Celtics Take 3-2 Series Lead over 76ers

Apr. 11, 1965 - The 76er-Celtic series might not rate as one of the all-time greats as an artistic success, but it has to be up there atop the NBA playoff heap when it comes to raw, brute roughness.

The Celtics got most of the bruises at Boston Garden today before 13,909 screaming customers, but they also got most of the baskets. Boston, playing the same smart game that has become their trademark, smothered a late Philadelphia uprising to take a 114-108 verdict and move into a 3-2 command in the best-of-seven series. 

“I said before the series started that it would be a war,” Red Auerbach said quietly, showing none of the happiness a coach with a stranglehold on a playoff title figures to show. “Well, it’s been a war all right, and it might get worse.”

Big Bill Russell, a defensive whirlwind in today’s victory, shuddered at the thought.

“I don’t know if these old bones can take much more of this,” the 30-year-old center said with a sigh. “I don’t know when I’ve been so tired. Why? Well, did you ever play a Sherman tank one-on-one?”Russell was referring to his private war with Wilt Chamberlain. Today’s goatee-to-goatee showdown probably would be called a draw. Russell was outscored by Chamberlain, 30-12, but he held a 28-21 rebounding edge and a 7-2 difference in the assist column. But more important, his fantastic shot-blocking seemed to kill every 76er comeback before it reached the serious stage.

But the real highlight of the game was the bouncing bodies. Big Luke Jackson, the 6-9 rookie forward who has been having a lousy series, decked three different Celtics on drives.

He wrapped Tommy Heinsohn around the basket support when Heinsohn was sailing in for a layup. And he did a repeat performance on the Jones boys — Sam and K.C. — and ignored their sprawling bodies.

“Why should I help them up?” Luke snorted later. “I was just trying to stop their shot, and if I happened to put them on the floor that’s just too bad. They do it to you, and you’ve got to do it to them. But if I had been trying to hurt them, you can bet they wouldn’t have gotten up so fast.”

The win was Boston’s 10th straight over the 76ers in Boston, in a streak that extends to last season. But the six-point difference was the closest the 76ers have come to winning in all this time, so one might consider it a moral victory.

Only trouble is, one more moral victory like this one and the 76ers will be dead and the Celtics may wind up hospital cases.

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