Lakers Get Two Chances for Redemption : Series Returns to Boston With L.A. Up, 3-2

If the Lakers are to gain their redemption, and they still won’t admit that’s what they’re looking for, they will find it in Boston Garden, the place where this never-ending story began almost one year ago.

One more victory. That’s all that separates the Lakers from the National Basketball Assn. championship. Only the reigning champions, playing on their home court, can keep them from getting it.

The Lakers say they may win it Sunday afternoon or they may win it Tuesday night, but they say they really are going to win it this time. Honest.

“I believe this is our year,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “We’ve suffered and we’ve come back.”

Who and what they have come back from are not easy to shake off. But the Lakers put themselves in position to finally rid themselves of the Boston Celtics, eight times their tormentors over a quarter-century, when they upended the Celtics, 120-111, Friday night at the Forum.

The victory gave the Lakers a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven championship series, with Game 6 to be played Sunday afternoon in Boston Garden.

What happened in Game 5 should be fresh in everyone’s memory, which is the way it should be, since no one has really forgotten last season yet.

The Lakers broke free of the Celtics in the second quarter, shot off to a 17-point lead in the third quarter, then withstood a withering Boston rally in the fourth quarter behind the shooting of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the passing of Magic Johnson.

Abdul-Jabbar scored 36 points, his biggest offensive performance of the playoffs. Four times in the fourth quarter, Abdul-Jabbar got loose to score, just after the Celtics were inching closer behind Robert Parish and Larry Bird.

Johnson finished with 17 assists and 26 points, and James Worthy got 33 points and 8 rebounds in his finest overall game in the championship series.

The Lakers needed every bit of what they got from their Big Three. But the Lakers could very well have lost if not for what they got from Kurt Rambis.

Rambis is generally viewed in Laker circles as Clark Kent, but in Celtic broadcaster Johnny Most’s eyes as a bespecaled rat. Whether Rambis emerged from a phone booth or from a sewer, as Most suggested, the 6-8 Laker forward still managed to lug home 9 rebounds in 27 minutes and inspire the Lakers to switch from white collars to blue.

That happened in the second quarter, when the Lakers put together a string of points to take a lead they never relinquished. The Lakers led, 50-48, when Worthy rejected a Kevin McHale shot and Rambis ran the ball down near the Celtic bench when everyone else had given up on it.

Rambis, however, retrieved the loose ball, and the Lakers were off and running. During the last 3:48 of the second quarter, the Lakers outscored Boston, 14-3, to carry a 64-51 lead into the locker room.

Although the Celtics came close in the fourth quarter and cut the lead to as few as four points when the Lakers went nearly four minutes without scoring a point, the Lakers finally managed to hold on and win a close game.

“People didn’t think we could win close games,” Johnson said. “Well, we won. We can do it. It’s just putting our minds to it.”

The Celtics were within four points, 107-103, for the fifth and final time in the fourth quarter when Abdul-Jabbar turned right and dropped a hook shot with Parish tight on him.

Parish shot an airball, Dennis Johnson missed after a rebound and Magic Johnson got the ball. Rambis was fouled by McHale when he rebounded, and sank two free throws for a 111-103 lead with 3:01 left.

Then Rambis, defending Parish, the Celtic center, stepped around Parish and stole a pass from Dennis Johnson. Magic Johnson drove the middle for a layup and a 10-point Laker lead with 2:43 left. Two more baskets by Abdul-Jabbar, a hook and a dunk after an assist from Worthy, kept the lead safe.

Chances of the NBA championship trophy remaining in Boston may not be as safe. Maybe.

“We’re going to do whatever it takes to win these next two games,” Celtic forward M. L. Carr said. “No explanation is needed for that.”

Maybe not, but what the Celtics do need is a way to combat Riley’s biggest move of the series, which was assigning McHale to Abdul-Jabbar. McHale had 13 points in the first quarter but scored only 7 more until the last two minutes of the game.

Celtic Coach K. C. Jones was asked how he would combat the matchup.

“I’ll watch the tapes (of Game 5) on the plane between naps and come up with a game plan,” Jones said.

When Jones sees the tapes, it will be his first look at what happened during most of the second half. He got to watch only four minutes of it because referee Darrell Garretson ejected him from the game after calling two quick technicals.

The Lakers had a 74-59 lead with 8:03 remaining in the third quarter when Jones, who was unhappy with the officiating, complained to Garretson. That was worth one technical. The second came when Jones stepped on the court to argue.

“I have no idea of what went on out there in the second half,” said Jones, who sat in the locker room drinking a beer while assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers took over the team.

What Jones didn’t see was the Lakers extending their lead to from 76-68 to 89-72 in just over two minutes. Bird, who came back from a 1-for-5 first half to finish with 20 points, managed to carry the Celtics within 91-81, but the Lakers finished the quarter with driving layups by Johnson and Worthy.

Four Celtic starters played at least 44 minutes, and only two substitutes got into the game, playing a total of 24 minutes. Dennis Johnson went the entire 48 minutes and scored 22 points, with 17 assists.

Michael Cooper was the primary Laker substitution, replacing the still struggling Byron Scott, and Cooper scored 10 points, with 7 assists, in 34 minutes.

The Lakers, who shot 56.8%, their best of the series, believe they might actually put themselves out of their yearlong Celtic misery as early as Sunday.

“We’ve got two chances to win one,” Magic Johnson said.

Even in Boston Garden, the graveyard of last year’s Laker team?

“I don’t care if we play in Liverpool, England, in front of those soccer crowds,” Riley said. “Anybody got a wire-mesh fence?

“It was obvious that the team that won tonight was going to play the next game for the world championship. It just happens to be us.”

Championship Series Notes Boston Coach K.C. Jones said he didn’t know what was happening in the second half because there wasn’t a television set in the Celtic locker room. “And nobody came in to tell me, either,” Jones said. . . . Keith Erickson’s halftime guest on the Laker radio broadcast, Isiah Thomas, said he thinks the Celtics are a better team than the Lakers. “From top to bottom,” he said. “Not taking anything away from the Lakers. They’ve got great athletes, great runners and jumpers, but the Celtics have got some great basketball players.” . . . There was a rumor circulating Friday night that the Golden State Warriors would be sold within 72 hours. Warrior owner Franklin Mieuli, who late in the season admitted that he was seeking minority owners for the club, has apparently decided to sell out completely. According to a source, there are two main groups interested in the Warriors, one of them from Los Angeles. One prospective buyer is reportedly former Cleveland Cavalier owner Nick Mileti. . . . From Celtic Cedric Maxwell on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: “A guy that old, it shouldn’t be right that he’s playing this well.” . . . Laker Coach Pat Riley changed his substitution pattern in the first quarter, bringing in Mitch Kupchak at forward for Kurt Rambis and also putting in Michael Cooper early for Byron Scott. Mike McGee, who had played only three minutes in the last three games, began the second quarter in place of Magic Johnson.

NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

CELTICS VS. LAKERS

THE RESULTS GAME 1 Celtics 148, Lakers 114 GAME 2 Lakers 109, Celtics 102 GAME 3 Lakers 136, Celtics 111 GAME 4 Celtics 107, Lakers 105 GAME 4 Lakers 120, Celtics 111 THE SCHEDULE DATE SITE TIMEGAME 6 Sunday, June 9 at Boston 10:00 a.m.GAME 7 Tuesday, June 11 at Boston 6:00 p.m.NOTE--All times PDT. Game 7 if necessary.