The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 302 The Other Side

While Hakeem 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 all vying for the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics easily but somewhat awkwardly defeated the Chicago Bulls in the first round, allowing Jordan to score 63 points and losing a game in Chicago.

The Celtics are very strong, as evidenced by their 68-14 record. They have a strong desire to win the championship, and like the Lakers last year, their Finals defeat has motivated the whole team to achieve something this year.

But Jordan used a victory to pry open a crack in the Celtics' strong exterior, revealing the team's slightly weaker side.

Of course, every team has weaknesses; the key is whether you can hide them well and not let your opponent discover them throughout a series.

Even if the opponent discovers your weaknesses, you cannot let them exploit them. You must strive to find your opponent's weaknesses and attack and harm each other. This is the cruelty of the playoffs.

The Celtics' opponent in the semifinals is the Detroit Pistons, who narrowly defeated the Atlanta Hawks 3-2 in the first round. In the crucial Game 4 in Detroit, Melvin Turpin and Dominique Wilkins fought their way into the stands and were both ejected.

The Hawks, who had been leading and had a chance to win Game 4 and take the series 3-1, were reversed by the Pistons while missing their key players, dragging the series into a do-or-die situation.

Isaiah Thomas had a breakout game in Game 5, scoring 38 points to help the Pistons defeat the Hawks on the road and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

After the "Silver Dome Massacre," Tepin seemed to have opened the door to a new world. He became increasingly aggressive and adept at provoking his opponents during matches.

He unleashed the negative energy he had accumulated in his childhood through basketball. Although he remained quiet, gentle, and even somewhat shy off the court, he became more and more like a beast on the court.

In fact, every basketball player, especially the inside players, is a formidable strongman. Whether they can use violence effectively depends not on their strength and skills, but on their own character and whether they can break through certain constraints.

Turpin has clearly figured something out; he's thriving in Detroit and dominated the semifinals in the historic Boston Garden.

In their first match, he knocked out Kevin McHale without the referee noticing.

The two clashed, but Turpin just smiled and coldly watched the agitated McHale and the shouting Auerbach on the sidelines before returning to the game.

He grew a beard and weighed less than he did with the Clippers, but he looked much more imposing, standing at 6 feet 11 inches and weighing 260 pounds, which made McHale and Parish somewhat unable to handle him.

The Celtics, relying on their strong frontcourt and home-court advantage, won two straight games at Boston Garden, taking a 2-0 lead over the Pistons.

After the second game, Melvin Tping bluntly told reporters, "The Celtics are strong, but they're not as good as they seem. People always talk about how ruthless they are in order to win, like what Auerbach did. It's nothing special. They can win with those things only because their opponents are too intimidated. When you're not intimidated by anything, especially not a shabby place like Boston Garden, there's nothing to be afraid of."

Turpin's comments caused quite a stir after the game, with the notoriously scathing Boston media launching a full-scale attack on him. Larry Bird said, "He must have had his brain damaged by Forrest Gump, causing his speech to become disordered. We're going to kill them."

Bird has said a lot of witty and funny trash talk, but he can also be very rude at times, saying some really tasteless swear words.

And it wasn't in private, but in public.

The last notable instance was when he hurled profanities at Moses Malone at the 81 NBA Finals rally.

Later, Moses Malone developed a grudge against the Celtics, and after joining the 76ers, he had many conflicts with the Celtics during games, and once he almost got into a fight with Auerbach.

Bird's outburst of profanity in front of the media again suggests he was quite exasperated, which is indeed the case; he was very unhappy with the playoffs.

In the first round, Jordan scored 63 points against them, and then they lost a game.

Starting in the second round, the Pistons already had Laimbeer, which was annoying enough, but now they had to add Melvin Trent to the mix.

Bird felt more and more that the young people of '84 were so unruly and impolite.

If we're talking about the most hated character, it has to be Forrest Gump of the Trail Blazers, the instigator.

In 1984, this new generation of players, led by Forrest Gump, was rapidly challenging and disrupting the existing order of the NBA.

Their playing style, personality, and philosophy are completely different from the older generation of players, leading to constant conflicts both on and off the field.

When something that was once glamorous is shattered, those who once avoided it out of fear will all want to come and kick it while it's down.

Bird was a very perceptive person. Unlike those who just focused on playing basketball, he could see some trends.

The Rockets and Trail Blazers in the West, and the Pistons and Bullets in the East, all rose rapidly under the leadership of this group of young players.

The Lakers-Celtics' hard-earned dominance in the East and West is being shaken by these young players.

Of course, Bird and Johnson did the same when they first entered the league, sweeping away all the old guys and not taking them seriously at all.

But these newcomers are rising too fast just as they're getting older. Bird entered the league relatively late; he's 29 this year and has the lumbar spine of a 35-year-old.

In the third game, the Pistons traveled to Detroit and, at the Silver Top Center, relied on their aggressive defense and sharp offense to defeat the Boston Celtics.

Because Marquez Johnson wasn't tall enough to play inside, Bird had to play power forward, a job he often did in his early years.

In the 1981 Finals, he was even able to guard Moses Malone, preventing him from grabbing offensive rebounds, and he accomplished the task very well.

But at that time, Moses Malone weighed only 230 pounds, which Bird could handle.

Melvin Turpin weighs over 260 pounds and is as fierce as a wild boar.

His offensive skills weren't outstanding, but he dared to fight back and go toe-to-toe with McHale and Bird.

Many players, especially young players, are afraid to physically confront renowned superstars like Bird, fearing they will humiliate themselves and suffer psychological attacks.

Teppin wasn't afraid at all. Even Forrest Gump wasn't afraid, so what did he have to be afraid of? He was just going to go for it. Go ahead and hit me if you dare.

The Celtics were harassed and overwhelmed, losing two games in Detroit. It wasn't until the fifth game back in Boston that they thrashed the Pistons at Boston Garden and won the pivotal Game 5.

However, at this point, the Los Angeles Lakers were defeated by Ralph Sampson's buzzer-beater, and Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were eliminated, leaving the Celtics unable to avenge their loss to the Lakers in the Finals.

Bird felt just as disappointed as Gan Guoyang, but he also had a stronger sense of crisis: the era that belonged to him, Magic Johnson, the Celtics, and the Lakers was passing by in a flash.

In Game 6, Larry Bird scored 40 points at the Silver Top Center, his first 40-point game of the playoffs, leading the Celtics to victory and eliminating the Pistons to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

But Bird wasn't particularly happy after the game because he scored a lot of points, which wasn't the pace of the game he preferred.

In the 1984 season when they won the championship, Bird never scored 40 points in a playoff game, and his highest score was only 39 points.

In the 85 season, when they lost to the Lakers, Bird scored 40 points in 3 games, but the team as a whole was not as good as the Lakers and lost the Finals.

Bird's scoring average dropped to 25 points per game this season from 28 points last season. He had more assists and steals, but fewer rebounds because he played more at the small forward position.

Kevin McHale mentioned the starting position, while Marquez Johnson can play the power forward position. He is a very strong rebounder and a very well-rounded forward.

However, in the playoffs, facing increasingly intense competition, Marquez Johnson struggled and sometimes Bird had to step up to the power forward position.

At this point, Bird might miss Maxwell, who was taller, heavier, and better suited for the power forward position.

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

Everything is irreversible. Maxwell was unhappy with the Clippers, while Walton was doing well with the Trail Blazers, who will face the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals.

The Celtics are also waiting for their Eastern Conference Finals opponents, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Washington Bullets, who fought all the way to a Game 7.

Charles Barkley redeemed himself in this playoff run by leading the Bullets past the first round and defeating the 76ers without Moses Malone.

Before the semifinals, Barkley went on a trash-talking spree, making all sorts of statements to the media in an attempt to provoke the Bucks.

However, Barkley clearly didn't grasp the essence of trash talk, and his indiscriminate output failed to hit the Bucks' weak points.

His counterpart, Terry Cummins, was not a hot-tempered person. Since 1977, Cummins had been a Pentecostal pastor.

This tall, stern-faced man, who had always been a pastor spreading the gospel, was completely unmoved by Barkley's trash talk.

Before Game 7 began, Barkley's grandmother and mother told him to stop saying those stupid things in the media. Barkley had to awkwardly announce that his trash-talking career was over.

Game 1 was an amazing battle, with both sides giving their all. Barkley had 29 points, 17 rebounds, and 5 assists, but Gus Williams missed the game-winning shot, and they lost by one point.

When the game ended, Charles Barkley acted as if the game wasn't over, returning to the bench to wait for the coach to give instructions and continue the game.

But while the Bucks players were cheering and celebrating, the audience began to leave, and the Bullets players headed to the locker room, leaving only Barkley sitting there blankly.

It wasn't until Rick Mahorn came over, put his arm around Barkley, and said a few words that he got up from the bench and left, marking the end of Charles's 1986 season.

(End of this chapter)