Celtics See No Advantage in Schedule : After 2 Games at Boston, It’s 3 at Forum; Less Travel but . . .

As far as the Boston Celtics are concerned, the home-court advantage is no advantage at all in the National Basketball Assn. championship series against the Lakers.

In other years, the team that had the better record played Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 of the best-of-seven series at home, but this time, the Celtics will play Games 1 and 2 at home, then travel to the Forum for 3, 4 and 5 before returning to Boston for 6 and 7.

As a result, the Lakers could close out the series at home if they win either Game 1 Monday or Game 2 Thursday night at Boston Garden.

“If you don’t win both of the first two, you’ve got a major disadvantage,” Boston Coach K.C. Jones said. “It’s almost mandatory that you win both or the other team could sense the kill.”

Boston forward Larry Bird said: “If we go to L.A. 0-2 or 1-1, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on us. If I had a vote, I’d rather go out there and play the first two games and then come home for three games.”

As usual, forward Cedric Maxwell had the final word.

“It stinks,” he said.

It will be little consolation to the Celtics, but Laker Coach Pat Riley agrees with them.

“I think any coach that had the home-court advantage would be hollering that he wanted it the old way,” Riley said.

During the Lakers-Nuggets telecast Wednesday night, New York Knicks Coach Hubie Brown, an analyst for CBS during the playoffs, said: “This gives the team without the home-court advantage an advantage.”

Upon recommendation by the competition committee, the NBA Board of Governors voted unanimously last summer to change the championship series format, primarily because of the fatigue factor for the two teams.

In last season’s series between the Lakers and Celtics, they played Game 4 on a Wednesday night in Inglewood, traveled to Boston the next day and played Game 5 Friday night, traveled back to Inglewood the next day and played Game 6 Sunday afternoon, then returned to Boston for Game 7 Tuesday night.

“For the last four games, the guys were going back and forth, coast to coast,” Russell Granik, the NBA’s executive vice president, said. “That format was really taxing.”

He said the new format is the same one that has been used in the World Series by major league baseball for a number of years, and in the Stanley Cup finals by the National Hockey League in recent years.

Another advantage to the new format, he said, is the potential for more media attention because newspaper and television reporters can spend more time analyzing the games and less time traveling from one city to another.

“A very small factor was economics,” he said, pointing out that the teams will be able to eliminate two cross-country flights.

Granik said he understands the Celtics’ position, but at the same time, he said he thought neither team should necessarily have a home-court advantage when playing for the championship.

Even though the Celtics had a better regular-season record than the Lakers--63-19 as opposed to 62-20--they didn’t play comparable schedules because they are in different conferences.

“From a league standpoint, if we can eliminate a home-court advantage, that’s good,” Granik said. “It’s in the best interests of the league to make the competition as fair as possible.”

CELTICS-LAKERS SCHEDULE BEST-OF-SEVEN SERIES

Date Site Time Game 1 Monday, May 27 at Boston Noon Game 2 Thursday, May 30 at Boston 6:00 p.m. Game 3 Sunday, June 2 at Forum 12:30 p.m. Game 4 Wednesday, June 5 at Forum 6:00 p.m. Game 5 Friday, June 7 at Forum 6:00 p.m. Game 6 Sunday, June 9 at Boston 11:00 a.m. Game 7 Tuesday, June 11 at Boston 6:00 p.m.

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