The Mystique Goes On

•Spot Dennis Johnson—"his jersey," actually—cutting toward the basket.

•Zip the ball to DJ, who ducked under Dumars' outstretched arms and put up a difficult righthanded layup from the left side. It kissed the glass and went in to give Boston a 108-107 lead.

With one second left, the stunned Pistons called timeout but couldn't get a shot off. Boston had a 3-2 lead.

The Boston Herald went overboard the next day when it ran a headline calling Bird's play the STEAL OF THE CENTURY. After all, the $2.7 million Brink's warehouse robbery occurred about three blocks from Boston Garden in 1950. But there's no doubt that a few million Celtic fans went to sleep that night replaying the steal again and again, VCRs of the mind working overtime.

Certainly Thomas couldn't forget the play. After the Pistons flew home, he went to bed, but got up at 4:30 a.m. and drove around aimlessly. Laimbeer didn't even try to sleep—he did some night fishing at a lake near his home.

On Wednesday the NBA fined Parish $7,500 for his attack on Laimbeer and suspended the Celtic center for the next day's Game 6 in the Silverdome. The Pistons didn't think it was enough, and general manager Jack McCloskey minced no words about Kersey. "Last night's lack of action has to be an embarrassment to every man or woman who has ever officiated any contest, from the Little League to the Super Bowl," said McCloskey. Celtic G.M. Jan Volk, meanwhile, weighed in with this three-point nugget about Laimbeer: "We've still got the consummate provocateur roaming the hardwood."

The Celtics did precious little roaming in Game 6, what with K.C. in San Francisco for the funeral, Parish back in Boston, McHale weakened by the flu and DJ misfiring en route to a 3-for-17 night. Bird's 35 points kept the Celtics close, but the Pistons ran away in the fourth quarter for a 113-105 victory. "They've got to be tired," said Laimbeer after the game. They were. It's just that the Garden wakes them up.

When the Pistons returned to Boston on Friday for Game 7, Thomas registered at his hotel under the name of Tony Montana, the Al Pacino character in Scarface. Why? "Because I'm going to assassinate them," Thomas told his wife, Lynn. But it was his quiet running mate, Dumars, who sprayed machine-gun fire in the first half, scoring 21 points as Detroit took a 56-55 lead in the stifling Garden heat, which reached 88°. But then the poltergeists started to swarm.

Dantley and Johnson go down as the third period ends. With 4:37 left in the fourth Bird cans a running jump shot off the glass lefthanded. At 3:06 Ainge finishes off Boston's remarkable six-shot sequence with his three-pointer. At 1:23 Bird drives the lane and lefthands a pass to Johnson, who sticks a baseline jumper for a 106-103 lead. At 0:25 Ainge hits another big jumper for a 108-105 lead. And then it was nine straight free throws down the stretch, two by McHale, three by DJ, four by Ainge. The Celtics just would not miss—not in Game 7, not in that building. It wasn't the heat that broke the Pistons. It wasn't even the humidity. And no, it wasn't the officiating. It was the history.

And when it was over, McHale, Ainge and Johnson went into something Ainge later called "the Rodman dance," imitating the Detroit rookie's fist-waving exultations. Said Ainge, "That wasn't to make fun of the Pistons as a team. It wasn't intended for anyone but Dennis Rodman."