Basketball · 1987 · Boston, USA
Bird Steals It
A point down with five seconds left, needing only to stop Detroit inbounding the ball cleanly, Larry Bird reads the pass, takes it, and makes the winning basket happen.
Celtics 108-107 Pistons
Result
5 seconds
Time remaining at steal
1987 Eastern Conference Finals, Game 5
Series
The Boston Celtics trailed the Detroit Pistons 107-106 with five seconds remaining in Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals, and Detroit had the ball out of bounds under their own basket. All they needed was a clean inbound and the clock would do the rest. Isiah Thomas lined up the pass to the centre Bill Laimbeer in the low post.
Bird was guarding the passing lane and read Thomas's eyes towards Laimbeer an instant before the ball left his hands. He stepped in front of it, stole it cleanly along the sideline, and without breaking stride found Dennis Johnson cutting to the basket. Johnson laid it in with one second on the clock.
Boston won 108-107, which took away Detroit's chance to close the series out at home and sent it back to Boston. The whole thing took about two seconds, and Bird was the only person in the building who saw it coming.
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