Riley Critics More Vocal This Series : Pain of Last Year Still There as Laker Coach Calls Shots

When the Boston Celtics pulled within four points of the Lakers in the fourth quarter Friday night, a fan stood up and yelled, “Do something Riley. You’re the coach.”

The fan was not alone in her demands.

Pat Riley is the only coach in NBA history to get his team into the final in each of his first four years. He has an NBA title in hand and another within reach. Great. But what decisions has he made for us lately, a lot of people want to know. Riley has his critics just as surely as Magic Johnson or Byron Scott.

And in this series, they have been more vocal than ever.

Why wasn’t Michael Cooper in at the end of Game 4 when Dennis Johnson hit the game-winning shot?

Why not put Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the ever-elusive Kevin McHale?

Why not play (fill in the blank) more? Or less? Why not use Mitch Kupchak more on the boards? Why not use Mike McGee more on the break?

Why? Why? Why?

Fans yell out the criticism. Players mutter it. Laker officials whisper it.

Cooper wasn’t happy about sitting out the final six minutes of Game 4. Riley could have used him against Dennis Johnson in the final seconds, but that would have required using his final timeout, a timeout he felt he might need. So Cooper sat, and Johnson fired away.

“I would have liked to have been out on the court,” Cooper said. “I felt I could have made a difference. I felt I might have made him hitch his shot a little bit. But that’s tough to do from the bench. I’m a competitor. I feel I can make something happen, especially on defense.

“It made it tough for me, sitting on the bench. But that’s in the past.”

Cooper played only 16 minutes in Game 4. Friday night, Riley more than doubled that, giving him 34 minutes. Cooper responded with two big outside shots in the fourth quarter and brilliant defense in that period on Larry Bird. Bird claims he owns the fourth quarter, but Cooper owned him Friday, allowing him just two field goals.

And he got to Bird mentally as well as physically.

After Cooper hit his second big jumper, Bird, racing downcourt with his Laker nemesis, muttered, “Lucky shot.”

Cooper, showing he can fire retorts as well as jumpers, replied, “Luck counts, too.”

So do good passes. Cooper said he took the two big shots because of great passes from Abdul-Jabbar.

“I took them in my rhythm,” the Laker swingman said. “Larry had packed in the lane, and it was a long run for him to get out there before I shot. If I would have had to think about those shots, I probably would have missed them.

“It was nice to be in at the end of the game,” Cooper added with a grin. “I’m glad I contributed to the win.”

Said Riley: “Michael was in the game a lot not because I wanted to make up for Wednesday but because I wanted him for his good defensive play, which is what I got.

“Sometimes, I get caught up with the players on the court and forget about him (Cooper). But Michael rises to the occasion. He came in tonight and denied Bird the ball. Like Kurt Rambis, he gave us the fire.”

Riley is the first to admit he makes mistakes.

“Sometimes, if I make a bad decision, I think about it and try to remember it so I don’t repeat it,” he said. “A coach makes mistakes. He has to live with that.”

Riley changed several previous decisions Friday. He put Abdul-Jabbar on McHale. He went back to the defensive alignment he used in Game 1 in the backcourt with his Johnson (Magic) guarding their Johnson (Dennis). That left Scott on Danny Ainge. And he put James Worthy on Dennis Johnson for a while.

“I am primarily concerned with the matchups inside,” Riley said. “I like having James (Worthy) on DJ. DJ likes to enter into the post and Worthy has those longer arms so he can discourage those passes inside.”

But none of this means Riley expects the criticism to cease.

“I get it from the papers,” he said. “I get it from fans. I even get it from management.

“People send me letters, diagrams and advice. One guy wanted to know why I don’t play Magic on Kevin McHale. Some of the advice is pretty good.”

One bad substitution or bungled timeout and yesterday’s genius is today’s dunce. The pressure on the court is matched by the pressure on the sideline.

“It’s not pressure,” Riley said. “It’s pain. You’ve got to develop a hard skin to coach in L.A. The only thing you can do is win. You lose when you lose. Sometimes, you even lose when you win. Winning is not enough unless you win it all in L.A.

“I want to win this year because of the pain I went through last year (when the Lakers lost the final to Boston). But that pain I went through was for the players.”