Lakers Beat the Celtics on the Line

Magic Johnson spent the afternoon at the free throw line, Robert Parish spent the second half in the locker room and Larry Bird spent the day wherever he pleased.

These locations were very important Sunday afternoon in the Lakers’ 117-111 victory over the Boston Celtics at the Forum.

Johnson scored a season-high 37 points in 42 minutes. He made 17 of 19 at the free throw line, a place which proved to be the Lakers’ salvation and produced Pat Riley’s 200th victory as a head coach.

Parish, the Celtics’ center, twisted his left ankle just before halftime and didn’t return to the game.

“We missed me,” he said.

Without Parish, the Celtics had enough offense--Bird scored 33 points--but they missed his defense on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when the Lakers moved ahead in the third quarter.

“That’s where we really missed him,” Bird said.

A Forum sellout crowd of 17,505 saw the Lakers even their series with the Celtics at 1-1. They won’t play again unless they meet in the championship series, at which point Sunday’s win may put the Lakers in a better frame of mind.

And that may turn out to be the most important location of all, Laker psyches being what they are.

“It was probably more important for us to win than them,” Riley said. “Just to sort of quiet the talk that we can’t beat the Celtics, not this year. Maybe now we won’t have to constantly listen to that.”

Abdul-Jabbar scored 11 of his 20 points in the third quarter when Parish wasn’t around, which forced Boston Coach K. C. Jones to match Kevin McHale against Abdul-Jabbar.

McHale, however, just doesn’t play Abdul-Jabbar as well as Parish. In the first half, Abdul-Jabbar had one rebound and six points.

Trailing by three points at halftime, the Lakers took an 87-82 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Celtics tied the game, 101-101, when Scott Wedman scored on an open jumper with 3:53 left. Wedman was playing in place of forward Cedric Maxwell, who had reinjured his left knee.

Abdul-Jabbar made a hook shot, but Bird countered with a jumper with 2:34 to go. It was the last time Bird scored and also the last time the Celtics were tied.

Boston’s defensive strategy was to run two, or sometimes three, players at Abdul-Jabbar as soon as he dribbled and that worked for a while. But the next time they tried it, Abdul-Jabbar assisted Michael Cooper on a give-and-go layup.

Bird missed a three-point shot as the 24-second clock wound down. That situation happened after Bird was trapped in the corner and had to throw a cross-court pass that Dennis Johnson ran down. Johnson got the ball back to Bird too late for anything other than a long shot.

Then James Worthy, who scored 24 points, came up with the most important field goal of the game when he shot over Wedman and was fouled. Jones sent Maxwell back in. But by the time Worthy’s free throw dropped, the Lakers had a 108-103 lead with 1:30 left.

The Lakers scored their last 10 points on free throws. Not even two three-pointers by M. L. Carr could get the Celtics back.

Actually, the free-throw line became the Lakers favorite place on the court. They shot 41 free throws and made 33. Boston was only 16 for 19 at the free-throw line.

Jones thought that seemed a little out of proportion.

“The whistle started blowing,” he said. “I mean Dennis gets tripped and nothing is called. Then Magic gets tripped and he gets it called. I can’t really deal with that kind of thing. But we kept it close in spite of it.”

Bird was the main reason. In 42 minutes, Bird made 14-of-22 shots and took down a game-high 15 rebounds to help the Celtics to an eight-rebound advantage.

“That is going to be our downfall if we were to meet again,” Cooper said.

But, elsewhere the Celtics had no edge. Not even mentally, at least not this time. The Lakers remember blowing two games to the Celtics in last year’s final and they did it again the first game with them this season.

“We’re a good team against everybody else when it comes down to the end,” Magic Johnson said. “But against them, we’re the ones who are making the mistakes. But today, we got a lead and we played like we had a lead. And that was smart.”

The Lakers, who have won six games in succession, leave today on a trip that will take them to Chicago, Kansas City, Indianapolis and New York. Except for Byron Scott (ankle) and Larry Spriggs (ankle), the team is healthy.

But the Celtics are not. They play Utah tonight with only nine players. Maxwell, Parish and Quinn Buckner, who is sick, are all going back to Boston to have their ailments checked out.

Maxwell is going to seek a second opinion on his left knee, which he has been told may require arthroscopic surgery.

Parish said his ankle is sore and he would have played in the second half if he had been able.

“I would have been out there if I had a chance,” Parish said.

Cooper said the Lakers wouldn’t have missed their opportunity to defeat the Celtics anyway.

“We would have beaten them with or without Robert Parish,” he said.

Parish or no Parish, Riley said the Laker victory was much-needed, mentally more than anything else.

“Our guys have been stung by this basketball team in the past,” he said. “Not just losing games, but the way they talk about us, taking their shots at us. They have been our tormentors.”

For at least one day, maybe until a final series, they aren’t anymore.

Laker notes Byron Scott sprained his right ankle in the fourth quarter and the Lakers said they won’t know until today whether he can play Tuesday night in Chicago. . . . The Lakers are now 6-3 against the Atlantic Division. . . . Riley on his 200th coaching victory: “That’s the blessing of having a lot of talent. But it feels good to get it against the green and white.” . . . Official Jake O’Donnell told M.L. Carr to stop waving a towel on the Celtic bench. Carr said he would protest to the commissioner’s office.