Larry Bird had the look and the deadly accuracy of a gunfighter yesterday, and it gave the Boston Celtics the look of a winner.

"Larry got that look in his eye," teammate Kevin McHale said after the Celtics eliminated the Atlanta Hawks, 118-116, in the seventh game of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals at Boston Garden. "When he gets a look like that, it's Katy-bar-the-door."

Bird scored 20 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter. He was 9-for-10 from the field in the tense final period. Hawks superstar Dominique Wilkins scored 16 of his 47 points in the quarter.

"It was like two gunfighters," McHale said. "Who was going to draw first? Who was going to drop first?"

"Both teams played as well as they possibly could in the fourth quarter," Bird said. "My shot finally started dropping for me. I felt good and had good rotation on the ball. It was like whoever was going to miss first was going to lose."

"That was some of the best basketball in the fourth quarter that I've ever seen or been involved in," Boston Coach K.C. Jones said.