The day the Sixers exorcised the ghosts of Boston Garden

EVERYONE had written them off. The Sixers had just let a 3-1 series lead slip away in the 1982 NBA Eastern Conference Finals and now they faced Game 7 against the Celtics in Boston Garden, where the percentages said no one goes in and prevails. On top of that, history appeared to be repeating itself.

Only a year before, the Sixers had allowed a 3-1 series advantage to slip away to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals in a Game 7 at Boston Garden. The agony of that collapse was accentuated by the widely held belief that both the Celtics and Sixers were a better team than the Houston Rockets, who had clinched the Western Conference crown. The thinking was that whoever came out of the Eastern Conference would walk away with the NBA championship (which the Celtics did in six games).

So now it appeared to be happening again. At Boston Garden before that Game 7, the Celtics fans dressed up as "ghosts" in an effort to spook the Sixers. Sixers coach Billy Cunningham says "the press was so hard on us, they were questioning our heritage." Cunningham was so perturbed by it that he had told his team at practice: "All I want to be able to do is walk into the press room afterwards and tell the media: 'It was a great game, both teams played hard and we are moving on to the next level.' "

Cunningham adds, "And then I would just walk out the press room."

Few opponents were as evenly matched as the Sixers and Celtics were that year. Both had superstars (the Sixers in Julius Erving, and the Celtics in Larry Bird). The Sixers had an advantage in the backcourt with Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney. But the Celtics had a Hall of Fame frontcourt in Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. In the 13 games the teams played that season (six regular-season and seven postseason), the Celtics won seven and the Sixers six.

What Cunningham remembers is how fierce the rivalry between the Sixers and Celtics had always been. Fans for both teams were so impassioned that Cunningham says, "You had to want to get into a fight or else you had a screw loose if you walked in Boston Garden or the Spectrum wearing the opposition colors." On the court, the players went at each other with that same intensity. Elbows flew. Bodies went sailing in the stands. Cunningham remembers that in a 1983 exhibition game at Boston Garden, "There were four or five fights.

"You have to understand, that was how it was whenever the Sixers and Celtics played, going back to the Chamberlain and Russell era and even before," says Cunningham. "In that exhibition game, Red Auerbach came down from the stands and challenged our players. And I was out on the court facing off with Red . . . There were players on each side who just did not like each other."

Former Celtics forward Cedric Maxwell laughs. "Our head coach, Bill Fitch, even started in on Grover Washington Jr. [who played the national anthem at the Spectrum on his saxophone]," Maxwell says. "Fitch told us, 'We are going to stick that horn up his butt.' Grover Washington Jr!"

To get to Game 7, on May 23, the Sixers split the opening two games in Boston and then swept Games 3 and 4 in Philadelphia. In Boston again for Game 5, the Celtics blew out the Sixers by 29. The Sixers were in an ideal spot to clinch in Game 6, given that they were back at the Spectrum. But Sixers forward Bobby Jones says, "We let them manhandle us." Suddenly, the series was even. Cunningham was not surprised the Celtics surged back.

"That was the way they always played us," says Cunningham. "Just because we up 3-1, we knew they were not going to pack their bags and head off on vacation."

Only one word could describe the Celtics at that point: loose. "What I remember is that it seemed like it was going the same way as it had the year before," says Maxwell. "We were down and we came back and we were doing it again. So we were loose. The Celtics were home again? The Sixers were on the run again?"

Center Earl Cureton remembers that the coaching staff told the Sixers before Game 7: "There is nothing more we can do for you. We have prepared you. And now you have to get it done."

No player did that to a more impressive degree than Andrew Toney, the legendary "Boston Strangler." In keeping with his stellar performance until that point in the series - which included 30 points in Game 2 and 39 in Game 4 - Toney set the tone for the game by scoring 14 points in the first quarter. Surrounded by superb performances by Erving (29 points), Cheeks (11 assists) and Jones, Toney once again poured it on when the Celtics trimmed the Sixers' lead to two in the second half. No one the Celtics assigned to him could slow him down as he scored 34 points in a game that the Sixers ended up winning handily, 120-106.

"When Andrew got going, you could hit him over the head with a 2-by-4 and not stop him," says Cunningham. "No one the Celtics had could stay with him physically, which is why they later acquired Dennis Johnson. Andrew was a phenomenal basketball player."

Maxwell concedes that the Celtics had become a victim of their own overconfidence, given the way the Sixers had performed in Game 7 the year before. He says, "I think we just assumed they were going to fold."

Incredibly, the Celtics fans set aside the rivalry between the teams as the Sixers pulled away. In anticipation of a showdown between the Sixers and the Lakers in the NBA Finals, the fans in the Boston Garden began chanting: "Beat LA! Beat LA!'' Cunningham could not believe his ears.

"That was phenomenal," says Cunningham. "As bitter as that rivalry, people just enjoyed it and appreciated it for what it was."

Cunningham did precisely what he said he would do at the press conference.

He said it was a great game.

He said both teams played hard.

He said the "we are moving on to the next level."

And he walked out.

"When I got back to the dressing room, Bobby Jones stopped me and said, 'Did you do it?' " says Cunningham. "And I told him, 'Yep!' "

Jones does not remember that exchange. But he does remember that Cunningham asked him to lead the team in a prayer.

"So I led us in a prayer of thanksgiving," Jones says. "We had walked into Boston Garden with the world against us. Everyone said, 'No visiting team can win a Game 7 there.' But we did it. We approached it with a battlefield mentality."

Jones is of the belief that the grueling Celtics series left the Sixers in something less than optimal condition to play the Lakers. The Sixers fell in six games. Jones says, "We had played Milwaukee and Boston to get there. Both were physical teams. Both were up-and-down-the-court teams."

Cunningham agrees, but only up to a point. He says, "We had a chance to beat LA."

The Sixers would win the NBA championship they coveted the following year with the addition of Moses Malone. But while Cunningham says that as wonderful as that accomplishment was, no victory he has been associated with has ever left him more proud than Game 7 of the 1982 Eastern Conference finals at Boston Garden.

To which he adds as a footnote: "Especially because of what had happened the year before."