“We played like a bunch of sissies,” Larry Bird, 1984.
The Lakers crushed the Celtics 137-104 in Game 3 of the 1984 NBA Finals and Bird was – to put it mildly – upset. He was fuming at his team’s tepid performance – and this was just in front of the cameras. The Celtics would finally wake up in Game 4 when Kevin McHale clotheslined Kurt Rambis. Lakers’ coach Pat Riley called the Celtics “a bunch of thugs” and he’s still going at it with Danny Ainge nearly 30 years later. The McHale-Rambis play turned the series around and Boston would win it in seven games.
Tlumacki, John Globe Staff
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