Great Celtics Playoff Performances

Here's an article about the so-called greatest individual performances in Celtics playoff history.  At first, I thought they were presented in order of greatness, and that pretty much suited me perfectly.  But it looks as though they are presented in order of date.  The good thing is that there are representatives from every important Celtics era.  Otherwise, I'll withhold my judgment and leave it for others to debate.  You can even vote for the all-time best in a poll associated with the article.  Each "candidate" is accompanied by some video from that respective game.

As a complete aside, I'd like to draw particular attention to the height of Russ's leg—just about clearing 6' 7" Heinsohn's eyebrows—in rebounding action on Slide #4.

Enjoy!

Sam

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/gallery/celtics_playoffperformances/

Great list.

But the only glaring omission is that none of Sam Jones's exploits were included. He was way before my time, but even I know that Sam Jones was one of the great big game players of all time. How many buzzer beaters did he sink? Didn't he get 47 in a deciding game against Oscar Robertson's Royals? Didn't he hold the Celtic playoff record with 51 before Hondo broke it?

He's the guy that none other than Bill Russell said that in a seventh game he would take over anyone he's ever seen.


Just to be ultra picky, what about Dave Cowens's 20 points and nine rebounds--all in the 4th quarter-- to save game one against Bob McAdoo and the Buffalo Braves in 1974? Or JoJo's shooting in overtime number three of the epic game five against the Suns?

But then again in fairness in a playoff history as illustrious as the Celtics', who would you knock off the list?

Being a grumpy old codger, my biggest objection is that the list was skewed too much in favor of recent history, fed by the notion that great basketball didn't exist prior to ESPN.

The Cousy-Russell years: 11 titles, four of the 23 slides
Pierce, Allen, Rondo, KG: 1 title, 12 of the 23 slides

On the bright side, the votes in the poll at the end were heavily in favor of Russell's 30-point, 40-rebound game, so kudos to the knowledgeable Celtic fan base.

Still, Ray Allen got mentioned four times, while Bob Cousy was mentioned once, Russell twice, and Sam Jones not at all. Huh?

Sloopjohnb wrote:But then again in fairness in a playoff history as illustrious as the Celtics', who would you knock off the list?

I'd start with these:

• Slide 1, Rondo vs. Miami in 2012. Excellent game by Rondo, but context matters: there are many great performances by Celtics that helped them win a series or title, but Boston didn't do either in this case. Shoot, they didn't even win the game. What do you think Russell or Bird would say about a great performance in a game they didn't win?

• Slide 12, Pierce vs. Nets in 2002. He had 28 points, five rebounds, and four assists, and he shot 38% from the field, including 0-5 on threes. Besides the fact that he had a bad game until the fourth quarter, they lost the series 4-2 to the Nets.

• Slide 13, Allen vs. Lakers in 2008. This was the series-clinching game 6 in Boston, which was a slaughter over the Lakers. Ray could've stayed home and it wouldn't have mattered. Games 1, 2, and 4 are where the series was decided, but other than the "wheelchair" thing, what was most notable about those games was that it was a team performance where no individual player had eye-popping stats. The only thing that gets this game by Ray on the list is tying the record for threes in a finals game. If he'd scored the same number of points but made one fewer three, it wouldn't make the list.

• Slide 15, Allen vs. Bulls in 2009. A nice game by Ray, but it was game 2 in the first round in a year when they lost in the second round.

• Slide 16, Allen vs. Bulls in 2009. Must've been a great series to get two mentions in this list. Besides the context I mentioned for slide 15 -- game was in the first round, they lost in the second round -- they lost this game.

• Slides 20 and 21, Pierce and Rondo vs. Knicks in 2011. This was a first-round series that Boston swept. With all the great performances by Celtic players on the highest of stages, I don't see how games make the list for a first-round series that they swept in a year when they didn't win a title.

• Slide 22, Pierce vs. Hawks in 2012. Another first-round series in another year when they didn't win the title. A playoff game against Atlanta can make this list if you're talking about Bird and Dominique. A playoff game against Atlanta in this century? Not so much.

I also have to mention slide 10, where the writer characterized Bird's performance this way: "In other words, Rondo with scoring." I like Rondo, but I cannot count how many shades of ignorant that sentence is.

I get that they didn't want to make this all about the Celtics of the '50s and '60s, but c'mon.

Outside and Sloop, now you’ve gone and opened Pandora’s Box.  I intentionally avoided comment on this article specifically because of the slight to the Russell Celtics and, particularly to Sam.  I didn’t want to come of as just singing the same old theme.  But, since you brought it up………

Here’s a list of the most points scored by a Celtic in a Game 7:

Number 1: Sam Jones: 51 vs. Cincinnati 4/10/63
Number 2: Paul Pierce: 41 vs. Cleveland 5/18/2008
Number 3: Larry Bird: 39 vs. New York Knicks 5/13/84
Number 4 (tie): Sam Jones: 37 vs. Philadelphia 4/15/65
Number 4 (tie): Larry Bird: 37 vs. Detroit 5/30/87
Number 4 (tie): Tom Heinsohn: 37 vs. St. Louis 4/13/57

Here’s a list of the most combined points two opponents in the same playoff game—all-time:

Number 1: 90 by Sam Jones (47) and Oscar Robertson (43); Eastern Conference Finals: Celtics 142, -Royals 131, 4/10/63
Number 2: 86 by Lebron James (45) and Paul Pierce (41); Eastern Conference Finals: Celtics 97, Cavs 92,  5/18/2008
Number 3: 81 by Dominique Wilkins (47) and Larry Bird (34); Eastern Conference Semis, Celts 118, Hawks 116, 5/22/88
Number 4: 79 by George Gervin (42) and Bob Dandrige (37); Eastern Conference Finals;, Bullets 107, Spurs 105, 5/18/79

Sam came into his own with the retirement of Bill Sharman in 1962.  Invariably, his scoring average increased as the games became more meaningful each season.  Between 1962-63 and 1964-65, he averaged:

20.9 in the regular season
23.9 in the post-season
26.3 in elimination games

Between 1965-66 and 1968-69, he averaged:

20.8 in the regular season
21.5 in the post-season
23.3 in elimination games

In the Championship Game 7 against the Lakers on April, 18, 1962, Sam scored five points in overtime to lead the Celtics to an exhausting win.

Before the 7th game of the Eastern Division Finals against the Royals on April 24, 1963, the newspapers (even in Boston) were full of how Oscar Robertson was very likely to decimate the Celtics in Game 7 and lead Cincinnati to the championship.  Russell threw up.  I threw up.  Everyone threw up.  Oscar played a sensational game and wound up with 43 points.  But Sam Jones went out and scored 47 (while guarding Oscar most of the game), besting another of the game’s legends in an historic Game 7 head-to-head battle.

In the “Havlicek Stole the Ball” Eastern Finals final game on April 15, 1965, Sam scored 37 points to lead the way for Boston’s offense.

In 1966, Sam put together 30+ point game performances in three straight elimination games.

Sam duplicated his 51-point playoff game outburst against the New York Knicks on March 28, 1967, but the Celts eliminated the Knicks in only 4 games, and I count as real elimination games only playoff games that could potentially eliminate either team.

In his last elimination game (the "Balloon Game") against the Lakers on May 5, 1969, at nearly age 35, Sam scored 24 points—his uniform number—and grabbed 7 rebounds.  And Game 7 was made possible by Sam’s game-winning jumper as time ran out in Game 4 to tie the championship series 2-2 instead of putting the Lakers up 3-1 and heading home for Game 5.

I could not possible say enough about Sam Jones to give him his due in terms of what he meant to the Russell Tyranny.  I believe Russ when he says his teams might possibly have won one or two championships without Sam.  Russ talks about the number of game-winners Sam hit, and some people like to take issue with Russ’s count.  But Russ can be excused for going overboard in his praise of Sam because Sam meant so incredibly much in the fortunes of those teams night-in and night-out and even more so in clutch games.  And one prediction I’m willing to make is that no NBA player until the end of time will dislodge Sam Jones from his perch as the owner of more player championship rings (by at least a margin of two) than any other player in NBA history other than Bill Russell.

I often wonder what might have happened if Sam had taken Red up on his offer of a $25,000 raise to keep on playing.  If Sam had kept playing until the Celts acquired Dave Cowens one year after Sam quit.  Could Sam have tied Russ with 11 rings?  How about 12 rings?  Would the so-called basketball intelligencia  so readily have continued to ignore his greatness?

Although I was present at every one of the cited games and have indelible memories of them, my memory and subjectivity played virtually no role in any of this.  Material for this post was furnished almost exclusively by three sources:

http://www.nba.com/news/celticsgame7scoring_080518.html
http://www.game7.com/history.php
Basketball reference.com

The Other Sam

Sam when Sam Jones left he had 24 points on 10-16 fg in game 7, I think the guy had alot left, more than Hondo in his last year. JoJo White came the next year, he could have even kept his starting spot, because Don Chaney was still an offensive liability.

Russell should have stayed one more year to go at Kareem and give hoops fanatics some great theater, the young gun vs the old master.

Cow.... good chance if both Russ and Sam stayed 1 more season, you would have a different name.

beat

Cow, it's one of those things I'll always wonder about. I believe Sam's departure was a major reason why Russ quit. Sam didn't know about Russ's impending departure when he (Sam) announced retirement intentions at the beginning of the season. Sam already had a job promise as Athletic Director and Head Coach at Federal City College in Washington. From his dictation, I typed his Strategic Plan for that job.

I'll never cease to be amazed at how much Red's offer of an extra 25 grand to stay aboard meant to Sam, even though he didn't accept it. "Can you believe it?" he'd say—actually at the point of tears. He was and is quite possibly the single most humble human being I've ever known. And yet, when it came to playing or talking about the game of basketball, his eyes reflected his supreme self-confidence. Sort of like, "I know what I can do. No need to talk about it or even hint at it in my mannerisms."

My latest endeavor is to try to get his college to erect a statue of Sam on their campus. It's sad that, when someone asked him (when Russ got his statue) whether he (Sam) would like a statue of himself in Boston, he replied in the negative, saying that a statue on his college campus would mean a lot more to him.

In the 45 years since he retired, I believe Sam could count his Boston visits on one hand. His statement that "I only go to places where I'm invited" actually reduced me to tears. I guess it was out of sight, out of mind.

When Russ's teammates got together at statue unveiling time, Sam's wife (and another wife she was with—I can't recall who it was) wasn't even able to find the ceremony, which had been moved indoors because of rain. Gladys, who walks with a cane as does Sam (who had a knee replacement last December), wandered all over the place and finally gave up. Why would a team not have rolled out the welcome carpet in a more organized and helpful way?

Okay, that's my rant for the day.

Sam

Cow,

By the way, an amazing thing is that Sam guarded a much younger Jerry West in that last game. That's why Sam fouled out with a lot of time left.

Sam

Russell in his book, "Second Wind" said that he decided to quit after a regular season game when the team stole the ball and had a chance to win it with a few seconds left.  In the huddle, he pounded his fists and was talking about killing them when he suddenly burst into hysterical laughter at the absurdity of a grown man yelling about killing someone while standing around in the equivalent of his underwear in front 10.000 people.

They did not win the game.  In fact they threw the ball away.

The man who Tommy Heinshon characterized as having a "neurotic need to win" was apparently being cured of his neurosis.

Russell said that he had never denigrated the importance of winning before and knew that the competitive fire was cooling down.

It was time to get out--after he won one more of course.

Sam Jones had announced that it was his last season.  Russell told no one that it was his as well.  In fact, Auerbach and everyone else learned of it that summer when Russell wrote an article for Sports Illustrated called, "I'm Not Involved Anymore."

Heard that Red called up Russell and said, "Why don't you pick up another 10 grand by writing an article called, 'Why I Changed My Mind.'"

Harrr!!!

What's that line from a song? "The secret to a happy life is knowing when it's time to go"? Russell knew when it was time to get out.

Auerbach could have been angry.  The team had already drafted (JoJo White) and a heads up from Russell could have given Red the chance to take more time to look for a replacement as well as a new coach.  But Auerbach said how could he say anything to Russell.  He busted his guts for the Celtics and was the main reason the team had 11 rings in 13 years.

The one retirement "what if" is John Havlicek's.  Hondo didn't quit because of physcial reasons.  This was made plain when he showed up during Bird's rookie year and worked out with the team.  According to Auerbach, if you watched the scrimmage and didn't know who Havlicek was you would have thought that he was one of the team's great players.

After working out with the team, Havlicek said that if he had known there was a chance to play with a guy like Bird, he wouldn't have retired.

Can you imagine Hondo and Bird on the same team?  Anyone who loves the game would drool at that prospect.

sam wrote:Cow,

By the way, an amazing thing is that Sam guarded a much younger Jerry West in that last game.  That's why Sam fouled out with a lot of time left.

Sam

yup West pump faked him on his 6th, thats also why LA was able to make that 4th quarter comeback, C's offense wasn't the same once Sam left. He had some pretty jumper on the right lane right in Wilts face on his last basket, on Wilt, what a nice basket!!