-knocked-out-by-pistons-95-90/66bf0045-89ef-456c-ab78-3f63e909167c/

By Michael Wilbon - June 4, 1988

PONTIAC, MICH., JUNE 3 -- The Detroit Pistons had seen too many Boston Celtics escape acts to let this blessed chance get away. The Pistons had seen the Celtics take games, series, even championships after they were left for dead.

The Pistons, victims themselves as recently as last season, promised they wouldn't give the Celtics another chance to breathe, and kept their word. With the third largest crowd in NBA playoff history on hand, the Pistons proved beyond doubt tonight they are the best team in the East by eliminating the Celtics, 95-90, in Game 6.

Those who thought the Celtics, in what would be Coach K.C. Jones last game, were up for one more improbable, inspirational, non-sensical victory knew better shortly into the second half, by which time the Pistons had run off to a 17-point lead.

The two teams, with Detroit's Dennis Rodman and Boston's Brad Lohaus in the middle, got into a mini-brawl early in the fourth. But nothing, including Celtic frustrations or fists, could keep the Pistons from advancing to the NBA finals for the first time in franchise history.

Certainly, it was a bitter ending to a four-year dominance of the NBA Eastern Conference for the Celtics, who had to play all but six minutes without center Robert Parish, who had to leave the game after suffering a bruised knee.

The Celtics clearly missed Parish, but Detroit's swarming defense probably would have stifled them anyway. With Danny Ainge benched because he missed 10 of 11 shots, and Bird suffering through yet another poor shooting night, four-for-17, Detroit was able to hold on and become the first Eastern Conference team in this decade other than Boston or Philadelphia to advance to the NBA finals.

"I didn't think any team could do to us defensively what Detroit did," said Boston forward Kevin McHale, whose 33 points tonight just weren't enough. "It's time now for us to look back and say they are the better team. We just couldn't muster up a way to win."

Detroit's reward for not letting the Celtics off the mat, for winning this series four games to two, is three days off before meeting the winner of Saturday's Game 7 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks.

The Pistons, as they usually do, had several heroes. They were led in scoring by guard Vinny Johnson, who made eight of nine shots during one stretch in the second half.

It didn't matter that forward Rick Mahorn didn't score at all, or that Isiah Thomas had only eight points, or that John Salley and Rodman combined for just seven. It didn't matter because the Pistons have become a most resourceful team, a team that knows now there are many ways to win if you just know where to look.

Tonight, Detroit looked to Johnson, who hit 10 of 15 field goals for his team-high 24 points. Adrian Dantley, who will be playing in the first NBA championship series of his 12-year career, complemented Johnson with 22 points of his own.

"What makes them so tough to stop is that you never know where it's going to come from," Bird said. "Vinny's been silent for two or three games, and tonight he goes wild."

Or as Detroit Coach Chuck Daly said, "He got in one of those modes where he was just on fire."

Scoring, however, wasn't the story of this game. Detroit's defense was. The Celtics shot 37.6 percent and failed to score 100 points for the fifth time in six games. McHale, who nailed 12 of his 20 shots, was the only Celtics regular above 50 percent. The Boston backcourt of Ainge and Dennis Johnson missed 27 of 33 shots.

"My thing this whole series," Daly said, "has been that you don't have to score {big}to win. For about seven years {with Philadelphia and now Detroit} I've been involved with playing against Bird. We used a lot of films and made some commitments, stronger commitments to defense."

Detroit fell behind early and trailed, 25-21, at the end of the first quarter. But Johnson's six quick points off the bench, plus baskets by Rodman and a three-point play by center James Edwards -- all reserve players -- sent the Pistons into a run that carried them to a 29-25 lead. They never again trailed.

Boston got within two, 48-46, at halftime, but it was apparent the Celtics didn't have the offensive firepower, or the bench-help to put on a second-half burst.

Before long, Detroit was up to a 10-point lead, 62-52, that climbed to 88-71.

The Celtics say they missed Parish; "Mark Acres plays hard, but he isn't the shot-blocker and scorer Robert is," Ainge said. But Parish had been ineffective throughout the series, and the Celtics weren't about to use his absence as an excuse.

"They got a tough break tonight when Parish went down," Daly volunteered. They played valiantly, but they were a little shorthanded and a little tired."

Jones' five-year coaching career with the Celtics was over, as was Boston's stronghold on the NBA Eastern Conference, a grip that goes back to 1983 when Moses Malone, Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers advanced. The fact that this was Jones' final game will probably keep the second-guessers from asking why, with 55 seconds left, he would remove McHale and Bird from the lineup in an obvious act of concession, while Boston was within two three-point baskets from tying the game.

McHale, who is friendly with at least two Pistons -- Thomas and Salley -- sternly told the Pistons to go out and step in the Lakers' faces.

But Ainge, who missed 16 of his last 17 shots, was one of several Celtics who was in no mood to congratulate or wish the Pistons good luck in the NBA finals.

"Can I wish them good luck? No," Ainge said. "It's just hard for me to root for them, that's all. I don't like the Detroit Pistons. We put up a good effort, and got beat by a better team. I will say that. They've proven they're the better team. But it's tough to lose to anybody, and losing to the Detroit Pistons makes it even worse."