GHOST STORIES

Who’s afraid of the Celtics curse, the Celtics curse, the Celtics curse? Oh yeah, all Lakerdom.

It’s been 21 years since the last Lakers-Celtics Finals, but we aren’t reliving that 1987 series, the Lakers are learning to their dismay.

By 1987, the rivalry had swung toward the Lakers, who took a 3-1 lead, winning Games 1 and 2 in the Forum by 13 and 19 points, pulling out Game 4 in the Boston Garden on Magic Johnson’s “junior, junior skyhook.”

That effectively settled that, signaling the end of the Celtics’ reign that had started 30 years before, in which they won 16 titles.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, this isn’t like 1987, or even 1985, when they made a dramatic comeback in Game 2 after the Memorial Day Massacre.

So far, this is more like the 1984 Finals, which any Laker shudders when he remembers.

In the long-awaited continuation of the Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry that began in the 1979 NCAA tournament, the Lakers looked like the better team, winning Game 1 in the Garden, leading Game 2, 113-111, with the ball.

That was when Gerald Henderson stole James Worthy’s looping pass in the backcourt and laid it in with 13 seconds left, forcing an overtime that the Celtics won.

Back at the Forum, the Lakers then put it to them, 137-104, in Game 3, prompting Bird to call out his teammates: “We played like a bunch of sissies.”

Game 4 was the one in which Kevin McHale clotheslined Kurt Rambis.

The Lakers still had a five-point lead in the last minute of regulation, blew it and lost in another overtime.

After that, a shaken Pat Riley told his players to return blow for blow, the pace slowed, and the Celtics went on to win in seven games.

In the days before charter flights, the Lakers had to stay over in Boston after losing Game 7 as Celtics fans celebrated wildly. As far as the Lakers were concerned, they might as well have been in the midst of a convention of witches riding around on broomsticks and conjuring spells.

Riley and his wife, Chris, stayed up all night in their hotel with assistant Bill Bertka and his wife. Riley called it “the longest night of my life.”

Johnson stayed up with his friends, Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre, went home, shut himself in and wouldn’t even talk to his mother on the phone.

“It was just heartbreaking,” Johnson said later. “ . . . We knew we were better than them, and to lose to them! But when we got out of there, we learned a valuable lesson. Only the strong survive, and that’s something we didn’t know until then.

“Talent just don’t get it. We realized it’s not all about talent and that’s the first time the Lakers ever encountered that, someone stronger-minded. So we said, ‘OK, we got to be stronger.’ ”

In retrospect, it could be argued that the Lakers were always the better team in the ‘80s.

Bird suggested as much, noting after the 1987 loss, “In ‘85, they were good. In ‘84, I really thought they should have beaten us. I don’t know if this team’s better than they were, but I guess they are.”

At least at the beginning, Boston was, indeed, stronger-minded . . . which brings us to this series, in which the Celtics have clearly been not only stronger-minded but more determined.

The Lakers tripped into Boston last week, serenely confident of getting one win.

Nor did their mood darken after losing Game 1; they amused themselves by puncturing the hype around Paul Pierce’s comeback from a knee injury.

Kobe Bryant was like a kid in a candy store, even after shooting nine for 26 in Game 1, so thrilled to be there that Coach Phil Jackson called him “giddy.”

“I think that that was really noticeable in the presentation of the Western Conference trophy,” Jackson said before Game 2.

“I thought he was very, very fun-loving in that situation. I think you really see the true nature of Kobe Bryant with his teammates.”

Unfortunately for the Lakers, the true nature of Bryant and his teammates hasn’t been the same since they got that Western Conference trophy, at least on the court.

Meanwhile, the Celtics didn’t crack a smile or bat an eyelash at anything Jackson, Bryant or the pundits picking the Lakers in seven, six, five or four said.

Now with Boston needing one win in three games in Staples Center to put a serious crimp in the Lakers’ plans, you can believe this:

The Celtics won’t be floating into town as happy with themselves as the Lakers were going into Boston.

The Lakers’ hunger after three lost seasons is nothing compared with the Celtics’ hunger after 21 lost seasons -- and with Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, who waited all their lives to play in one of these.

More to the point for the Lakers, the Celtics have a defense they have yet to solve.

The Lakers know they have to move the ball, can’t settle for outside shots, can’t force shots, can’t wait for Bryant to save them, etc.

Of course, they knew all that before Game 2 and look what happened.

You may have noticed these aren’t the same Celtics who needed seven games to eliminate 37-win Atlanta and looked out on their feet against Cleveland and Detroit.

The Big Three was down to one in the Cleveland series with Allen averaging 9.3 points.

In yet another unfortunate development for the Lakers, they don’t defend as well as the Cavaliers or Pistons.

The Lakers are indifferent defenders but prolific scorers -- at least they used to be -- who speed the game up rather than slow it down, limiting possessions like the Cavaliers and Pistons.

In one three-game stretch during the second and third rounds, Allen, who became a ghost as Rajon Rondo’s defender dropped off to jam him up, averaged eight shots.

Against the Lakers, who have Derek Fisher dropping off Rondo too, Allen got right off, scoring 19 and then 17. Voila! He’s Ray Allen again and the Three Amigos or Whatever They Decide to Call Themselves are together again.

That leaves the question of when the Lakers will put it back together.

They’re down to two possibilities: Tonight or next fall.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com