Advertisement

Lakers Staggered, Records Broken as Celtics Romp by 34

Share
Times Staff Writer

If the Lakers really are seeking redemption, they’re heading in the opposite direction.

There must be something about playing the Boston Celtics that brings out the worst in the Lakers, who began their pursuit of the elusive National Basketball Assn. title by sinking to record depths.

In a game that had no redeeming value at all to the Lakers, the Celtics opened their NBA title defense Monday by scoring more points than ever before in a championship series game.

The Celtics said hello to the Lakers, then crushed them, 148-114, in front of 14,890, who witnessed not only a Boston Garden party, but also a playoff defeat that tied the worst in the 37-year history of the Lakers.

Advertisement

“It was a nightmare,” Magic Johnson said.

Now, the Lakers must hope they wake up in time for Game 2 Thursday night. Each Laker found comfort in the fact that they had lost only one game, no matter how complete their destruction had been.

“If a seven-game series could be decided in one game, it would be over now,” said Laker Coach Pat Riley, who admitted that his team has much to work on.

“We’ve got to clean things up,” he said. “Maybe we should call Roto-Rooter.”

Better yet, maybe the Lakers should call the Bureau of Missing Persons. Then the Lakers can find out where the heck they went. While they’re at it, maybe they can locate the Celtics, too.

The Lakers are still trying to find Scott Wedman, who took 11 shots and made every one of them, a playoff record for field-goal accuracy. Four were from beyond the three-point line, which gave Wedman a total of 26 points in only 23 minutes.

But then points were cheaper by the 12 dozens for the Celtics, who shot 61%, also a playoff record, and never trailed after the first three and a half minutes of the game.

From that point on, it only got worse for the Lakers. Blame Danny Ainge, the Celtic guard anointed by Larry Bird as the key to the series. Bird looked like he might be a prophet after Ainge sank his first six shots and the Celtics led, 28-14, after one quarter.

Advertisement

By halftime, the Celtics were up by 30, a lead that eventually grew to 37 points in the fourth quarter when M.L. Carr put down his towel long enough to rain a three-pointer through the basket.

As badly as they were getting mangled, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said the Lakers still had hope in the third quarter.

“We weren’t thinking about Game 2 just then,” he said. “We were just wondering how bad it could get. And it got worse.”

It also got interesting, at least for a little while, early in the third quarter. On one play, Byron Scott shoved his forearm into Ainge’s back, and the Celtic guard got mad and responded by throwing the basketball at Scott’s backside.

Like nearly every other time he had the ball, Ainge didn’t miss then, either.

Ainge got a technical foul, but in a few minutes, the Celtics got even. Kevin McHale stuck an elbow in the back of Scott’s head. Scott was clearly in the business of taking his lumps, whether it was from elbows and thrown balls or from missed shots--he misfired nine times in 14 attempts.

Since the Celtics were ahead, 90-61, none of the exchanges of ill humor meant anything. But then neither did the vaunted Laker fast break that never showed up.

Advertisement

“We expected a run which never came,” Celtic forward Cedric Maxwell said. “They retreated. It’s like they were saying, ‘We’ll see you tomorrow.’ ”

The Lakers would have really liked to make at least a small run at the Celtic lead, but they found it difficult to begin a fast break when they were constantly picking the ball out of the bottom of the basket.

“We did everything bad, especially defensively,” Laker forward Bob McAdoo said. “They beat us on the press, they beat us on the inside and they beat us on the outside.”

James Worthy began his shooting day with an airball from eight feet out, but he recovered to lead the Lakers with 20 points. Somebody had to lead them, even if no one really deserved to.

Abdul-Jabbar finished with 12 points and as many personal fouls (three) as rebounds in a totally forgettable performance. Actually, that’s exactly how he plans to treat the way he played Monday.

“I wasn’t able to do what I usually do to help the team,” he said. “I took some bad shots early. I’ll have to move the ball more. But this is still just one game. We won the first game last year and we didn’t win the series.

Advertisement

“We had an embarrassing loss, and it doesn’t feel too good, but there’s nothing for us to hang our heads about,” he said.

The Lakers expected to be hurt by the Celtics front line of McHale, Bird and Robert Parish, and they weren’t disappointed. McHale had 26 points and 9 rebounds, Bird had 19 points and 9 assists and Parish finished with 18 points and 8 rebounds.

But Wedman and Ainge?

“We have some adjustments to make,” Riley said.

Parish beat Abdul-Jabbar up and down the court and on one telling fast-break basket, outran him to the hoop and dunked on the breakaway. The Lakers were always a step or two or three behind.

“You could see their egos crumbling,” Maxwell said. “It’s like I’m talking to you, and I suddenly slapped you. You’d have a shocked look on your face, wouldn’t you? That’s what they looked like.”

Generally acknowledged as the chief Laker in need of redemption after last season’s loss to the Celtics in the finals, Johnson was perhaps the only consistent Laker in Game 1. He produced 12 assists and 19 points while making 8 of 14 shots.

“Usually, there are one or two guys who are red-hot for us,” he said. “But we didn’t have nobody hot. It just wasn’t happening. What can you do? We feel bad because we were embarrassed.”

Advertisement

Immediately after the game, when the Lakers had escaped to the safety of the locker room, Johnson said the mood was quiet.

“When you get embarrassed, there’s not much to say,” he said.

You could say a lot about the Celtics. Boston’s 79 points at halftime were the most any team had scored in the first half of an NBA championship series game. Wedman’s 1.000% shooting set a record and so did the Celtics’ team field-goal percentage.

“I don’t think the Celtics can play any better,” McAdoo said. “If they can, I don’t want to see it.”

Perhaps a little bit of history would help ease Laker eye strain. Only three years ago in the Eastern Conference final against Philadelphia, the Celtics defeated the 76ers by 40 points on Mother’s Day.

Philadelphia came back and won the series by surviving what has become known as the ‘Mother’s Day Massacre.’ The Lakers might even survive their “Memorial Day Massacre,” but try as he might, Riley could not diminish the total devastation that had just been heaped on his team.

“We’ve been buried before,” he said. “But we’ve never had dirt thrown in our faces.”

Laker Notes

In college, Michael Cooper played at New Mexico against Danny Ainge of Brigham Young. Even then, Cooper said, Ainge was an aggressive player, so Cooper wasn’t too surprised at the Game 1 incident between Ainge and Scott. “That’s part of his (Ainge’s) game,” Cooper said. “You have to adapt and try to overlook it. “He’ll grab on to you all the time. You just have to slap his hands away. The refs aren’t calling it, so it must be legal.” . . . Laker Coach Pat Riley said he had few words for his team at halftime. “My talk was realistic,” he said. “In the situation we were in, there was no time or place to yell and scream.” . . . With 1:39 left in the game and the Celtics ahead, 142-106, two fans ran onto the floor and exchanged high-fives at midcourt while the game was being played. They were caught by security guards and ejected. . . . Also on the subject of hand slaps, the Celtics did not appreciate the low-fives the Lakers gave each other during pregame introductions. “We were saying to ourselves, ‘Keep that Hollywood stuff out of Boston,’ ” said one of the Celtics. . . . Magic Johnson was asked when he thought the game was lost. “When they were up by 38 at the end of the third quarter, that was a clue,” he said. . . . This year’s worst Laker regular-season defeat was 23 points at Detroit. . . . The Lakers’ 34-point defeat in Game 1 tied their worst playoff loss ever, 124-90, to St. Louis in 1959. Boston missed tying the biggest margin of victory in a title series by one point. Washington beat Seattle, 117-82, in 1978 . . . Larry Bird’s early offense came after receiving passes inside. “There are only two players in the game who can make those passes,” Bird said. “Dennis Johnson and Earvin Johnson.” . . . Two more T-shirts were on sale outside Boston Garden on Causeway Street. The first one’s message was: “One More Reason to Hate California--the Lakers.” The other had a picture of Jack Nicholson. Above the picture were the words: “Hit The Road, Jack.” Nicholson, who attended the game, had one of the latter. . . . A minor fire broke out on the roof of Boston Garden as fans were leaving the building after the game. Firemen had a hard time finding it because it had burned itself out by the time they arrived. It was a rubbish fire. CELTICS / A RECORD ASSAULT TEAM

Advertisement

Most Points (Game)--148--Boston vs. Los Angeles. (Old record--142--Boston vs. Los Angeles, April 18, 1965).

Most Points (First Half)--79--Boston vs. Los Angeles. (Old record--76--Boston vs. St. Louis, March 27, 1960).

Largest Lead (Halftime)--30--Boston vs. Los Angeles. (Old record--27--New York vs. Los Angeles, May 8, 1970).

Highest Field Goal Percentage (Game)--.608 (62-102)--Boston vs. Los Angeles. (Old record--.606 (57-94) Los Angeles vs. New York, May 6, 1970).

Most Field Goals (Game)--62--Boston vs. Los Angeles. (Old record--61--Boston vs. St. Louis, March 27, 1960). INDIVIDUAL

Highest Field Goal Percentage (Game*)--1.000--Scott Wedman (11-11), Boston vs. Los Angeles. (Old record--.917--Bill Bradley (11-12), New York at Los Angeles, April 26, 1972 and James Worthy (11-12), Los Angeles at Boston, May 31, 1984).

Advertisement

*--Minimum 8 field goal attempts

Advertisement