Celtics (102-100) and Lakers (153-109) Will Play It Again : Nuggets Are Routed, Setting Up Rematch for NBA Championship

History, which has a way of repeating itself, has given us the Lakers and the Celtics. Again.

For the last 11 months, the Lakers have thought of little else, ever since that steamy June night in Boston Garden when the last National Basketball Assn. title was decided.

The Lakers lost that one in a seventh game, their chance for a championship falling between the cracks of a parquet floor darkened with age. But now, the Lakers have another opportunity.

They earned it Wednesday night at the Forum, where they won a record fourth consecutive Western Conference championship with a 153-109 victory over the injury-riddled Denver Nuggets, champions of the Midwest and of misfortune, who ran into a Laker team for which there is no easy solution.

Unless, of course, the Celtics figure something out.

“It’s Boston versus L.A.,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “It’s what everybody wants. Why not? Let’s get on with it.”

So for the fifth time in the last six seasons, the Lakers find themselves playing for the NBA championship, something they last won in 1982.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said the ninth Laker-Celtic championship matchup (the first one was in 1959, when the Lakers were based in Minneapolis) must be rated a classic.

“You’ve got the two best teams in basketball, so it should be,” he said before putting the playoffs in perspective.

“This is what we’ve been pointing to all year,” he said. “It’s very important to us. It’s what the whole season is about.”

The Lakers gave their season meaning by taking Denver out quickly, eliminating the Nuggets in five games of a best-of-seven series that was really decided one game earlier, the moment the Nuggets’ Alex English broke a bone in his thumb.

No other Laker team has scored as many points in a playoff game, but the Lakers fell three points short of Milwaukee’s all-time playoff record of 156, set in 1970.

James Worthy scored 25 points to lead the Lakers, and Byron Scott had 21. Magic Johnson had 17 points and 19 assists, one of the assists a record-breaker.

The Nuggets, who had been living on borrowed time, finally had their season repossessed in the second quarter. From the end of the first quarter on, they never challenged. The Lakers led by 23 points at halftime and by 34 points after three quarters.

With 8:50 left in the fourth quarter and the Lakers ahead, 119-90, time also ran out for Nugget center Dan Issel, a 15-year-veteran, who played this one last game, then retired.

Denver Coach Doug Moe removed Issel from the rout, and Issel acknowledged a standing ovation with a wave, then smiled and pointed toward Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the Laker huddle.

“I told him he had a great career,” Abdul-Jabbar said after the game.

Issel’s last basket was a three-pointer.

“Doug said he wanted me to make my final shot,” Issel said. “He asked me, ‘What do you want?’ I said I wanted a three-pointer. So they set it up for me.”

Denver, which got 23 points from center Wayne Cooper, fought gamely through the first quarter, well enough to force a 34-34 tie, then fell completely apart in the second quarter. For a while, it seemed that the Nuggets would never score, and for more than six minutes they didn’t.

Denver missed its first 17 shots in the quarter and watched the Lakers fast-break in the other direction.

“We like to have people look at our behinds,” Riley said.

A 16-0 Laker spurt meant a 50-34 lead and a record for Johnson. He broke Jerry West’s NBA record of 970 playoff assists with a pass--on the break, naturally--to Michael Cooper.

That play was part of a Laker rally that enabled them to take a 76-53 lead into the locker room at halftime.

With English sitting on the bench with a broken thumb and with Calvin Natt and Issel both hurting, the Nuggets saw their season all but end in an embarrassingly bad second quarter.

Not until Lafayette Lever made a free throw with 5:57 to play did the Nuggets manage a point in the quarter. Lever also scored Denver’s first basket of the quarter after nearly eight minutes.

“Right up until that point, I thought we were still in the game,” Moe said. “Once the Lakers get their confidence like that, it’s impossible for anyone to stop them. It’s all over. They sense the kill.”

That happened after the Lakers shook off a spotty start and even got into trying some new things. Jump-shooter Bob McAdoo changed tactics and made a hook shot in the lane. He also blocked six shots in 18 minutes.

Johnson even tried an alley-oop pass, which isn’t so unusual, but to Kurt Rambis ?

Rambis didn’t score on the play, but there were a bunch of other Lakers who were not having any problems. Worthy scored 17 of his points in the first half, the same number as Scott, who missed three layups but recovered on the long-distance strength of his jump shot.

And so it went for the Lakers, who shot 58% and had no starter play more than Johnson’s 28 minutes. Moe said he thinks the Lakers are ready for the championship series and also said he wouldn’t mind seeing them win.

“I thought they (the Lakers) were the best team last year, and they gave it away,” he said.

A 42-point second quarter by the Lakers seemed to put the game out of reach of the Nuggets. Halfway through the quarter, the sellout of 17,505 fans began chanting, “We want Boston.”

That’s just who they have.

Laker Notes The Lakers have played Boston eight other times in the National Basketball Assn. championship series and have never won. . . . Laker assistant coach Dave Wohl spent a lot of time Wednesday studying the Celtics. “They’re the smartest team in the league,” Wohl said. “There are other teams in the league that can match them in talent. They don’t beat themselves. You have to beat them. They don’t throw away passes, they don’t force things, they see mismatches and they react defensively. They’re a great group of opportunists always looking for an edge.” Wohl said Boston’s Dennis Johnson was the difference in the Celtics’ Eastern Conference final series with Philadelphia. “He was as good as Bird,” Wohl said. “He’s not a great shooter, he’s not a great scorer, but he is a great fourth-quarter scorer.” . . . Denver’s Alex English, who has a broken bone in his thumb, watched the game from the bench with a cast on his right hand. “I am a part of this even though I’m a fractured part,” English said. “It’s important for me to be here because I was a part of it. My wife didn’t want me to come here and neither did the doctor. I had to come.” . . . Denver’s 36-year-old Dan Issel, who is retiring, played his last game Thursday night. Nugget Coach Doug Moe reflected on his own last game. “People made a big deal when I retired, too,” Moe said. “There were tears of joy when I retired. People were elated. In fact, I think guys tanked games so the season would end earlier.”

NBA PLAYOFFS AT A GLANCE LAKERS VS. CELTICS BEST-OF-SEVEN SERIES

Game 1 Monday at Boston 12:30 Game 2 May 30 at Boston TBA Game 3 June 2 at Forum TBA Game 4 June 5 at Forum TBA Game 5 June 7 at Forum TBA Game 6 June 9 at Boston TBA Game 7 June 11 at Boston TBA

ALL TIMES PDT. GAMES 5, 6 AND 7 IF NECESSARY.