Magic Seeks Redemption, Gets a Victory : Laker Guard Scores Season-High 37 Points Against His Tormentors

On his way to the dressing room, Magic Johnson did an interview with CBS and then stopped to talk with two small children. Or rather he talked with one small child. The other, age 4, just stared at him.

Then, it was into the shower to wash away the memories of last June, when the Boston Celtics beat the Lakers in seven games for the National Basketball Assn. championship.

It didn’t work.

Neither did his season-high 37 points and 13 assists in the Lakers’ 117-111 victory over the Celtics Sunday at the Forum.

“That will always stay with me,” he said of last season’s championship series. “I wanted to win that bad. You don’t just throw it out of your mind. It was a hurtin’ feeling.”

He said he had that feeling for at least six weeks following the seventh game. Then, he said, his father reminded him of all the reasons he had to be thankful, including a couple of NBA championships.

“You can’t win it all the time,” his father told him.

So Johnson got on with the rest of his life.

The loss to Boston last year still hurts, but only when he thinks about it. The solution is not to think about it.

Of course, somebody is always bringing it up, particularly when the Lakers are about to face the Celtics again.

“A lot of people asked me about it before the game,” he said. “But I didn’t feel I had to do anything to redeem myself. I didn’t have to show people that I can still play. I know I can still play.

“I also knew that even if I had a good game, that wasn’t going to change what happened last year. That will always be there. People are always going to remember that.

“But this is a new year. So you take it from there.”

Where Johnson took it Sunday was to the basket.

Basketball fans around the country look at the Lakers’ box scores, find out that Johnson averages 18.1 points a game and assume he’s not a scorer.

The Lakers know better than that.

What he isn’t is a shooter.

On those nights when he takes less than 10 shots--he’s taken as few as one or two in a half--it’s as if the Lakers are playing with one less offensive player.

Not that they don’t appreciate his assists. He’s second in the league in that category. But when he doesn’t shoot, opponents don’t have to guard him. That allows them to double-team the Lakers’ two inside scoring threats, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy.

But in a game like the one Sunday, when neither team is asking “ready?” before serving, Johnson is not timid about driving to the basket and taking his shots.

“When it’s a transition game, I’m hard to stop,” Johnson said. “They couldn’t get enough people back on defense. That was the key.”

Johnson took 12 shots in the first half, when he scored 17 points.

Boston Coach K.C. Jones must have told the Celtics to stop Johnson from going to the basket any way they could, short of eye-gouging, in the second half because he took only four more shots.

That meant the Celtics were having to guard him, which meant that Abdul-Jabbar and Worthy were not getting so much attention underneath the basket.

Worthy had nine points in the first half and finished with 24. Abdul-Jabbar had seven points at the half and finished with 20. He also had four assists in the second half after having only one in the first half, another indication the Celtics were giving him more room to maneuver.

Abdul-Jabbar’s second-half effectiveness probably was due in part to the absence of Boston center Robert Parish, who sprained his ankle late in the first half.

But Boston guard Dennis Johnson said it also was because Magic was forcing the action.

“Everything he did was the right thing to do,” D.J. said. Perhaps the ultimate tribute to Magic is that the Celtics don’t use D.J., one of the league’s best defensive guards, against him more often.

They obviously feel Magic is a two-man job.

When the Lakers are in their set offense, the Celtics use guard Danny Ainge against him.

When the Lakers are on the fast break, whichever man is closest to Magic, either Ainge or Johnson, takes him.

Magic said he is grateful the Celtics don’t match D.J. against him.

“When they let other guys play me, it’s a lot easier,” he said.

D.J. said he also is grateful.

“I don’t like (to play against) guys who score 37 points,” he said.

Magic took the blame for a couple of the championship series loss to the Celtics last season because of mistakes he made during winning time, when he’s usually at his best.

The Celtics gave him several opportunities to give this one away, sending him to the free throw line 10 times in the final 45 seconds. He made nine of the free throws, including eight straight. For the day, he was 17 of 19 from the line.

“In the backcourt, a guy like Magic comes along about every 20 years,” said Boston’s M.L. Carr, the league’s most valuable bench jockey.

That was the second-nicest thing Carr said about the Lakers.

As the teams were walking toward their dressing rooms, Carr said, “I hope Houston beats you guys in five.” If the Celtics reach the championship series again, they no doubt will feel better about their chances of repeating if Magic isn’t there.