“We Were <i> All</i> Awful”--PAT RILEY : Perhaps Most Awful Was Kareem, Who Got Run Around From Celtics

The night before the Lakers played the Boston Celtics in Game 1, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar slept poorly, he said, and that might have been the first indication that he would play just as poorly during the Celtics’ 148-114 victory Monday.

“Sleepwalking, whatever you want to call it, I just wasn’t in the game,” Abdul-Jabbar said Tuesday before the Lakers’ practice at Boston Garden. “The responsibility for that falls directly on my shoulders.”

At least he is accustomed to the burden. His shoulders always carry the weight of the Lakers, but that is even more true in this National Basketball Assn. championship series.

The Celtics’ greatest strength is their front line.

The Lakers’ greatest player is their center.

So what happened in Game 1? Was it simply a case of the Celtics playing out of their minds or an early indication that Abdul-Jabbar, the highest-scoring player in the history of the NBA, is running on his last legs?

After all, Abdul-Jabbar is 38 years old, and he was beaten up and down the court by a younger Robert Parish. Abdul-Jabbar didn’t play like somebody 38. He played more like somebody 48. Still, he bristled when he was questioned about his age.

“Akeem (Olajuwon) has some trouble running the court, too, but since he’s never gotten this far, maybe no one noticed,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

Just about everyone noticed Abdul-Jabbar in Game 1, although he was not viewed in a very positive light. At least his performance fell in line with many of the other Lakers, who were certain that what they had just experienced must have been some sort of nightmare.

Abdul-Jabbar disagreed.

“No, it wasn’t a nightmare,” he said. “It was very real.”

Abdul-Jabbar played 22 minutes, during which time he scored only 12 points and had just three rebounds. The Boston Globe called him Mr. Goggles in its game story Tuesday, which was accompanied by a large picture of Abdul-Jabbar, grimacing, eyes closed, sitting on the Laker bench rubbing the top of his head.

It wasn’t a very pretty picture, but then neither was it a very pretty game.

Not for the Lakers, anyway, and certainly not for Abdul-Jabbar, a player who thought he had nothing to prove and now suddenly seems to have found a great deal.

Parish had said before the series began that he could outrun Abdul-Jabbar, then went out and did just that. The Celtics also had said that they would double- and triple-team Abdul-Jabbar to bother him, and they did that, too.

Maybe the trouble, said Abdul-Jabbar, is that he really needs something to bother him.

“I haven’t had any serious personal problems lately,” he said. “Maybe that’s what I need to get me going. But then I don’t like having my house burned down to motivate me to play basketball.”

Abdul-Jabbar has a history of stress-related migraine headaches, but he has had none since last season’s championship series against the Celtics. In fact, Abdul-Jabbar experienced a migraine before Game 1 last season and still scored 32 points in a 115-109 Laker victory.

As the series continued, Abdul-Jabbar had several more headaches, which he said were caused by a series of personal problems, such as a breakup with his girlfriend, the pursuit of Wilt Chamberlain’s career scoring record and the building of a house to replace the one that burned to the ground a year earlier.

Abdul-Jabbar said he simply was not ready to play Monday, for some reason, but he wasn’t sure which one.

“I don’t know if we were tight, but things just went from bad to worse for us,” he said. “If we had played better, it might not have changed the outcome one bit, but at least we would feel better about it.

“I know I didn’t run the court very well and I didn’t pass the ball back out when there was an obvious amount of double-teaming,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

“I am perplexed enough to admit I have to go out there and get my act together or we’re going to have problems,” he said.

The Celtics follow conventional lines in defending against Abdul-Jabbar, but with a slight twist. While many teams wait for him to dribble before sending a second player to help out, the Celtics double-team Abdul-Jabbar with a guard as soon as he touches the ball.

Boston Coach K.C. Jones also sends a third Celtic, many times Larry Bird, against Abdul-Jabbar, who was guilty of holding the ball too long and not passing back outside to the Laker shooters.

But then, they weren’t doing anything with the ball when they got it anyway.

“We were all awful,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said.

Abdul-Jabbar was just the tallest Laker on the all-awful team. The Lakers look up to him for many reasons, but mostly for what he can do on the court, the things he didn’t do in Game 1.

If Abdul-Jabbar didn’t have anything to worry about before, he’s got something now. And if he really does need to have problems in order to be motivated, he and the rest of the Lakers made sure in Game 1 that there are several from which to choose.