Lakers Want to Exorcise Bad Memory, Celtic Hopes

The Lakers have been able to run away from just about everyone and everything this season, but not the Boston Celtics or the memories of the last time they met to decide the National Basketball Assn. title.

In the past 11 months, ever since the Celtics hoisted their 15th NBA championship banner to the rafters of Boston Garden, the Lakers have been struggling with the discomforting notion that, somehow, they blew it the last time.

For this Laker team, there is no other way to change things except to win it this time.

They have a chance now, perhaps even a very good one, to make up for a championship series they might have won in four games but lost instead in seven.

The Lakers can’t change history, but at least they can prevent the Celtics from making some.

No team has won back-to-back NBA titles since the Celtics did it in 1967-68 and 1968-69.

No team except the Lakers can keep the Celtics from doing it again.

“It means an awful lot to us, because we’ve got a chance to make history,” said Larry Bird, who then added, tongue in cheek: “I think the Lakers should allow us to do that.”

When Laker Coach Pat Riley learned of Bird’s statement, he had a brief, but firm response.

“There will be no allowances,” he said.

The Lakers can finally let go of last season and all the excess baggage of bad memories that goes with it, starting today when Game 1 of the NBA championship series begins on the floor of Boston Garden (Noon, Channel 2).

It is a series in which health will play an important part.

The Celtics are hurting physically, especially Bird, who has a bad finger and a sore elbow, but continues to play well anyway. Forward Cedric Maxwell, however, is playing poorly, coming off arthroscopic knee surgery performed in February.

On the other side, there are questions about the Lakers’ mental well-being, centering mostly on the effect of the beating they took from the Celtics in last season’s championship round.

The Lakers vow that they are much more mentally tough than they were a year ago when they twice blew five-point leads in the last two minutes and lost both times because of mistakes.

“We won’t have any mental breakdowns this time,” said Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

But are the Lakers really tougher mentally?

“I hope we are,” he said.

Whether Abdul-Jabbar is correct in his assessment will soon be decided, just as this ninth Laker-Celtic championship matchup will decide which team is actually better. The Lakers have lived for nearly a year with the idea that they were the better team last season, only to give the Celtics the series because they made too many errors.

“Let me tell you something,” said ex-Celtic Bill Russell, the player-coach of the 1968-69 Boston team that successfully defended its title. “The best team always wins.”

The Lakers have never beaten the Celtics in a title series, so if nothing else, the law of averages should be swinging in the other direction.

Isn’t it about time for the Lakers to beat the Celtics?

“It’s time for this team,” said Magic Johnson. “All the other times, except for last year, were way back in the past.

“You sort of figured it would come down to this--us and them in the finals,” he said. “I thought we did a tremendous job last year, but we just made a couple of mistakes, that’s all.

“Maybe we’re more serious about it this year,” Johnson said. “If it looks like I’m a little more grim and determined, well, maybe I am. It makes me a little better on the court. It rounds me out. I believe I’m tougher-minded.”

There aren’t enough doors for all the keys to the series that everyone seems to have. The most popular, in no particular order, are 1) Bird’s health; 2) the Byron Scott-Danny Ainge matchup and 3) rebounding.

In addition to bone chips in his right elbow and a sore ankle, the index finger on Bird’s right hand (his shooting hand) is still badly jammed and swollen.

Bird insisted that his injured finger affects his rebounding more than his shooting, but the Celtics clearly need Bird’s offense in this series.

“I shoot it and if it goes in I’m happy and if it doesn’t, I’m sad,” Bird said. “I’ve been pretty sad lately.”

Since Bird’s outside shooting has suffered in the playoffs, look for him to take the ball closer to the basket. Celtic Coach K. C. Jones said he really doesn’t know how badly Bird is hurt.

“I say, ‘How’s your ankle?’ and Larry says ‘Fine,’ ” Jones said. “I say, ‘How’s your elbow?’ and Larry says ‘Fine.’ I say ‘How’s your finger?’ and Larry says ‘Fine.’ So I have no clue.”

Meanwhile, Ainge will be looking for clues on how to defend Scott, whose outside shot is considered vital to the Lakers’ chances. If Scott can score consistently from the perimeter, Celtic defenders cannot easily drop off to double-team Abdul-Jabbar or James Worthy inside.

Bird believes that if Ainge can stop Scott, the Celtics will win. Ainge said that speculation he is the key to the series is garbage, so he quickly identified Bird as the real key.

“It’s him and his chicken wing,” Ainge said.

Then there is the rebounding factor, which the Celtics used to their great advantage in last season’s championship series. With Maxwell, the seventh-game rebounding hero, severely limited, that leaves Kevin McHale, Bird and Robert Parish to battle Abdul-Jabbar, Kurt Rambis and Worthy on the front line.

If there is one other Laker who might play an important part on the backboards, it would be Bob McAdoo. The Lakers are much deeper off the bench than the Celtics and a healthy McAdoo, who blocked six shots in the victory over Denver that clinched the Western Conference championship, must hold his own against McHale.

“I just want to see McAdoo play in a seven-game series the way he did in that game against Denver,” Riley said. “We really need that.”

It also seems clear that what the Lakers really need is to keep the Celtics from raising one more banner to the roof of Boston Garden at their expense. Even though the Lakers have never beaten the Celtics in championship series, this may be their best chance.

There is a general consensus among the players, even though they don’t admit it in public, that the Lakers have more going for them. They say that the Celtics are hurting and the Lakers are not, and the Lakers are better than last season, while the Celtics are not.

The Celtics are also complaining about the new playoff format which has the third, fourth and fifth games in Los Angeles, and have already resorted to name-calling, just like last season.

“It’s the Hollywood Stars versus the Longshoremen,” McHale said.

Last season, the Celtics dictated the series. The Lakers got caught up in the whole mess. They say that won’t happen this time.

“Kevin makes a million dollars a year, and I doubt that in the off-season he shows up with a lunch bucket and opens a bunch of hatches on a ship,” Riley said.

Besides all the talking that’s certain to go on, there’s still the memory of last season, an area that the Celtics have not yet finished exploiting.

“I thought they were the best team last year,” Jones said. “We may have been lucky. They may have given it away, but we’ve got the rings.”

Said Bird: “We probably didn’t have the better team last year, but we’ve got a banner up there.”

And so it goes for the Lakers, a team that Riley said may be the best in the history of the franchise. Many were saying the same thing about the Lakers before last season’s championship series. But afterward, there were the Celtics, adding another banner to their collection.

Riley said that last season’s championship-series defeat is gone, but not really forgotten this season. A hidden agenda on the Lakers’ minds, he called it.

“You’re only champions for a year and then you’ve got to come back and play it again,” Riley said. “It goes by so fast. Snap your fingers and it’s gone. When you get to the finals, there’s only winning and there’s only a loser.

“The only reality with a Laker team is winning it all,” Riley said. “The same with Boston. The only thing that counts is if you win the whole thing.”

That is one truth from which the Lakers cannot escape. They cannot run away from what happened last season as though they are on a fast break. But now they have another chance, and at this point, they say that’s all they really wanted in the first place.

“We’ll be ready,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

We’ll see.

Laker Notes

T-shirts went on sale around town Sunday and they had written on the front: ‘I Hate LA.’ On the back: ‘Celtics, Back To Back Champions’. . . . Five Lakers have received subpoenas to give depositions in a $100,000 suit filed by a 26-year-old Lynn, Mass., man against Kurt Rambis, who is accused of striking Paul Baribeau in Boston Garden after Game 7 last season. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Cooper, James Worthy, Magic Johnson and Mitch Kupchak received subpoenas, according to Daniel Lenzo, who represents Baribeau. Lenzo said the Lakers were served when they arrived here Saturday night. The suit, filed April 3, accuses Rambis of assault and battery and negligence. Rambis allegedly struck Baribeau in the nose when Rambis was trying to get off the court. Rambis said he does not remember the incident. Laker Coach Pat Riley said he might have to call off practice Wednesday when the players are supposed to be give their depositions.

Boston’s Red Auerbach isn’t impressed by the Lakers’ playoff route to the finals. “You can’t judge how good they are by how they got here,” he said. “They played Phoenix, who had half a team, then they beat Portland when they were on a down, then they beat Denver, which also had half a team.” . . . If the Lakers win the championship series, they will take home $455,000 from the NBA playoff pool. If they lose, the Lakers will get $355,000. . . . Laker owner Jerry Buss is glad the Lakers’ championship-series opponent is the Celtics. “Not because of what happened last year, but because the Celtics have won more championships than anybody in the world and so it gives an added flavor in the series,” he said.

NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES CELTICS VS. LAKERS

DATE SITE TIME Game 1 Today at Boston Noon Game 2 Thursday, May 20 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.

NOTE--ALL TIMES PDT. GAMES 5, 6, and 7 if necessary.