The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 341 - 76: The Other Side

While Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets awaited the start of the Western Conference Finals in Portland, in the East, the Celtics, Pistons, Bullets, and Bucks were advancing towards the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics had an easy but somewhat embarrassing first round as they passed the Chicago Bulls. They were scorched by Jordan with 63 points and also lost a game in Chicago.

The Celtics were incredibly powerful, their 68-14 record was proof. They had a strong desire to win the championship and, like the Lakers last year, last year’s finals loss motivated the entire team to make achievements this year.

But with one victory, Jordan pried open a tiny crack in the formidable shell of the Celtics, peering into the slightly weaker part of the team.

Of course, every team has its weak spots; the question is whether you can hide them well and not let the opponents find out during a series.

Even if discovered by the opponents, they should not be easily utilized. You need to work hard to find the opponent’s weaknesses and then attack and harm each other, which is the cruel nature of the playoffs.

The Celtics’ semifinal opponent was the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons had a hard-fought victory over the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, 3:2— key Game Four, in Detroit, saw Melvin Turpin and Dominique Wilkins brawling their way into the stands, with both players ejected from the game.

Leading the whole way and with the chance to secure the series 3:1 in Game Four, the Hawks, without their core player, were turned around by the Pistons, dragging the series into a decisive Game Five.

Isiah Thomas exploded in Game Five, scoring 38 points, helping the Pistons beat the Hawks away from home, advancing to the Eastern Semifinals.

After the "Silverdome Massacre," Turpin seemed to have opened the gates to a new world. He became more combative and was good at provoking opponents during games.

He completely vented the negative energy acquired from his childhood through basketball. Although off the court he was still quiet, gentle, and even a bit shy, on the court he became more and more like a beast.

In fact, every basketball player, especially those in the interior positions, are terrifyingly strong men. Whether or not they use violence depends not on strength and skill, but on personality and the ability to break certain shackles.

It seems that Turpin had come to terms with certain things. He thrived in Detroit and, in the semifinals, "went on a rampage" at the old Boston Garden.

In the first game of the series, he took down Kevin McHale in action, and the referees didn’t spot it.

A conflict erupted between the two, but Turpin just smiled in the end, then looked coldly at the emotional McHale and the yelling Auerbach on the sidelines, continuing to focus on the game.

He had grown a beard, was lighter than during his time with the Clippers, but he appeared more robust with a height of 6 feet 11 inches and a weight of 260 pounds, which even McHale and Parrish had trouble coping with.

Still relying on the powerful strength of their front court and the home-court advantage, the Celtics took two consecutive victories at the Boston Garden, leading the Pistons with a big score of 2:0.

After the end of the second game, Melvin Turpin told reporters, "The Celtics are strong, but they’re not as good as they seem. People always rave about their unscrupulousness for victory, like the things Auerbach does. In fact, there’s nothing remarkable about it. They can win with these tactics only because their opponents are restrained, intimidated by them. Once you are not intimidated by anything, especially not by a shabby place like the Garden, there’s nothing to fear."

Turpin’s remarks caused quite a stir post-game, with the always acerbic Boston media unleashing on him. Larry Bird said, "He must’ve gotten his brain scrambled by Ah Gan, leading to a disarray in his linguistic functions. We will crush them."

Bird had delivered many clever and interesting trash talks, but sometimes he was quite rude, saying some very distasteful dirty words.

And not just privately, but in public.

The last notable instance was in ’81 during the finals rally where he cursed Moses Malone with swear words.

Latter, Malone bore a grudge against the Celtics, and after joining the 76ers, there were no shortage of clashes with the Celtics—one time nearly coming to blows with Auerbach.

This time Bird’s public outburst showed he might be somewhat desperate; in fact, that was indeed the case, as Bird felt quite frustrated in this year’s playoffs.

In the first round, he was burned by Jordan’s 63 points, and then they lost a game.

As the second round started, having to deal with Bill Lan Bi’er from the Pistons was annoying enough, let alone adding a Melvin Turpin to the mix.

Bird increasingly felt that the younger generation from ’84 just didn’t have any manners or respect.

If you’re talking about the most hated, it had to be Ah Gan from the Trail Blazers, the culprit.

The 1984 rookies, under the leadership of Ah Gan, were rapidly challenging and disrupting the established NBA order.

Their style of play, personality, and ideals were dramatically different from the older generation of players, resulting in conflicts on and off the court.

When some revered things are broken, those who once feared and avoided will want to come over and trample on them a few times.

Bird was someone with sharp insight. Unlike those who burrowed into their games, he could see some trends clearly.

The Rockets and Trail Blazers in the West, the Pistons and Bullets in the East—all were rapidly rising under the leadership of these young players.

The East-West dominance painstakingly established by the Lakers and Celtics was being shaken by these youngsters.

Of course, when Bird and Johnson first entered the League, they too were like this, sweeping away the old guys before them, without any respect.

But when they were about to become the old guys themselves, these new players were rising up a bit too quickly.

Bird entered the League a bit late, and this year he was 29 years old, with a 35-year-old spine.

In the third game heading to Detroit at the Silverdome, the Pistons relied on brutal defense and sharp offense to defeat the Bostonians and take a victory.

Because Marques Johnson wasn’t tall enough to play in the paint, Bird had to step up to the power forward position, a role he often played in his early years.

In the 1981 finals, he even managed to contain Moses Malone, preventing him from grabbing offensive rebounds and completing the task very well.

But at that time, Malone’s weight was just over 230 pounds, and Bird could hold his own against him.

Whereas Melvin Turpin weighed over 260 pounds, fierce like a wild boar.

His offensive skills were not outstanding, but he dared to confront, to face up against McHale and Bird.

Many players, especially younger players, did not dare to tangle with stars like Bird, fearing humiliation and psychological attacks.

Turpin wasn’t afraid at all. If Ah Gan wasn’t scared, what was there for him to be afraid of? He just went for it, as if to say, "Hit me if you dare?"

The Celtics were harassed and confused in Detroit, losing two games in a row until the fifth game back in Boston. They managed to thrash the Pistons at the Boston Garden and win the crucial battle for victory.

However, at this time, the Los Angeles Lakers were defeated by a buzzer-beater from Ralph Sampson, and Magic Johnson and Jabbar were eliminated, which meant the Celtics couldn’t seek revenge against the Lakers in the finals.

Bird, like Gan Guoyang, felt extremely disappointed, and he also had a stronger sense of crisis: the era belonging to him and Magic, the Celtics and the Lakers, was passing by swiftly.

In the sixth game, Larry Bird scored 40 points at the Silverdome. It was the first time he had scored 40 points in the playoffs that season, and the Celtics won the series, eliminating the Pistons and advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.

But after the game, Bird wasn’t particularly happy, as scoring a lot of points wasn’t the game tempo he preferred.

In their championship 1984 season, Bird never scored 40 points in the playoffs; the highest he got was 39 points.

And in the ’85 season, when they lost to the Lakers, Bird scored 40 points in three games, but in the end, the team as a whole lagged behind the Lakers and lost the finals.

This season, Bird’s average points dropped from 28 points last season to 25, his assists and steals increased, but his rebounds decreased, as he played more often at the small forward position.

Kevin McHale was brought up to the starting lineup, and Marques Johnson could take the power forward position. He was a strong and versatile forward with a great rebounding ability.

However, in the playoffs, faced with increasingly tough opposition, Johnson sometimes struggled, and Bird sometimes had to step up to the power forward position.

At those times, Bird found himself missing Maxwell, who was taller and heavier and better suited for the power forward spot.

And, as Auerbach always mentioned, "It would have been great if we had signed Bill Walton."

Nothing could be changed anymore. Maxwell was unhappy with the Clippers, and Walton was doing well with the Trail Blazers; they were about to meet the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals.

The Celtics were also waiting for their Eastern Conference Finals opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Washington Bullets, who fought all the way to a decisive seventh game.

Charles Barkley redeemed his reputation from the controversy of pushing out the coach in this postseason, leading the Bullets to overcome the first round and defeat the 76ers, who were missing Moses Malone.

In the semifinals, Barkley talked trash crazily before the game, saying all kinds of things to the media to provoke the Bucks.

But clearly, Barkley hadn’t mastered the essence of trash talk; his indiscriminate output didn’t hit the Bucks’ sore spot.

The Bucks’ Terry Cummings wasn’t a hot-headed person. Since 1977, he had always been a pastor of the Pentecostal Church.

This tall man with a stern, almost fierce face had always spread the gospel as a pastor, so he was completely unfazed by Barkley’s trash talk.

By the time Game 7 began, even Barkley’s grandmother and mother told him to stop making those foolish remarks to the media, and he had to awkwardly announce the end of his career in trash-talking.

Game 7 was a tremendous battle, with both sides giving it their all. Barkley got 29 points, 17 rebounds, and 5 assists, but Gus Williams missed the game-winner, losing by a single point.

When the game ended, Charles Barkley sat on the bench as if the match wasn’t over, waiting for the coach to set up the tactics, ready to continue playing.

But the Bucks were celebrating, the crowd was leaving, and the Bullets players were heading to the locker room. Only Barkley still sat there, dumbfounded.

It wasn’t until Rick Mahorn came over and said a few words to him that he got up from the bench and left. Charles’s 1986 season had come to an end.