Cincinnati Upsets Celtics, 107-103, In NBA Playoff

The Boston Celtics were upset, 107-103, in the first game of the Eastern Division semi-finals of the National Basketball Association playoffs last night.

Cincinnati went one ahead in the three out of five series. The winner of the series will play Philadelphia for the Eastern Division title and have a shot at the NBA championship.

Boston, whose fourth period rally failed, outplayed Cincinnati everywhere except from the foul line, but that made the difference.

Sparked by Oscar Robertson's 25 points and Jerry Lucas' 21, the Royals broke out to a 24-13 lead in a rough first quarter as the Celtics were shooting cold. Only Bill Russell's blocking of Cincinnati shots kept the Royals from leading by 25. Boston's effective outside weave cut the Royals' lead to seven at the end of the first quarter.

Larry Siegfried's hot shooting sparked the Celtics to a 40-40 tie for the only time in the game, in the second period. Boston then began to blow foul shots and the half ended with the Celts down 53-48.

The Celtics, after a cold third quarter, started their patented fourth period rally. Russell, who missed nine foul shots in the game, and Johnny Havlicek brought the Celts to within one point, 83-82, and within one again, 87-86, before Robertson and Lucas with clutch shooting gave Cincinnati an eight point lead with 40 seconds to play. But a series of Royal miscues allowed the Celts to close to 105-103.

With six seconds left in the game, Havlicek, the hero of last year's playoffs, attempted his speciality, a steal of the pass-in-bounds. He fouled Robertson, for whom the pass was intended in the back-court, and the "the Big O" sank two foul shots to clinch the upset.