Celtics @ Clippers 12-26-89

Celtics @ Clippers 12-26-89

sixth straight home win. Recently acquired Ron Harper has been blistering opponents as his secondyear pro Danny Manning. They’ll take on the Celtics next. Greetings to you wherever you may be watching NBA basketball on TNC tonight. The Boston Celtics come calling to the Los Angeles Clippers. It’s an old and true adage in the NBA is you should win at home. And if you want to be in the playoffs and win a championship, you better win on the road. Both of these teams don’t have that adage in hand this year. Boston only four wins on the road and the Clippers have yet to win on the road, but the Los Angeles Clippers are going for their strict six straight win at home. And the Boston Celtics are coming in here with a loss at the Garden to Philadelphia just the other night. So Rick Barry, the Boston Celtics are causing some grumblings in Boston. A lot of people, the fans there are disappointed, but don’t be uh don’t be misled. The Celtics can come in and get you. No, you better not be misled, Bob. I think why they’re a little bit unhappy is because the team has lost a couple of ball games in the fourth quarter. The fans in in Boston Garden aren’t accustomed to seeing that. But Boston Celtics have the experience that Bob talked about at the start of our little tease there. This is a team that anytime they step down the basketball court, they are capable of defeating you, Bob. Don’t ever forget that. Wasn’t very long ago that the Clippers were the laughing stock of the league. You better not be laughing now with the acquisition of Ron Harper, and now Danny Manning is back. Gary Grant, an excellent guard. I could go on and on. This is a talented, young, developing basketball team. Yes, it is, Bob. And probably the most dangerous element of all is the fact that they now believe that they can win against quality basketball teams. And that’s an extremely dangerous combination to have, to have youth, talent, and confidence. When you have confidence in yourself, it’s incredible what you’re able to accomplish. And this team’s been playing very hard, especially at home. And the Boston Celtics are going to have a difficult time tonight. They’re going to have to try and slow this basketball team down, Bob. They’re going to try and outrun the Celtics. The Clippers are actually favored in this game tonight. The Boston Celtics have always won since the Clippers came to LA from San Diego. We’ll be back to talk about Ron Harper right after the on the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. We were talking about the acquisition of Ron Harper on November 16th along with 199092 Cavaliers first round draft choices for Reggie Williams and the rights to Danny Ferry. Ron Harper has come here and really helped this club. He really plays well with Gary Grant in the back court. And prior to the game, we talked to Ron Harper about how he’s adjusting to the land of Los Angeles. Well, I feel very comfortable right now. I mean the team has definitely got an offense that fit my style of play. We like to get into a transition game and like to get a lot of easy basket and uh this a team that is looking for a little leadership role for myself and I think that I have been doing that pretty well. Ron Harper began the week fifth in steals in the NBA. He’s 20th in scoring averaging nearly 22 a game. We’ll be back here for the starting lineups in the tip. Right now, let’s go to Craig Seager in Atlanta. Bob Neil, Rick Barry with you at the sports arena in Los Angeles, California. And if you’re in the frigid eastern part of the United States, you’ll be happy to know that it was a little cloudy here today, but about 78. We somehow managed to get through the day. Let’s take a look at the lineup. Boston happy to be here. They’ve been working on getting some uh Los Angeles weather in too. Bird Pinkney will start at the forwards. Of course, Kevin McKay will come in and play more minutes than Pinkney at the power forward spot. Robert Parish, new contract, playing very well this year. And the aging veterans, they are probably getting tired of being called that. Dennis Johnson and Jim Paxton will start at the guards for the Boston Celtics. Jim Rogers under a lot of pressure in the press and by fans in Boston. Even though the Celtics are still very much in the hunt, they’re in third place in the Atlantic Division. And now for the Los Angeles Clippers, a team on the rise, some young talent. Charles Smith, the big power forward from pit. Ken Norman out of Illinois. Benoy Benjamin at center. Ron Harper, recently acquired from Cleveland. And from the University of Michigan, Gary Grant, the point guard, and Grant can score, deliver the ball. He even rebounds pretty well at about five a game. And there is Don Casey, who has some talent to work with. You’ll be seeing off the bench of course in this ball game, playing 25 to 30 minutes. Danny Manning coming off the severe knee surgery. And that’s the starting lineup and who you’ll probably see playing for the Clippers in this ball game tonight. They are going for their sixth straight win here at the Sports Arena. Even though the Clippers are 0 and 10 on the road, the officials tonight, Mike Matthysse, Steve Jabby, and Tom O’Neal will be officiating tonight’s ball game. Bob, I’ll tell you one thing, this Clipper team doing a nice job of getting some consistency at home despite the fact that this team hasn’t had a chance to become very cohesive. Benoy Benjamin was out at the start of the season. Danny Manning wasn’t here, then they picked up Ron Harper, Charles Smith was hurt for a while. They haven’t had time to really practice and get any type of any type of of cohesiveness going for themselves whereby they know who’s going to be coming in when during the course of the ball game. And it’s been a very difficult task for for for Don to be able to work with this ball club. And yet he’s pleased because he sees progress. And he said the big thing, Greg, is that this team is playing hard. They don’t give up. They don’t quit like they had a tendency to do sometimes last year. Tip controlled by the Clippers. It’s going to turn over, however, to the Boston Celtics. Builder toss it again. Bad toss. Clippers control the ball. Gary Grant number 23 the point guard Benjamin with his double zeros. This is Charles Smith. Rebound Ken Norman. Ken Norman in his third year from the University of Illinois. The Clippers have never beaten the Celtics since they moved from San Diego to Los Angeles. Bird down low. All his game is tied. Larry Bird has been inconsistent. Usually 40 points and then 15. He had 11 last game. That’s bad news for LA. I would think so. Yes. It’s tough when you’re off for that long a period of time at that age to get your timing completely back quickly. But it will happen. I mean, he still has numbers that people would, you know, would pay a lot of money to be able to have. 23 points a game, seven assists. I mean, almost 10 rebounds. Pretty nice. Gary Grant tried to rifle a bullet pass to Harper who went out of bounds and Boston controls. Bird finds Pinkney all alone for the reverse jam. Ken Norman looked like he got lost and he still his eyes still work as far as seeing people who are open. In the 11-point game, Bird had 12 rebounds and nine assists. Here’s Grant from Ron Harper. They enjoy playing together in the back court. This is a back court of the future. Grant and Harper. Well, this is a team really of the future, Bob. May be in three years. This is the team of LA. Bird to Jimmy Paxton. Kept alive by Parish. Pushed off to get it. Had two hands in the back of Benjamin. It’s tied at four. Opening moments for Los Angeles. Bird tried to thread the needle to Paxton out of bounds. Belongs to the Los Angeles Clippers. There’s Don Casey. Grant gets a pick from Smith. Misses the jumper and Paxton goes oneon- two. He’ll pull it up and he’ll set this up. Bird gets the roll. He has four [Applause] early. An early start here. 5:00 Pacific Coast time. It’s a sellout game. People still filing in. Battling the Los Angeles rush hour traffic. Grant looking for Benjamin against [Music] Parish. Rebound Pinkney to Johnson. Once again out very quickly as Robert Parish gets the pass from Bird. Rebound Harper. And good defense by Benjamin to change that shot. Gary Grant saw the opening night between Pinkney and Bird. Those are the kind of opportunities the Clippers want to get. Transition opportunities. Ken Norman playing Bird. Wondered how they’d match up. Celtics still present half court matchup problems for anybody they play. Paxton from Bird. Paxton 0 for two from the field [Applause] tonight. Ball belongs to the Clippers. Yeah. One thing you remember about Boston. This is where I was surprised to see that first offensive rebound by the Clippers as Boston still leads the league in defensive rebounding and so you have to really work hard to try and get second opportunities against them. That’s why the Clippers don’t want to go for this half court offense. Harper from long range rebound Paris. Not much of a half court team. That’s ace severe weakness for the Clippers. It’ll come though. Grant out on the break on the wing from Harper on the reverse. Gary Grant. Six points early for Grant and another transition basket. Just the way Don Casey would like to see it continue. Grant’s fifth in the league in assist, fourth in steals. Now that’s the guy that they’re saying in the paper that teammate said he’s shooting too much and tearing us apart. Used to be the guy to hold us together. What a croc that is. Grant now has eight points. Bird has six points. Well, Jimmy Rogers worried about this team. So, this is the team that likes to drive and go to the basket. We have to be prepared for that. Bird hasn’t missed yet. Clippers lead it by two. Dennis Johnson post up draws the foul from Gary Grant. [Music] And Danny Manning enters the game with 754 to go in the first quarter. The Clippers leading it by two. [Music] There’s Danny Manning. And Rick, we’ve talked about him before. Just to update people, he resumed full drills after his surgery on November 15th, activated on the 29th. His minutes raised now up to about 30 last week, averaged about 12 points a game, shooting 53% from the floor. Well, it sure is nice to see him back after that injury that could certainly have been career threatening. Such a terrific young man. Had the pleasure of getting to know him because of my son Scooter and their association at Kansas. So Danny Manning, Charles Smith, Harper, Ken Norman up front. Harper’s up front or wherever he wants to be. He’s one of those 66 Lightning players. He loves to play against Michael Jordan and usually performs well against him. Norman missing from long range. Parish with a rebound. That’s his third rebound early. Celtics down by one. Only four road wins for Boston. They’ve lost seven. Beautiful pass to Bird. That’s why you can’t turn your head and lose sight of the basketball. Larry Bird hasn’t missed. He’s four out of four from the floor. Charles Smith. [Music] Hney kept it alive. It was knocked out of bounds by Ken Dorman. belong to Boston. And that’s a good example, Bob, of why the half court game doesn’t work for them. That was not a real good shot to take in that situation. 658 remaining in the first quarter. The Celtics have a one-point lead. Sold out crowd here at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. Boston with a one-point lead early on the LA Clippers in the opening. Rick and I were talking about the veteran Boston team, the young Clippers team. 59-6 Boston wins in age. Just a slight differential there. But I tell you, if the Clippers are going to continue to win basketball games, they’re going to have to continue to have these type of plays. Some good defense swarming, triple teaming the ball knocked away on the part of Grant Harper off to the races. He spots the open Grant on the outside. He’s able to take it in for one of the transition baskets that the Clippers have been able to get early in this ball game. That’s why they’re only trailing by one. Grant 59 steals on the season, fourth in the league. So, he got one there. Parish own rebound over Harper. That’s four rebounds for Parish, his first basket. Well, of course, right now they’re playing without a center, the Clippers. That is with Benjamin having gone to the bench. [Music] Charles Smith from Pittsburgh playing at center. He played center at Pittsburgh because he said they needed me there and I’ll play center here when they need me. And hits from the perimeter. Well, that’s one of the things he can do with Parish on him. He can pull him outside because Charles is capable of putting it on the floor and going to the basket as well as shoot that shot. Charles Smith, of course, member of the Olympic team. Manning with the steel. Danny Manning with a poster shot there. That’ll make the 11:00 highlights. Well, it was outstanding defense on Danny’s part to create that opportunity as he just played outstanding defense inside to Parish who had slipped inside of Charles Smith. Drew the foul from Manning. Didn’t look like Danny was having any knee problems with that open court running. No. And glad to see that as well. But watch the defense on Manning as we see the pass going inside. You can see the last part of it. There’s the knock away. What he had done is rotated himself beautifully to get to the outside to be able to pick the pass away. And that looked like pretty strong run on the part of Danny Manning. Didn’t really see any limping there. And of course, we hope that it stays that way. He made his first free throw. Did Robert Parish. And now misses this one. The game remains tied at 14 with 551 to go in the first quarter. Boston good free throw shooting team. They’re averaging about 82% as a team. Norman backing in on Bird. That’s just a great shot because Lowry played outstanding defense and he couldn’t do anything more than than block the shot would have been the only thing extra that he could have done. Bird gets the screen now. Makes the lob to Pinkney down low. Parish is there to follow. It’s going to be Clippers ball. Parish would have traveled, but he didn’t have control of the ball with which to travel. Yeah, that’s exactly right. Sometimes that isn’t always the case, but what a great pass by Bird. That was Reggie Lewis. Kevin McCale about to check in here for Boston. Manning. Bird loses the rebound after initially grabbing it. And Dennis Johnson’s there to clean up the residue. And to Parish again. They’re trying to work Parish inside and he lost the handle on the ball last time. travel this time. Five Boston turnovers, only one Clippers turnover. Kevin McCale checks in along with Lewis. It’ll be Reggie Lewis and Dennis Johnson at the guards. Male, Parish, and Bird up front. Gary Grant left alone by Dennis Johnson. Misses the jumper and MO with a rebound. Lewis to Bird. Bird hasn’t missed from the floor yet. Hits a cutting Dennis Johnson. And the Celtics have committed six turnovers. We have 434 to go in the first quarter. One of the reasons why they’re trailing right now in the ball game. You cannot turn it over that many times against any ball court. Couple of steals. Grant had a steal. Manning had a a steal. But the the other four have been just mishandling the ball. Manning played against McCale. Well, Grant doesn’t have the jumper falling early, that’s for sure. No, that was a major break right there. 1614 Clippers. Four minutes to go first quarter. Lewis lobs it into male who had the position. Male missed the layup. Manning on the run. Look at him handle the ball in the open court. Norman with misses the layup, but in comes Charles Smith. Good looking Clippers team. Well, again, this is a young team with a lot of physical talent. You just saw an example of it right there on the part of Danny Manning and Charles Smith. Both bird his first miss. Male missed the tip in again. Rick, it looks to me as though Boston just didn’t get their wakeup call. Boston playing without much concentration, missing layups, turning the ball over. Harper nice to the hoop, but male got a piece of it. Harper takes it back inside. They’re just out hustling him right now. The Celtics just a little bit slow, really not in sync. Uh, and you’re right, Bob, they’re just not playing the way that Jimmy Rogers would like to see him. It was almost like a carryover where they blew that game in the fourth quarter against Philadelphia. Bird hit his first four, missed the last two. [Applause] Harper for three. Rebound Parish. See, that’s again another not a good shot. That’s not his range and that’s just being a little impatient. Got a six-point lead. This is the time to go hammer inside. Get another good basket. Go to the hole. Speaking of hammer, Joe Klein’s about to come into the ball game for Boston from 18 ft. Dennis Johnson. Male with a rebound. Going to be a loose ball foul. Yeah, he got it by pushing off. That time they caught him. We’re going to get Joe Klein into the ball game for Boston. Try to help with that rebounding a bit. Right now, Clippers lead it by six. 240 to go first quarter. [Applause] with a six-point lead. 240 to go. Quarter number one. Bobby Rick Barry with you from the sports arena in Los Angeles. And part of the reason they got this lead is plays like this. Male misses an uncontested layup basically inside. Use the right hand. A good save by Charles Smith and Danny Manning off to the races. And he’s going to show you why it’s incredible. A man almost 6′ 11 in tall able to handle the ball like that. Look at that behind the back pass with the left hand. Norman can’t get the shot to drop in as he goes back the other way. Lewis gets the hand on it, but nobody screams off Charles Smith, who was the guy, if you remember, that saved the ball down the other end of the court. This is the type of hustle that Don Cheney that Don Casey is so really pleased about that this team is playing this type of basketball at home and he’s trying to get him to try and learn how to do that on the road as well. Take a look at some of the scores around the league. New Jersey with a lead over Washington in the second quarter. Also second quarter, San Antonio out in front of Charlotte and the Knicks one point ahead of their ball game. We’ll keep you posted on all the NBA scores tonight. First time I’ve looked at the shot clock. It’s down to 10 seconds. There hasn’t been much going with the shot clock. These teams have been getting the ball up earlier. Boston, by the way, missed eight of their last nine shot attempts. The lob to male. Spins inside over Norman. First basket of the night for Kevin. Clippers by four. Two minutes to go in the first quarter. Garrick in at the guard. Tom Garrick. And Harper will go to line. Foul by Reggie Lewis. Well, that’s what I like to see a player do, though. Use the screen. If a player sets a screen for you, be smart enough to use it. Don’t just let him stand out there and and let it go to waste. That time, Harper used it beautifully. Harper, by the way, wanted to send a message to all his buddies in Cleveland. Said, “Hope they enjoy the snow shovel.” He’s enjoying the shoveling all the sun off his driveway in Los Angeles. A lot easier on the back. Clippers 2216. Less than two minutes to go first quarter. [Music] Reggie Lewis in traffic. Got his own ball after it was blocked. Very poor judgment on the shot. Tried to shoot it while being double team, but got it back and the hoop. Harper off the baseline screen. Punched away by Lewis. 15 on the shot clock for the Clippers. [Applause] into Benjamin against Klene Benjamin. [Music] Bird on the cut and the nice finesse with the left hand. Bird has 10 points. Only 11 in the entire game. Last outing for Bird. Has 10 here in the first quarter. Manning over male. Good defense by Kevin. That’s where Kevin plays his best defense. You want to take him out on the floor further. Now Johnson setting it up looking for Bird who has a mismatch. Draws the double team, but nice defense. And Manning came in there to make the play again. Harper shovels it to Benjamin. Stripped out of bounds. It’ll be a foul against Boston. But the Clippers keep pushing it up the court. They know that this is the strategy that’s going to work best for them. Keep going at the Celtics as much as you can. Basically, most teams playing against Boston prefer to do that. Gamble checking in for the Celtics. That foul, by the way, was on Joe Klene. It’s Dennis Johnson gets arrest and Joe Wolf checking into the ball game also for the Clippers for Ken Norman. Well, Danny Manning showed you a couple of good defensive efforts. something obviously that he learned at Kansas playing under the tutelage of Larry Brown who prides himself in having his teams play tough defense and indicative of the fact when he gets some talent he can put a winner on the court as evidenced by what San Antonio is doing this season and you saw that Boston has also checked in with Michael Smith out of BYU their number one draft choice Michael started the season hurt hasn’t played much getting himself back into playing shape should point out too that Roy Williams carried that tradition over as evidenced by what Kansas is join this year. No kidding. The surprise of the NCAA, no question. Early on, there’s a foul against Los Angeles as McE trying to hit the cutter. That’ll be on Harper, his first. Gamble out of Iowa, his third year handling the ball. Shot clock down to 6 seconds. Boston appearing somewhat lost. So Lewis just takes it to the hoop, gets the basket, and draws the foul. Well, just a terrific individual effort here as the clocks ran down. There you just drew the ball right over. The defense didn’t react. That was Harper and there was a clear path as nobody was there defensively. Benjamin late coming over to help from the weak side, but that was just bad defense by Ron Harper as he got caught flatfooted. Jimmy Rogers continues to look for the right combination off the bench. Did the Lakers game recently never did see this combination in there for Boston of Michael Smith, Lewis, Klein, McCale. Well, Smith hasn’t really seen very many minutes. He’s been really badgered pretty good in the press and and hammered as far as his production and talking about what a wasted draft pick it’s been for Boston. And it’s tough though sometimes, you know, as I said so many times before, you can only learn so much sitting and watching. You really got to get out and play a little bit. But of course, you have to earn the right to play. And obviously, he hasn’t really shown Jimmy Rogers uh, you know, enough to be getting that kind of quality playing time. That’s why I’m surprised really to see him, you know, in the ball game right now. Although it may only be just for that little break before the quarter. Less than 3 seconds remaining as Charles Smith, the other Charles Smith. This one out of Georgetown checks in. Male just going to throw it length of the court. And at the end of one, the Clippers lead it by three. [Applause] [Music] Sports Arena and out in Los Angeles. And of course, every time we come out here to do a game, whether it’s at the form of the sports arena, the celebrities are out. I wonder how Tommy did with the diet over the holidays. He’s doing great. He looks good. Looks good. Chewing chewing sugarless gum there. And back to the game. 26-23. Clippers leading by three. Beginning of the second quarter. Seven on the clock. Male’s turnaround doesn’t go and the pushing foul will be against Boston. I live on Smith. Michael Smith. There’s three Smiths that there are on these rosters. Two Charles Smith, of course. Charles Smith from Pittsburgh, Charles Smith from Georgetown. They played against each other in college. And Michael Smith from BYU, the Celtics number one draft choice. [Applause] Joe Wolf with the turnaround jump hook. Wol’s been struggling. His shooting percentage very low this past week. Fine misses. Wolf rebounds. Manning gets the pass from Grant. And a beautiful pass indeed. Threw it at precisely the correct moment. Rebound Benjamin. Derry Grant averaging nine and a half assists per game. He’s in the top 10 in the NBA. Eight on the shot clock for the Clippers. Garrick to Benjamin. Back out here to Grant. He’ll go for three. Over Gamble, missing everything. Well, he’s excellent with steals, good with assists, but tonight not hitting from the perimeter. And it’s obvious from what we’ve seen so far in this ball game, the Clippers really don’t have a bonafide longdistance threat. which is one of the reasons they like to get that transition game going. Lewis from 17. Boston not shooting that well early, but Male gets the stick back basket. Kevin has four points. Might be a good idea to screen that fell off. That’s what Don Casey’s thinking. Manning from the corner. Rebound Lewis. He loves the open court, too. Traveled with the ball. Couldn’t decide where to go with it. He was going to go right. turned caught Michael Smith out of the corner of his eye and turned it over. And that’s what Don was saying that mistake like that not screening off Mckela those are the type of mistakes that this team makes because of their inexperience. He said sometimes he said it’s so difficult to sit there and watch and he said but hey they’re playing hard and they are improving Boston eight turnovers trailing by three with a rebound and he’s fouled by Manning in the back court. Larry Bird resting for the Boston Celtics. Bird came in, hit his first four basket, missed a couple, then another one. Bird has 10. Manning has two fouls. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Smith 610 225 lbs. Grant inside. Manning goes down. Everybody holds their breath. He’s all right. I’ll tell you, watch Smith standing next to to uh Danny Manning. Now Danny Manning is listed at 610. And if they’re both 610, then you know I really am Santa Claus because Danny Cow is overhead. You look like Santa Claus. that you’ve got your Christmas red trousers, your Christmas green jacket. It’s I mean in the Christmas season, time to be festive. My favorite time of the year. Yeah, we’ll have to show the folks this this picture. Male with 10 on the shot clock against Joe Wolf. He’s just going to back it in and turn around for [Applause] 14. Six points for male. Boston has regained the lead 29-28. They had trailed by six. Gamble just couldn’t control it. [Applause] Offensive foul on Benjamin as he got a little tired of being banged by Joe Klein and threw up his right arm and bang Klein back. We’ll watch him banging inside of the middle. You’ll watch the foul coming up. Benjamin left your screen. There’s pushing pushing and then the push with the right arm and that’s where the foul [Music] are. Celtics by one. 843 to go first half. Dennis Johnson and Gamble in the back court for the Celtics with Klene McCale and Smith up front. Michael Smith looks to male against Norman. don’t want to take advantage of his height and does. Yeah. See, they’re going to try and play straight up on those type of situations, but I don’t think that Don really wanted to have Norman on him. He preferred to have had Charles Smith on him. And when those type of things are starting to happen, Male’s getting hot. They’re going to have to start sending it to somebody else at Kevin. Male has six in the quarter, eight overall. [Applause] 7 seconds, six on the shot clock inside to Smith. Nice pass from Was that Benjamin? Yes. A good heads up from the play that time because they realized the mismatch was there and instead of trying to force up a shot, they spotted it and took advantage of it. Benjamin Norman and Charles Smith up front now for the Clippers. Male punched it away with long arms. 13 seconds on the shot clock. Now they say that Smith touched the glass, but that was the match up that he wanted at Charles Smith on Kevin Male. What? Michael Smith with the runner. That didn’t have much chance. Offside rebound. First basket of the game for Kevin Gamble. He’s out of Iowa. And the Celtics have gotten themselves back in the lead with Larry Bird and Robert Carish getting considerable rest off the baseline screen. Harper who’ll try to take it inside. Gamble with another rebound is running with Smith. Boston on an 11-2 run. They trailed by six in the beginning of this second quarter. Inside to Klein, got Benjamin Airborne and then got the hoop. Nice play by Joe Klein. Well, you’re getting that paratrooper club, Bob. You know, how often do we see the player pay his dues? Get burned. Boston with their biggest lead of the game. A lead of five. 705 to go in the first half and it’s been bench strength. They trail by six at the quarter, now lead it by five with 705 to go. Hope you’ll join us on New Year’s Eve. Tim Foley will be meeting me in Tucson, Arizona for the inaugural Copper Bowl. North Carolina State and Arizona in Tucson begins at 8:00 Eastern time on our sister station TBS the super station. And Bob, well, there’s some halftime scores coming up for you. You can watch those as we just mention the fact that one of the reasons that I think the Los Angeles Clippers have lost that lead, I think it’s in direct relation to what we talked about them trying to get a running game going. They had six breaks in the first period for 10 points to only one break for two points for Boston. With almost 5 minutes gone here in the second quarter, they have yet to get a fast break opportunity. The Celtics leaded by five, 3530. By the way, Craig Sager will have all the highlights for you at halftime. Now the Celtics on the run. Dennis Johnson didn’t have anybody to get it to. That was ugly. Dennis made a bad no other selection of words. He doesn’t usually make a bad decision like that, but the man he should have hit was Gamble, who was the lead person instead of throwing it to Pinkney, who was the trailer. You don’t really want a guy like Ed Pinkney having to handle the ball out on the court. Looked over for Angel or Bird and it was neither. Yeah, some strange faces were trailing or running around in who are these guys? Pinkney came in the trade with Sacramento for Aong with Klein. Boston only three of six from the line thus far tonight. Michael Smith though getting some extended playing time here. That’ll do one the sports confidence. Nothing like being out in that court to make you feel good about yourself. Speaking of feeling good, you love this building. The Lakers used to play here in the Yeah, they did. I used to love playing in the sports arena. Always played better here than I ever did at the farm. [Applause] 10 on the shot clock for the Clippers. Michael Smith against Ken Norman. Pushed him out of bounds. Now, see, he did everything he had to do until the last moment. He worked hard. He had good position on his defense. The man went up to shoot. His job was done at that point. Now, screen him off the boards. Instead, he commits the foul on the man. Watch it. Good defense. Pretty good position right here. Shuts him off. Stay right there. Now, just stay there. Now, let him shoot. Boom. Now, he goes and he pushs his arm forward and shoots him. And he pushes him when he’s shooting the ball. Hey, just let him go up. Screen him off. And that’s an excellent effort. Michael Smith from BYU and Larry Bird wants to get back into the game. Well, Michael did have extended playing time. He’ll sit down and Bird checks back in. Larry Bird getting his first action in this quarter. Hasn’t scored in the quarter with 10 points in the [Applause] first. Jen Norman not lighting it up from the free throw line this year. [Applause] 3630 Celtics with their biggest lead. So now the Celtics have Gamble and Dennis Johnson in the back court with Pinkney Parish and Bird up front. Bird wide open. He’ll step back for three. Norman on the break. Grant will control it. [Applause] Charles Smith over Bird. [Applause] Boston by four. 548 to go in the first half from the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. Early game on the West Coast. This game started. The tip off was about 6 7 minutes after 5:00. People are just now settling in their seats after getting out of the Los Angeles rush hour. Some are probably still in it. That’s for sure. Six on the shot clock and nothing going right. 10 Boston turnovers. Harper from Grant. And again, a great example of the great athletic ability of some of these players. But that last pass is a perfect example of knowing where the ball is. Gamble got hit right in the head with that pass cuz he had no idea the pass was coming. [Applause] Dennis Johnson from the perimeter. Bird sneaks in for the rebound. He’ll take it right back up. Not yet the roll though. Parishes there. Norman to Grant. Stripped away by Gamble. He’ll get it back from Bird and he’ll take it all the way past Benjamin who commits the foul. Well, Boston had led it by six. It’s now down to two points. Second personal Benjamin. [Music] gamble at the free throw line. Well, he made up for it. He He messed up that one play by not being aware and getting hit in the head. Then he made a good defensive play down the other end and gets rewarded by getting to the free throw line. Although he certainly took a pretty good foul from Benjamin to get there. The conclusion of tonight’s game, Rick and I will be selecting the Miller Light player of the game. Gamble gets them both. Nice to run into Josh Rosenfeld here at the game. Former Laker PR guy. One of the best in the business, too. Wish him well in his future endeavors. [Music] Celtics lead it now by four. Grant has it stripped away. Well, they call the foul. It’s going to be on Dennis Johnson. And Dennis actually committed one out further and he got two for one that time. We’ll watch the play again. There’s the first move. Dennis reaches in and kind of gives him a little push there. Now he trails from behind and then he hit the ball and so he actually only committed the first foul. So they made up for it by calling the first foul because that was a good defensive play on the second one. Nothing but ball on that good camera work we saw there. What’s fair is fair. Gary Grant see his nine and a half assist and he rebounds well for a point guard. Five game [Applause] Celtics by two. [Music] Bird has yet to score in the second quarter. Had 10 points in the first period. They’ve got Charles Smith on Bird. Shot clock to six. Gamble into the paint. Rebound. Bonoid Benjamin. Grant has Harper on the right wing. And now the Clippers are back in the ball game again because they’re getting the break opportunity. something that they were a little bit lax in at the first part of the second period. Ron Harper has eight points. Gary Grant four assists early in this game and it’s tied. Gamble wanted Parish, but Benoy Benjamin playing good defense down there. Three seconds. Well, Benoy working very hard against Robert Parish. Uh showing the type of aggressiveness they would like to see a little bit more of. 11 turnovers now for Boston. Now watch Benjamin working on the defense here. He gives him a little bump. Now watch him get in front to try and deny the pass. Excellent defense. Now he swings over Parish there. He still bumps him. Giving him another little bump. Robert never got out of the lane. 3 seconds. Pretty good effort. Tied at 38. Harper will back it out with 10 seconds on the shot clock for the Clippers. Down to five on the shot clock. Granted sneaked inside pass Dennis Johnson. Johnson wanted the offensive foul and he was hooked. Nevertheless, the Clippers have the lead. [Applause] Grant has 12 points. Johnson answers. Goes to the reverse. Doesn’t get it, but does get the foul call. It’s going to be on Charles Smith. And a technical foul going to be on Dennis Johnson. He’s still upset about the play down the other end. Male checks back in for Boston. [Music] 314 to go in the first half. The technical will be shot by Ron Harper. See Bob Koozie in the background of the picture there. He’s a local broadcaster for the Boston Celtics behind Jimmy [Applause] Rogers. Celtics on a threeame West Coast swing. Well, they’re always out during Christmas time. Marcenio Hall in attendance trying to camouflage himself a little bit. [Applause] [Music] Dennis Johnson to the line. Clippers lead it by three, now by two. Dennis Johnson with only two points in the game. Both have come from the free throw line. Dennis Johnson in the Lakers game we did on the 15th of December had an outstanding game from the perimeter, but the Lakers went ahead to beat Boston in the Garden. I still think the Lakers are the best team in the NBA right now. Do you agree? Well, they’re playing outstanding basketball. No question about it, Bob. I I I still think that they, you know, the Lakers and Detroit are the teams to beat in their respective conferences. Until somebody does that, uh, you have to really go with them. And there are quite a few teams capable of it. Clippers by one, 304 to go first half. Benoy Benjamin backing in on Parish. McCale kept it alive and Johnson collects the ball and hits Bird who has not scored in this period. Male from 18. Kevin McCale now with 10 points. Boston by one. [Applause] Charles Smith. [Applause] Smith has 10. There’s a player with everything you like. He can play a lot of positions and he has tremendous attitude, good work habit. He’s going to be a longtime NBA player. John, no question about it. I liked him back in ‘ 86 in the World Championships on that first team. Lewis open as Boston reverses. If it can’t hit from the perimeter, Lewis takes it right inside. He’ll get this one to fall. Reggie Lewis has a tough break for the Clippers. Benjamin had inside position just mistimed his jump. Ron Harper. Harper lighting it up here tonight. He has 11. Well, you give him those opportunities in the open court and that’s when he’s at his best. Reggie Williams involved in that trade with Cleveland. Reggie Williams still struggling there. He was struggling here in terms particularly in terms of his offense. Bird open from 18. First points of the quarter for Larry. Has 12 in the game. Harper back quickly with a basket and a foul. [Applause] 141 to go in the half and the Clippers have taken a one-point lead. Los Angeles Clippers have regained the lead. And we’ll go to the free throw line with a minute 41 to go. And Boston’s backcourt has really been struggling. Maybe they need some help from the chicken. There’s a quintet. Well, the chicken and the chicklets, I guess, or whatever you want to call them. Little baby chicks. kind of give the heeie-jeebies to the Boston Celtics here. You know, I was just thinking, Rick, we’re at the sports arena. The Lakers are playing later tonight here in town at 7:30 LA time against Sacramento. I don’t know. You know, they’re always looking at the celebrities before them. A lot of them here tonight. It makes you wonder if the Clippers get it going if they couldn’t really give the Lakers a run for their money in terms of show business. Well, I said earlier, I was telling this, B, I think within within three years, this is lively to be the team of Los Angeles. Of course, as long as Magic hangs around a couple of those other guys that got named worthy and what have you, that’s looking pretty tough. Bird from long range knew that one missed. Tried to follow it, but here come the Clippers. Norman back to Charles Smith for the jam. 12 points for Smith. Well, and the success of the Clippers tonight has been directly proportionate to the number of times we’re able to get down the court for transition and fast break opportunities. There’s Bird came off the baseline screen, goes to the left hand. Bird has 14 now. Well, he’s had limited minutes here in the second quarter and he’s only taken four shots and he’s two for four. So, still pretty good. Harper against Lewis. Stripped away. Now Boston runs. Dennis Johnson. Male is open at the free throw line. Johnson looking for his first field goal of the night and gets it. That’s the first field goal by either of the Boston starting guards. tied at 50. Less than half a minute to go in the first half. We thought it’d be a competitive matchup and it is that in in fact Parish with the rebound. That’s nine rebounds. Probably heard the voice of our statistician Dennis Minutition does such a great job for us out on our West Coast games. [Applause] Under 10 seconds in the quarter. Shot clock’s off. We’ve got a hold away from the ball. Bird was trying to sneak around and Kent Norman grabbed him. That’ll be the penalty right now as Bird will go to the free throw line. And still plenty of time for the Clippers to get the final shot and perhaps go into halftime tied or I wouldn’t expect a three-point shot. And I’m anticipating, of course, that Larry’s going to knock down those two free throws. Clippers have never defeated Boston here. And you see the smile on Larry Bird’s face. The chicken has has got some posters raised in the end zone. I hope we can see it right underneath the uh the goalpost. But Larry Bird showing the true superstar. How’d you like to There you go. That’s a real test of concentration there. Yeah. Larry says in your face. [Applause] Nice work for Larry Bird. Six. Can we see that shot again? Six and a half seconds to go in the half. This program authorized under broadcasting rights granted by the National Basketball Association solely for the entertainment of our audience. It’s not that easy for me to concentrate now either. Any publication, reproduction, or other use of the pictures, descriptions, or accounts of this game without the express written consent of the NBA is prohibited. That’s a free throw shooter. Yeah, but you got your poster girl meeting you tomorrow. That’s right. Melody is meeting me in Tucson as we prepare for the Copper Bowl. Yeah. Yeah. You’re preparing for the Copper Bowl by going out to check out the Fazio Golf Course at one of the local establishments with some Arizona coaches. Yeah. You do homework wherever you have to. I think I know that’s the way to do it. It really is. Another 20 second timeout here to check on the matchups. Give me a time to remind you we’ll have more NBA action coming your way on TNT next Tuesday. Phoenix at the New York Knicks. Skip Carrie Doug Collins will have that telecast for you. Phoenix really struggling. The Knicks one of those teams in the East that has a chance of unseating Detroit along with Chicago and a couple other and playing very well. Patrick Euing having an exceptional season and the team believing in themselves getting good production off the bench. Kenny Walker doing an outstanding job from them off the bench. You got Strickland. Uh yeah, this is definitely, you know, a team to be reckoned with this season. No question about it. We were in Boston on December 15th for that Lakers game. The big story in the paper there was the rumored trade of McCale for Mark Jackson. I think Nick make a big mistake getting rid of Jackson. Harper all the way misses it and Parish gets the rebound and the Celtics hold a two-point lead at the half. Harper had his chance. He had a good first half. Harper ends with 14 points in the half. will be joining Craig Seager in our studios shortly. And Boston’s bench with 25 points. Rick. Uh yes, Bob. And if the Clippers expect to win this ball game, they’re going to have to do a lot lot more breaking. They didn’t do it in the second period in the beginning part of it. They had a lead. They lost that lead. Then they were able to get five break opportunities, get six points off of that to get back in this ball game. You can see the points they’ve gotten off of the opportunity. 16 to four in favor of the Clippers. They must at least do that or a little bit better. Boston has to be a little bit more careful with the ball. The Clippers very good in that department and there’s a Bob pointed out Danny Manning all four points to the Clippers. The Boston bench very productive here this evening. Male had 10 Lewis seven and Gamble four of those Boston 25. Celtics leaded by two. Second half underway inside to Pinkney. Back to Johnson to Jim Paxton who was scoreless in the first half. Parish against Benjamin and Robert Parish also had only one field goal in the first half. And that’s the fifth point of the game for Parish. He was very quiet. Ken Norman over Bird. Smith was pushed off. He got the ball anyway. And Boston picks up the foul and it’s on Pinky, his first. Grant had five assists in the first half to go with his 12 points. Normal will try this one over Bird. He doesn’t get it either. [Applause] Not his specialty. Celtics can build a six-point lead. Their largest lead in the first half was eight. Tried to hit Pinkney out of bounds. Belongs to LA. And a little bit upset so was Bird because they felt that Pinkney was held as he made the cut to the basket. Nice inside move spinning around Pinkney. 254s battling. There’s Charles Smith. That was a big league play. It was. And what he did is a good job of holding Pinkney out of position to enable him to make the move. Boston by two. Opening moments. Third quarter. Birds going to take it down the lane for the runner. Missing badly. Pink. He didn’t see it. Out of bounds. Clippers ball. Yeah. Well, Larry knew that he couldn’t get the rebound. He knew where the ball was and he tried to tip it over to Ed, but Ed was making a cut to the middle and the ball was tipped just a little bit behind him. In the first half half, Pinkney had three points, one field goal and a free throw. Male had 10 place of him. Fouls on Jim Paxton, his first of the game. Nobody in foul trouble. No one with more than two fouls on either team. Clippers can tie. Ken Norman from Illinois. Charles Smith from Pittsburgh. Benjamin from Kraton up front for the Clippers. Harper of Miami of Ohio. more recently of Cleveland Cavaliers and Gary Grant of Michigan on the floor now for the Clippers. 10 seconds on the shot clock. Look at the move by Smith and the inside pass, but Pinkney was there to keep it alive for Boston. Smith hustling back to the hoop with a basket. He couldn’t get it to go. Norman off of Jim Paxton, but Charles Smith shows you what we were talking about, how he can face up and put it down on the deck and go to the basket. Exceptional move. just wasn’t quite able to finish it off there as he made the good dish off but that bounce killed Benoy as he couldn’t handle it and that gave Parish time to recover and make the block and then here comes Smith again and still he can’t get it to drop in as he didn’t use the glass that time and a good save by Norman. Back to live action. Benjamin with a jump hook from the middle scores Benjamin with six points in the game. It’s tied at 54. 951 to go third quarter. Once again relentless pursuit by this young Clippers team. It wasn’t pretty but they were there until they got the job done. Bird Cole to start the half. At the half, Larry Bird had 16 points. Larry Grant has 14 now. And the Clippers have regained the lead. 13 lead changes in this [Music] game. Paxton off the baseline screen open for his first field goal of the night. Jim Paxton. What a move by Harper. But they’re going to call him for the offensive foul. He got the left arm out there to clear who was it? Larry Bird into the into the lap of Arsenio Hall. Yeah, that was but it was still a spectacular play. Look at that quick move to the baseline. Bird comes over to help. Watch the left arm. So, well, I’ll tell you, he didn’t clear out. Larry went up in the air, got bumped, came down, lost his balance, and Larry did a good acting job. That was not a clear out by Ron Harper. A spectacular play. Paxton goes hard to the hoop, gets the basket, and draws the foul. And that is four points for Jim Paxton. And Charles Smith picks up the first second. Well, Paxton, as you see, got Harper coming out a little bit. He gave him the baseline. Smith, instead of coming over and shutting the baseline off, immediately drifted, turned his body sideways, and wound up picking up the foul as Paxton was smart enough to initiate some contact. This is Jim’s 11th year in the NBA. John’s brother John in Chicago from Notre Dame. Jim here with Boston from Dayton. Of course, the father of former program. Celtics by two. Pinkney reaches over the top, commits the foul. That’s his second. That’s 14 fouls now, I believe, against the Boston Celtics. 841 to go here in this quarter. A big advantage if the Clippers can capitalize on it. Now, it’s only the third team foul. They obviously put the number up as soon as the whistle. Kick ball out of New 24 second clock. Along with Rick Barry, Bob Neil with you from the sports arena in Los Angeles, California. Close one. Celtics lead it by two. Grant wanted to shoot that one. He just had to do it. Benjamin rebounds from out of position over Parish, but Paxton was there. Almost over and back. Paxton from 18 from Dennis Johnson. Can’t get it to go. Jim Paxton and Dennis Johnson really struggling from the floor. The Boston starting guards just can’t get it done tonight. It’s been the bench guards who have scored what they have scored for the Boston Celtics in this game. [Applause] Clippers can tie on this possession. Boy, Dennis Johnson keeping Grant out of the middle. Grant sneaked in when Johnson went over to double team Charles Smith and Smith delivered and that brought RC a whole lot out of his seat. It happened right in front of them. That was a spectacular move on the part of Grant. We’ve already seen four of their players make such tremendous athletic moves. I mean once these youngsters get more experience, they’re going to be something to watch. Seven on the shot clock. The lob from Johnson to Parish. Parish with seven now. [Applause] Grant, is he aggressive? Gary Grant took it right past Bird, went to his left hand and has 18 in this game. Don Casey was saying sometimes Gary gets a little out of control, but then haven’t I heard Chuck Daly say that about Isaiah Thomas. You almost have to live on the edge, I guess, if you’re going to be that kind of point guard. Tied at 60. Bird for three. His first points of the third period. Larry Bird has a Is there such a thing? A quiet 19. Clippers back so quickly. Draw the foul. Norman will go to the line and it’s going to be on Larry Bird. That’s his first personal and a timeout on the floor with the Celtics up by three and the Clippers on the way to the line. if you’re in LA. And of course, that wasn’t a real NBA official or the chicken is out of here. Double check. Celtics leading at 6360 with 656 to go in the third quarter. You’ll see the scoring leaders in this ball game balance from the back court. Boston scoring inside although many of birds have come from the perimeter. Larry Bird committed the foul on his way to the timeout and Ken Norman will go to the free throw line. Bird has only one personal in the game. Ken Norman’s playing with tendonitis in his right knee. He’s been bothered the last few games, but he’s been shooting well from the field, too. About 53%. Productive player from Illinois. Yeah, but that 53% could be a little bit misleading. Nevertheless, it’s not from it’s not it’s not from the perimeter. [Music] Speaking of perimeter percentage, up among the leaders in the NBA in field goal percentage is Jim Paxton’s brother John at Chicago. He’s really drilling it from outside this here. One of the reasons why they’re leading in their Midwest division, Central division, excuse me. Took Boston 10 seconds to get the ball over the timeline with the Clipper pressure. Celtics up by one. Lob tipped away by Charles Smith and Harper. Knives to the hoop. Juan Harper. He has 16. Well, good defense will create those opportunities for you and they certainly have the people who can finish. Grant, Harper, Smith, Norman. They’ll go to male again. This time the jump hook. [Applause] [Music] This game’s had 15 lead changes, 11 ties. It’s been as close as everyone thought it would be. Clippers playing well at home. Boston struggling on the road. Smith is fouled by male. That’s becoming a nice matchup in this ball game tonight. We talked at the beginning of the game, Rick, about the difficulty in matching up with male. Male’s having his problems with Charles Smith. Well, Charles Smith would give a lot of people problems. He has the ability to post up as you just saw on that play. Here he gets it inside, makes the move, little fake, had Kevin out of position, waited a little too long, then had to shoot it on the way down. Kevin played pretty darn good defense there, but they say he bumped him down low. But Charles also has the versatility that Kevin doesn’t have in that he can go outside face up and put it on the floor as we saw him do a little bit earlier. An outstanding talent. Charles Smith made the all rookie team after coming off the Olympic performance. And Charles Smith said he was rewarded for being a good guy. He went to Pittsburgh as a forward. Had to be called into duty as a center at pit and that’s where he was able to really develop a postup game which he didn’t have coming out of high school. Celtics by one. 543 to go. Third quarter. Back to male again. He can’t let Kevin come across in the weak side and get that kind of position down low. That’s his biggest fault right now. He’s not fighting male for position. Male with 14 from the bench. Harper’s three-pointer doesn’t go and Bird has him running. Had Lewis wide open and didn’t see him. Parish gets it to Gamble and draws the foul from Ken Norman. Bird. Now Kevin McCale telling Bird you had a man open on the wing. What Larry did, Bob, is that he looked to both sides and was checking to see where the defense was. And when he did that, he had turned his head to down court where he had the open man. Kevin and Larry and Robert Parish and Dennis Johnson will talk to each other firmly as male did then. heard the rumors in the Boston press that unidentified players on the anonymous Boston Celtics players. I never like to really recote that, but it’s in the press already, saying that Larry Bird used to be the glue that holds the team together and now he’s pulling the team apart. I I don’t buy that for a second. Personally, I don’t particularly anonymous. Well, he’s been disagreeing with Jimmy Rogers publicly and said that he respects Jimmy Rogers, but he doesn’t like this uh extra pass perimeter rotation of the ball that Rogers is trying to coach the Celtics team into. You see Larry with the foul. He was holding on with the right hand. Plus, he hit him on the forearm on that particular shot. Well, but Larry’s always been known to speak his mind, and that doesn’t mean that he didn’t say something to Jimmy about it. He probably had said something to Jim before he said something to the press and I talked with Jimmy about it before the ball game and I said there’s really nothing to it and obviously they’re going to have to live with it. But this is a veteran team. They’ve been around and they expect those type of things especially from the riders who try to deal in sensationalism. They’d like nothing better than to get a real hot juicy story on the Celtics. Celtics up by three here. 5 minutes to go in the third quarter. Plus remember it’s a Celtics team in transition that always brings controversy. New players, new styles. Male can’t handle the pass. Three on two. Grant behind the back. Now, why would he want to do that? He wanted to give the ball to Benjamin who was still 15 ft almost from the basket behind his back. He had Harper on the right wing. Not a good decision. And Harper was looking. Here’s Harper now. He’s going right here. Harper now because Bar was backpedaling. Could have never stopped him. He throws a behind the back pass to a trailing Benjamin. Not a good choice at all. Bird with a couple of fouls could have picked up a third. He just did right there, I believe. Exactly. Would have been a fourth, right? And turnovers again hurting the Celtics. Something that they got into trouble with early in this ball game when they got six of them before they could bat an eyelash. And now they just turned it over again. 15 in the game. And Danny Manning checks back in. 11 minutes in the first half for Manning. He had four points. Ran the floor well, played defense well early on, but then the Celtics shut him down later in the first half. We keep talking about the Celtics struggling. They are leading in the game by three now two. That’s 15 for Charles Smith. And Klene will check in for Robert Parish. Parish not productive tonight. Only nine points. He has only three field goals. Klein, male, Gamble, Lewis, and Bird in there for [Applause] Boston. Does Boston ever need a point guard? But then doesn’t everybody? Boston’s actually played a number of years without really having one. Did pretty well except that they’re getting a little older now. Lewis with the turnaround jump hook. Well, yeah, you can say that Dennis Johnson isn’t a point guard, but pretty pretty good. Pretty good non point guard, wouldn’t you? But that’s where the young people with the great athleticism they have are creating a problem for him. Now Norman can’t get the jumper to fall. Loose ball foul is going to be on the Clippers. Be on Grant coming in. That’s number two on Gary Grant. We can see about in the last, you know, three, four years, so many outstanding young players have come into this league with great skills and that back court position. It’s very difficult now for the older Celtic players to stay with them. Deon McCale got loose from Manning and has 16 now. Manning’s open in the corner, but Grant’s going to take it right down the pipe. Gary Grant, 20 points. He was the Michigan famous point guard before Rome Robinson. and to male. Look at from the weak side comes Harper for the block. Manning to Grant into the paint. Back to Norman. That’s the Clipper break in action. And defense is what ignited it because it created the opportunity to get back before the Celtics were able to make the good transition move. They’ve had a number of those and that certainly bring a bit of a smile to Don Casey’s face. 316 to go in the third quarter. Gamble and Lewis in the back court for Boston. Manning defensive male. Lewis over Norman. Manning tripped up in the back court. And I’ll tell you, when the Clippers start to run, you can really see the difference in the quickness. And the Boston bench that performed so well in the first half struggling a bit here in the third quarter, but the Celtics continue to lead it by one. At the Sports Arena, Boston by one point, the Wendy scoreboard. A lot of action in the NBA tonight. We’ll keep you posted on all the action around the league. And we’ll get to the Wendy scores in just a moment as Manning goes to the free throw line to tie this game. Here are a few of those scores. New Jersey way out in front of Washington. San Antonio. Likewise, Eric Brown’s got him playing well at San Antonio. That’s a road lead also at Charlotte. We’ll have more scores for you. Clippers have regained the lead into Male again. Manning’s drifted away with seven on the shot clock. And they were lucky that time that Danny got his hand on it because the weak side defense a little slow getting over to help out on that lob pass. And male would had an easy layup had he been able to keep control of the ball. Knicks Indiana leading Orlando at Indianapolis. Lewis runner won’t go and Danny Manning very active. Birds on the bench for Boston. Manning nice feed to Harper for the jam. Manning runs the floor. What an advantage to have a big man who can get the rebound and take it out and lead the break. These Clipper fans, the NBA fans have not had a chance to see the real Danny Manning. You’re still not seeing him. He’s still playing his way back. Manning commits the foul that time. Yeah, Danny’s not in full playing shape right now. But let’s watch this. Remember, this is a man who is 6’ 10 in tall and he’s out there leading the break. Wait till he sees the commitment on the part of the man in the middle who is Smith. And there is Harper taking it home for the easy two. Another break opportunity for the Clippers. That’s now six opportunities, eight points they’ve gotten off the break in this quarter. And they regain the lead 7673 with 212 to go. We said at the beginning of the game, it’s the more NBA you see, the more you know this doesn’t require brain surgery, few defensive rebounds or turnovers to get a running game going. And this this way to beat the Celtics. It’s a way to beat a lot of teams, Bob, because what you do is you give these great athletes an opportunity to get into the open court situation where they can do the instinctive and and and things that they’ve done all their life growing up playing. Nice pass inside and Charles Smith got male airborne. Mike Matthysse said, “Count the basket.” Male said no. He put it on the floor. No continuation. Nevertheless, it’s a three-point opportunity for Charles Smith. Yeah, that brought the crowd to its feet, including Arsenio, under the basket. Here’s the fake paratrooper club. Boom. Now he’s the foul. Then he goes up and gets the dunk and the foul. Now, what Mau was claiming was that the foul occurred before and no continuation. Boom. He hit him now, but the bounce came beforehand. So that’s why the continuation was in effect. He actually had bounced it before Muel made the contact. And Mike Matis, a very good call. Clippers build a five-point lead with two minutes to go in the third quarter. Boston led it by two at the [Applause] half. It’s male from 16. Kevin McCale has 18 points in this ball game. That’s above his season average, which is 17 and change. Smith is just manhandling inside on Manning. I can’t believe they let all that go. Manning got it to Benjamin for the jam. [Applause] This Boston mix on the floor right now cannot match up with talent in any way with this group of Clippers on the floor. Lewis goes to the left hand for the basket. Gamble knocks it out of bounds. 23 seconds on the shot clock for the Clippers, but they can run fairly well. I think that’s Jimmy Rogers hoping this is the team that got him back in the ball game in the second period. Basically, foul away from the ball. Well, I tell you what what Smith, Michael Smith was doing to Manning last trip down the court. You know, he got arrested. He was out in the streets in LA doing that. Manning will go to the free throw line. That’s two personals on Joe Klene. Got called for it that time. Klein’s just asked Michael Smith, “How do you get away with it?” I was really surprised. I mean, especially a player with the reputation of Manning and Smith being a rookie. Normally, they don’t get that type of break, but it was a rookie official who was underneath. Manning gets them both. Has eight points in the game. Clippers by five with under a minute to go. Third quarter from the Sports Arena in Los [Applause] Angeles. Male was trying to get inside between Charles Smith and Harper. And Charles called the foul. That’s the third one on Charles Smith. Quiet crowd here. It’s a 5:00 Pacific time start. Crowd late arriving. It’s a very close game, but the crowd except for a couple of quicker breaks have been pretty [Music] quiet. You can hear the cheers. There a lot of Boston names. Remember when you see the Boston bench scoring to put it in perspective, always included in that of course this year is Kevin McCale. Male has 20 of those 39. Nice shot by Danny Manning over the rookie Smith. [Music] against Charles Smith with eight on the shot clock. Hale tried about six moves, couldn’t do anything with it. Five on the clock and Lewis throws up a prayer. He had more time. Smith sneaks in for the rebound and the stick back. Michael Smith with four points in the game. Now, [Applause] that was good defense by Smith that time cuz he denied the low place to Kevin. Got him out on the court where he can do a much better job on him. Harper is going to have to shoot it over Klein from long range. Clippers trail the Celtics by two at the half. After three, LA leads it by three. Crowd at the sports arena and it’s 7:30 LA time. The Lakers are playing across town tonight against Sacramento. So there’ll be 30,000 plus basketball fans watching these two games in Los Angeles tonight where the NBA is alive and well. Thank you. Clippers by three to begin the final 12 minutes. Boston staying with her bench to open up this quarter. Manning with a jump ball. [Applause] [Music] Male and Bird with Klene, Gamble and Lewis on the floor for [Music] Boston. Bird with six on the shot clock. Gets it down to Reggie Lewis over Harper. Nice play. Clippers by one. [Applause] Grant with the pullup. Grant has 22. That’s where the threat of the penetration has such an effect because he had the defender falling backwards almost. Was able to pull up for a nice medium distance jumper. And Gamble forgot that he had pulled up his dribble. Didn’t get any help when he didn’t get it off to Lewis. Male came too late and the turnover. And Boston now has committed 16 turnovers to 10 for Los Angeles. Couple of finals, New Jersey beat Washington. And San Antonio likewise to Charlotte. Grant down the lane. Manning keeps it alive. The jump hook. Look at the hustle. Grant threw it out of bounds off of Boston. It’ll belong to the Clippers. There’s youth at work. Youth and talent. Well, that’s the type of hustle that the fans have been seeing here at the sports arena this year as Danny can’t get the jump hook to go. There’s Charles Smith trying. Danny keeps it alive again. Here goes Grant and Danny both over and Grant takes it, throws it in, bounces off of Danny and also hit Gamble, but Gamble didn’t look like he was already out of bounds. That’s why he was complaining. Clippers are nine and four here at the Sports Arena. This is They’ve won five in a row. They’re going for six in a row tonight. Benjamin, I would think Parish is going to be back in this game pretty quickly. And also Dennis Johnson. Benjamin has 10. Bird and male against Manning. Gary Grant bad pass that time. Missed Norman from behind and Boston gets a break. That was a time that he should have pulled up at the free throw line to to survey the situation. Then he could have kept his dribble. He didn’t have the pass then maybe go and penetrate. That time he penetrated in, threw it back at a bad angle. Grant has nine assists tonight, averaging nine and a half on the season. Bird posted against Harper, but they couldn’t get him the ball. Reggie Lewis from the perimeter. Now, that’s the guy they need to really start to come through for him. He really had a spectacular season last year when Bird was out, and he really hasn’t gotten back to playing the kind of basketball that he was playing last season. Of course, he he was bothered with a with an injury. [Music] Clippers by three. Manning takes it down the lane right on Male. Draws the foul. Number 32 Four on Kevin Ma. Now they’re saying it was a pass off, not a shot. That’s what Kevin McCall gone over to the official say, “Hey, he was passing the ball.” Manning with a shrug. Yeah, one of the few times that an appeal to the official. Here comes as you mentioned earlier, but oh he goes in. He goes in for male which is a little bit of a surprise. Klein stays in the ball game along with Bird up front. Gamble and Lewis in the back and the New York Knicks get Miami by six. Look at Manning’s drive to the hoop. He got fouled. He’ll get the continuation. Yeah. And again, taking advantage of the matchup situation. No way that Joe Klein can stay with Danny Manning out in the court. Look, he’s already backing up now. to get weight on the heels and the quick step going to the left. Klein not quick enough to recover the foul and the basket. This guy’s a franchise player. I mean, obviously he was a number one pick and people thought that after the knee injury, you wondered if he would have that move. Well, he’s so unselfish, Bob, and he’s such a team player and and yet in that last year at Kansas, he showed that he certainly could take the responsibility of taking a team on his shoulders and carrying him to great heights. Clippers biggest lead of the game by six. Jimmy Rogers needs a timeout and gets one. 925 to go in the game. Danny Manning leading the Clippers back here. They trail by two at the half. They lead it by six. Well, the Clippers with their biggest lead of the game, 9286. We have more action coming your way on our sister station TBS. We’ll have the Hawks at Dallas tomorrow night. That’ll start at 8:35 Eastern time. Then back to TNT on next Tuesday at 8:00 Eastern. Phoenix will be at Madison Square Garden. [Music] Dennis Johnson back into the ball game for the Celtics along with Reggie Lewis the number two guard. Reggie starting to come through right now for Boston as Pinkney’s come in because of the matchup. He’s on Manning. Good move by Jimmy Rogers. Pinkney, Parish, and Bird up front with Lewis and Dennis Johnson. Look at Manning handle the ball. We’re talking about his ball handling skills. He’ll just try Pinkney out for size. His jump hook doesn’t go. Parish with the rebound. [Music] Parish hasn’t done so well scoring wise tonight, but does have 12 boards. Bird gets the offensive rebound off the Lewis miss. And the Clippers now lead it only by two. Clippers can’t just get into this. Walk it up the court and start to play start to play half court basketball. They still have to do the running that they were doing so effectively to get a lead. Grant to Harper. Beautiful pass. Good defense by Parish and Lewis. And Lewis will feed the break. He has Pinkney down deep but can’t see him. He gets it to Parish. Gets his own rebound. But there’s Benoy Benjamin. Grant from the perimeter. He has [Music] 24 Clippers by four. Eight minutes to go in this ball game. It’s going to be a good finish. Tough prediction. Just ask me about 1990. I’ll give you my opinion about that, too. Clippers foul as Dennis Johnson tried to battle [Music] through about 19. I like the Lakers. Dennis Johnson from the perimeter. I only go with semi sure things. [Applause] Clippers by two. 743 to go in this ball game. [Applause] Grant from Harper. Manning there for the rebound, but the foul to the backourt may be on Manning. It is. [Music] See, Manning has four. Excuse me. I think that shot by Grant was the was a good shot in this situation in the ball game. Uh he’s not that good from that distance and to take it that’s not showing enough patience. You got to get a better shot than that in a close ball game. I think you pointed that out about the Clippers. They are missing the perimeter shooter. The really good one, the John Paxton caliber. This game’s tied and Don Casey doesn’t like what he sees from this Boston matchup with his Clippers team. And now we’ll get a few more chess moves when we return with seven minutes to go in the game. Celtics are tied at 94. Well, it’s the end of the year. I don’t want you to get too cocky. Elgen Baylor, you saw his name highlighted there. Of course, the GM here with the Clippers. Jerry West across town. They’re playing over there tonight at the forum at 7:30 against Sacramento. The Kings are staying there until the Turner Broadcasting System was. Did we hold that hotel? No, I don’t think so. No, I think Ted tried that. Ted tried that once with a hotel. That’s right. He did the hotel thing. Seven minutes to go and Gary Grant will inbound for the Clippers. Don Casey had a chat with his Chargers as he saw their six-point lead slip away into the 9494 [Applause] tie. I thought there might be some personnel changes. Both teams came back with the same players. Charles Smith over Bird and that’s where Kevin McCale would have a little bit better advantage defensively against a Charles Smith on that type of a move. And he’s been on the bench for a considerable number of minutes now with his 20 points. [Music] [Applause] Seven on the shot clock. Nice pass from Parish. Lewis draws the foul. And see this is where if the game gets very close and you come down the half quarter execution. The Celtics certainly have an advantage. There’s the pass into Parish and a good cut from the right part of your screen as you see Lewis go by as Charles Smith got caught looking at the pass. And there’s the foul coming over to help out from the weak side. But you can’t get caught doing that. I mean you have to keep relationship between your man and ball. When the pass went in, you should have dropped his body back to keep his man outside and side of the ball as well. Instead, he turned his head and paid paid the price. That was a good cut on the part of Reggie Lewis because that’s what you should do when your man turns his head. Kevin McCale, one of the celebrities watching this game performance with 6 and a half minutes to go. They called Charles Smith for the personal reaching in on the drive. That’s four on Charles Smith by the way. Harper will pull up over Reggie Lewis. See again Bob, that’s not the kind of shot that you want. Third fulllength court attempted for Reggie Lewis. Intercepted by Harper. He’ll take it right back to the hoop. Charles Smith with the rebound. And he goes down like he was hit at a heavyweight fight. Parish will pick up the personal. Could have been any number of players getting called. That is Parish’s first personal foul of a game. Very unusual for Robert have one. As we see the good penetration move. Harper gliding in there. Can’t get the bounce, but look at how Smith just snuck in there. Nobody screened them off. Lost the handle. Picks it up and goes up strong. And you saw Robert Parish committing the foul, but good hustle on the part of Smith. We’ve seen him do that a number of times this evening. Well, our national viewers on TNT don’t get a chance to see the Los Angeles Clippers nearly as much as the Celtics or the Lakers or the teams that have been recently in the NBA quarterfinals and semis and finals and such. But I’ll tell you what, playing like this, you’ll be able to see the more. This is an entertaining basketball. Well, they have a lot of talented players, a lot of great athletes as we pointed out, and they’re just going to keep getting better and better. Lewis from [Applause] Parish and he draws the foul. Boston taking it inside as we’ve seen them do so many times. Well, that’s where they’ve uh made their reputation over the years, getting inside and dominating in that area. and they’re doing a good job with that here this evening in the late stage of this ball game, but they’ve gotten the game down to a tempo that really plays into their favor. Much slower type of a ball game and the Clippers have got to find some way to come up with some good defensive efforts and get a few more of those breaking opportunities that have been the difference in them being able to get a lead in this game. Along with Rick Barry, this is Bob Neil from the sports arena. Celtics and Clippers. It’s tied at 98. 543 remaining. By the way, that personal was on Benoy Benjamin. his third. 15 ties now. Reggie Lewis with 22 points in this game. He’s performing here like we saw him last year. Inside to Charles Smith. Boy, I tell you what, there was some great defense played by the Celtics that time. They didn’t join the old paratrooper club and it looked like they had hands on the ball and they’re very unhappy about this call. Here’s the move inside. Now watch the big faker. They don’t go for it. And there he goes up and boom. H across the arm. Now I saw Robert Parish certainly got him across the forearm there. Parish got the foul. Male did not. It was Robert Parish’s second person. Male, by the way, has four. And I think we’ve got our 18 bleed change. Smith with 24 points in this game tonight. [Music] Parish rebounds the miss free throw. Clippers by one. Do you realize the Clippers were favored over the Celtics by one point coming into this game tonight? We were talking around the arena. Nobody ever remembers Clippers being favored over Celtics before. Bird with about three or four moves before he takes it off the glass. Bird gets his second field goal of the fourth period. Has 23 points. The Celtics have the one-point lead. The lead change 19. Here’s Charles Smith from long range. Well, again, showing you he has that versatility we talked about. Put it on the floor, shoot the 18-footer, post up. Talented player. Charles Smith was only 5’11 when he was in ninth grade in high school. He grew up in youth basketball handling it and shooting from the perimeter. Said it served him well when he added the nearly extra foot of height. Bird with the turnaround. Rebound. Benjamin from the weak side. You mean there’s hope for my boys yet, huh? Yes. [Applause] Clippers by one. 424 to go in the game. 98 on the shot clock and counting inside to Smith. He’ll get the three-point opportunity. Bird with the push. That’s four personals on Bird. 28 in this game for Charles Smith who has just been spectacular in all areas. Jimmy Rogers gets a timeout. There’s the push and the three-point opportunity. [Music] [Applause] Clippers have built a three-point lead with 417 remaining in the game. Charles Smith got the basket. He’ll have the three-point opportunity. That brings them out of their seats for some celebrating here at the sports arena. Remember, the Clippers have never beaten Boston since the franchise move from San Diego. And at the timeout, Arsenio Hall was over in the huddle saying, “Let’s get back.” Yeah. The old familiar pumping of the right fist, which he is known for. Is that what that’s called? Very, very talented guy. Fun show. I wondered what that was called. The pumping of the right fist. Yeah, the pumping of the right fist. That’s game’s about that. Even Clippers have a three-point lead. By the way, Charles Smith has his careerh high. 28 points here tonight. 26 previously, now 29. Careerhigh from Charles Smith out of Pittsburgh by way of the US Olympic team. [Applause] Male trying to battle through a pick. Manning all over him down there. Knocked out of bounds. 10 seconds on the [Applause] clock. Danny Manning handles the ball in the open court really well. And you saw his strength against Michaela. Well, that’s where he really improved at Kansas going into his last couple years is learning how to play inside and getting upper body strength. Four on the clock. Bird goes for three. Misses it. Benjamin kept it alive for Charles Smith. The four-point lead belongs to the Clippers. They can match their game high six-point lead or better with a bucket here. Smith again showing some ball handling also. The reversal. Manning blocked by Parish. They’re going to call him for the foul. But you see the presence of mind of Danny Manning. A lot of players would have been more would have been willing to take the open shot when they caught that ball. Danny wisely took it strong to the basket. That’s how you get to the line. That’s how you win basketball games. And this the only time this franchise had really any success against Boston is when they were in Buffalo, which was a long time ago, prior to San [Music] [Applause] Diego. Manning has 14 [Applause] points and the Clippers have a five-point lead with three and a half remaining in the game. Lewis draws the foul. His biggest defense came for Harish on that play. He almost ran into it. That’ll be the fourth personal on Benjamin. Still plenty of time for the Celtics here with 323. And again, the scary thing about it is that the Clippers are seem to be content to just bring it up the court and trying to use the clock as an ally. But I I still believe they have to try to get some transition easy hoops for themselves to be able to beat this Boston Celtic team. Reggie Lewis has 23. He’s only three points away from his season high of 26. That Bob or continue to do the kind of plays they did to Charles Smith to get him down low inside on front of Larry Bird with good position. That was good half court offense. But they don’t do that all the time. They sometimes will take those bad shots. Let’s see how they do these next few possessions. Bird had 16 at the half, 23, now has only two field goals here in the fourth quarter with three minutes remaining. Six on the shot clock. Harper over Parish. What a shot by Ron Harper. He has 20. Balance scoring by this Clippers club. The lead is five. Male drew three players. Finally finds the open man. It’s Lewis with a tough baseline runner. He’s now matched his season high. Clippers got away with just an incredible shot on the part of Harper the last time down. Now, that was not exactly the shot that Casey Hutton should get. They’re trying to get it into Charles Smith against Male. They’ve isolated that side. Male commits the foul. That’ll be number five. [Applause] [Music] Well, this is the, you know, everybody kept saying, “Where are all those young players the Clippers kept drafting?” Well, here’s one of them. And again, the move was Kevin Crom on the left wrist as Charles made the little turn, moved to the [Applause] baseline. An even 30 for Charles Smith tonight. [Applause] Did I see more gray hair in the head of Jimmy Rogers there this time last year? Uh, this job can do that to you. Clippers by five. 220 to go in the ball game. Bird. That’s a two-pointer. Clippers by three. Been a beautiful basketball game. 20 plus lead changes. Charles Smith in and out. Rebound. Parish. Big miss. as the Celtics to pull to within one or tie. They’ll get a timeout with 15 seconds on the shot clock just as Bird had broken loose from a weak side screen. We’ll be right [Applause] back. 149 remaining in this ball game. Sellout crowd at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. Boston is undefeated in Los Angeles since the Clippers moved here from San Diego, but that streak is threatened tonight. Hope you’ll join yours truly and Tim Foley on New Year’s Eve at 8:00 Eastern time in Tucson, Arizona on our sister station, Superstation TBS for the inaugural Coffer Bowl, North Carolina State. And in case in case somebody just tuned in, yours truly is Bob Neil. Thank you, Rick. And Arizona’s Wildats. Arizona favored in that game by a touchdown. But Arizona lost their leading rusher, David Elridge. That’ll even that ball game up. It’s an Arizona running game versus the Shane Montgomery passing game of North Carolina State. It’s a little bit like what we’re watching here. Exactly. Clippers trying to get the running game against the different game of the Celtics. Celtics down by three with a minute 43 remaining. Bird can’t get it to go down. It’s been the story of his year often this year even though he has 25 in the game. Minute and a half to go. I have a feeling that wasn’t the last shot we’ll see from Bird. Harper over Male. McCale was there for the defense and Parish runs it down. Parish with 15 boards tonight or glasses. Lewis with the miss. Harish with the follow and it’s a one-point Clippers game with a minute 11 to go. The Boston bench standing and applauding on these players on the floor. Johnson and Lewis with male bird and Parish inside a minute isolating Smith on male. Male with five fouls. The miss and it’s Boston ball trailing by one with 48 seconds to go. The Clippers have never beaten the Celtics in Los [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Angeles. Dennis Johnson. Seven on the shot clock. Birds going to drive on Smith. Pulls up. Misses male. No. They say it’s the Clippers who knocked it out of bounds. Boston will have the ball with 25 seconds remaining and Jimmy Rogers gets a timeout. It’s only a 20 second timeout. Well, now what certainly what the uh Celtics have an opportunity to do here is to go ahead and wind down the clock and go for an opportunity with the shot clock down considerably low with one chance to get an offensive board should they not drop it in. Trailing by one point. The last play on the shot as Larry Bird made the move against Charles Smith who got tripped up. Larry two times in a row now unable to get that shot to drop. Here you see the ball last touched in between. It was Manny coming through with his hand and knock it out of Kevin’s hand. Excellent call. But this is what you’d want to do. Play it down. Get a good opportunity. I would think they’d like to get it inside instead of trying to go for the perimeter shot. Maybe inside the Parish or Male. And then again with a few shot seconds left in the shot clock with one offensive opportunity which doesn’t leave the Clippers a lot of time then if they make it almost identical the shot clock and the game clock. Lewis, they’re calling it a pass off, I think. Or they’re calling a foul. It’s on the Clippers and it’s against Ron Harper. Call a two shot foul, not a pass. I thought Lewis has done a great job of going to the basket strong in this game. Here you see they overplay him. He takes advantage of it. Danny Manning over to help out now. Harper up in the air. Harper, boy, I tell you, I don’t know where I saw any contact on that play. Manning had the block through. Harper doesn’t like it. And Lewis goes to the line. A chance to give the Celtics the lead. It’s tied. 10 seconds remains in this game. And now we have the tenth of seconds on the shot clock, on the game clock. And it’ll really matter. 10.3 seconds remaining. Celtics by one. Clippers have three full timeouts remaining. And Don Casey will use one of those. So the Clippers had a six-point lead. The veteran Boston club has come back to regain the lead with 10.3 seconds remaining. Clippers last scored with 224 to go in this game. And Bob, the big problem again is that it’s like they were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. The way they were getting that lead was by getting the running game going. They never really got anything going the last four, five, six minutes of this ball game. And as a result, they played Boston Celtic basketball. The Celtics clamped down some on the defense and were able to go down then and execute their half court offense, get themselves right back in this ball game. Whereas now they have a one-point lead and Clippers chance now to try and go ahead and get a shot up there with a few sec just a few seconds left in hopes that if they don’t make it that they have an opportunity to get one offensive rebound chance and then that wouldn’t leave much time for the Boston Celtics. The only thing the Celtics did that time was that they went ahead a little bit early and are giving the Clippers plenty of time to try and still win this basketball game. But if something’s there like a drive, you’ve got to take it. And that was a good move by Lewis. The man for Boston has been Reggie Lewis off the bench. 28 points his season high. He was the man who just hit the go-ahead free throws. Charles Smith against Ma. Got Parish airborne. Smith with a bucket. 5.1 seconds remaining. Boston wants and gets a timeout. Oh my. Charles Smith. That took a lot of poise. Well, my question is is did he travel? The other one is is that he might have gone a little early. 5.1 seconds in eternity in the NBA game right now. Well, watch it again. There’s the inbounds pass to Smith. Now, watch at the end of this move if indeed he’s going to travel with the ball. There’s the crossover. Here he goes. He stopped one. Boom. Now watch. He’s traveled. He dripped his foot. He dragged that pivot foot. That’s a traveling violation. That basket should not have counted, but still 5.1 for the Boston Celtics. His foot skidded on the floor. Also moved his foot. Nevertheless, it’s a one-point Clippers lead with 5.1 remaining. Year in year out, two years ago, we know what’s going to happen here. Some kind of twoman game perhaps. Male and Bird Bird launching one or male taking it inside. What about 1989? [Music] About 1989, I think. Well, right here with this Boston Celtic team to finish off the towards the end of the year. I would think that they’re going to want to go inside. Uh and then, of course, they have the option of trying to spot some people up. They’ve had good success with their inside game. uh go to the basket. Lewis has been real good going to the hoop strong. You got male down alone to post up. And again, a penetration move creates so many problems for you. Parish got that one big basket on a penetration move because Benjamin had to come over to pick up Lewis and then Parish was there from the offensive force. You just get so much more happening for yourself on the positive side, Bob, if you can get to the basket to get inside. So, but again, of course, you still have Larry Bird outside. He’s missed two tries from out there. I would think the percentage is in his favor that if he does take a shot from the outside, he’s not going to drop this guy. Remember, Boston has no timeouts remaining. They must get this ball inbounded. Also 5second count. Of course, if they don’t, there’s only a tenth of a second left. Remember this year, tenth of seconds on the game clock. 5.1 seconds remaining. Charles Smith 33 points. That’s his careerhigh. [Applause] They’re going to looks like the Clippers are going to get a timeout. And it may be a 20. It’s a full timeout. And we’ll take a commercial break here with 5.1 seconds remaining. 17 ties, 23 lead changes, and if there’s another, Boston will probably win. I’ll tell you again, but the Clippers have never defeated Boston in Los Angeles. The last win was in 84 when this team was still in San Diego. So Boston has 5.1 seconds. No timeout remaining and they need to put somebody on that ball creating a lot of pressure for the inbounds pass as you pointed out without a timeout remaining. That’s why they’ve got Kevin McCale making the inbounds pass. Use his size there. But no, they’re backing off right now. At least Danny Manning is maybe he’ll move up. Johnson, Parish, Reggie Lewis, Bird, and Male on the floor for the Celtics trailing by one with 5.1 seconds to go into Bird. He’s fouled with two ten of a second remaining on the shot attempt. Larry Bird, who shoots at a 92% clip, draws the foul from Charles Smith. Boy, Charles looked like he was just standing there and Larry had initiated the contact. Let’s watch this play again. Watch Smith now as he’s going to come over 54 to come and cut off Larry Bird. There he is. Now he stops. Hands straight up in the air. just stands up. He left his feet. That’s where he made the problem. He went up in the air. Had he stayed down on the ground on the court, he could have made a difference. Look at Larry saying to the crowd, “Come on, yell a little bit louder.” Bird shooting 92%. He gets the first. It’s tied. This will effectively win the game with two of a second remaining. Well, I’ve seen stranger things happen, Bob. You never really know here, but he first he’s got to knock this one in. and does the Clippers get a timeout with two ten of a second. It certainly made it interesting to have the tenth of seconds on the clock this year. Is there even an opportunity to inbound it and shoot it in 210 of a second? When we come back, we’ll find out because his back was to the basket. He had to catch it, turn, and then shoot. And no question the horn had gone off before he shot the ball. Well, it was a courageous call by Mike Matthysse. Believe me. I mean, the crowd got on their feet in an instant. Let’s watch it again. The inbound to Harper. He had his back to the basket. Well, there’s no no chance here. He’s back to the basket. Now he’s going to have to turn. Boom. With a man on him. No. Now he turns. He goes up. Boom. Gone. Now that clock looked like it went from two all the way to zero very quickly. But there’s no question. The ball was not offense. It’s true. It goes very quick. So, in your opinion, it was a good call. Yeah, it really was. I’ll ask you on the spot again, and you always respond. A good call by Matthysse. Boston escapes with a one-point lead and the Clippers are yet to defeat Boston in LA sends the move from San Diego. Harper’s basket does not count. Clipped at the buzzer and Boston wins it by one. Being a basketball fan in LA tonight a bit like being a baseball fan in Chicago on those rare in LA. Thanks Craig Seager. Well, two big calls there at the end of the game. First of all, the foul that Larry Bird converted into the two free throws that gave Boston the one-point lead. Then with 2/10 of a second remaining, the ball inbounded to Ron Harper and watch it tick down. Two T10 now, not two seconds, but two. Remember Bob, two10 goes very, very quickly. He’s going to touch the ball at that point and boom, the clock should start right away. And it doesn’t even look like it started. Now he turns and there it goes. And it goes from two to zero. But that’s 210. Now, even if he had more time, it’s still in his hand now. It just finally went out of his hand. There’s no question that the shot came after the clock had gone off. And this is the home clock. And it was just an unfortunate situation for the Clippers, but they beat themselves by not getting the breaking game going late in the game. Tonight’s Miller Light player of the game is the man for Boston. Even though Bird hit the free throws, Reggie Lewis had his season high 28 points and really provided the penetration to get Boston in position to draw the fouls and get the offensive rebounds. Reggie Lewis, our player of the game. On behalf of Miller Light, TNT proud to donate $1,000 to the United Cable Poly Foundation in the name of Reggie Lewis, who’s now reappearing for Boston. And heaven knows they need a guard. Next TV game on TNT will be Tuesday at 8:00 Eastern time. Phoenix versus the New York Knicks. Knicks were winners once again tonight. From the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, the Celtics 112, the Clippers 111 in a beautiful basketball game. Remember, these Clippers will be heard from. for Rick Barry. This is Bob Neil. So long everybody [Music]

BIRD 27 PTS / 5 AST / 5 RB / 2 STL / 0 BLK

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