The History Factor: Well, this is not Celtics-Lakers. Or Celtics-Sixers. Or even Celtics-Hawks. This will be the fourth time the Celtics and Cavaliers have met in the postseason - the first since the epic seven-gamer of 1992, which turned out to be Larry Bird's swan song. The first time was in 1976, in the conference finals, and the Cavs were on a roll, coached by a leisure suit-wearing wisecracker named Bill Fitch. The Celtics won in six hard-fought games. Nine years later, their paths crossed in the first round. Cleveland was a bad eighth-place team (36 wins) coached by a rookie named George Karl but gave the Celtics problems before succumbing in four games. One memory from that series: Scott Wedman refusing to practice in the Cavs' gym because of asbestos. Another: Bird missing a game because of injury. Then in 1992, the teams went at it in the conference semifinals. Boston won Game 2 in Cleveland (Easy Ed Pinckney came up huge). Cleveland (with a memorable block from Larry Nance) got Game 4 in Boston. The last three games were routs. Cleveland won Game 5 by 16. Boston won Game 6 by 31. Then, on the way to Game 7 at the Richfield Coliseum, there were signs directing the Celtics bus to "Larry's Last Game." Robert Parish dribbled the ball off his foot on the Celtics' first possession and it snowballed from there: Cavs, 122-104. Bird officially retired a few months later.
