1988–89 Boston Celtics season
NBA basketball team season
The 1988–89 Boston Celtics season was the 43rd season for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association.
Season summary
Off-season
After the resignation of K.C. Jones, the Celtics hired assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers as their new head coach. The team had the 24th overall pick in the 1988 NBA draft, and selected shooting guard Brian Shaw from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Regular season
This season was severely hindered by the loss of All-Star forward Larry Bird to a heel injury, which required surgery to have bone spurs removed from both heels; Bird only played just six early-regular season games for the Celtics before being lost to injury, averaging 19.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, without any three-point field-goal attempts. Initially, Bird was expected to be back in March, but it was delayed and ultimately became a season-ending injury.
Under Rodgers and without Bird, along with the addition of Shaw, the Celtics struggled and played around .500 in winning percentage, holding a 23–23 record at the All-Star break. At mid-season, the team traded Danny Ainge, and second-year forward Brad Lohaus to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Ed Pinckney, and Joe Kleine. The results were dramatic as the Celtics finished in third place in the Atlantic Division with a mediocre 42–40 record, and earned the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, clinching an NBA playoff spot in the final game of the regular season. Before this season, the Celtics averaged over 60 wins per season thus far in the 1980s, and had been the Eastern Conference's first seed for five consecutive seasons.
Kevin McHale averaged 22.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, and was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team, while Robert Parish averaged 18.6 points, 12.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, and was named to the All-NBA Third Team, and second-year guard Reggie Lewis showed improvement becoming the Celtics' starting small forward in Bird's absence, as he provided the team with 18.5 points and 1.5 steals per game.
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