In his first season as an NBA head coach, George Karl and his Cavaliers began the 1984-85 season with a 2-19 record. But behind the veteran stewardship of the great World B. Free, the Cavs began turning things around in January and a seven-game road winning streak in late-February had them poised for the playoffs. Unfortunately, the 8th-seeded Cavaliers would draw Larry Bird and the World Champion Boston Celtics in the first round.
The scrappy Cavs dropped Game 1 of the series in a high-scoring affair – falling, 126-123, behind Bird’s 40-point outburst.
One of the league’s great trash talkers, Bird supposedly told Phil Hubbard before the jumpball exactly where he was going to hit his jumpers from – and he did exactly that, going off for 30 more points (along with 11 boards, seven assists, a steal and blocked shot) as the Celtics took Game 2 in a 108-106 squeaker at the Garden.