TARGET: BOSTON (OR SHOULD IT BE HOUSTON?) : West Is Plotting a Return to NBA Throne for Lakers

Remember the Lakers?

Last season’s ex-champions are two days old today.

When the victory parade of the new NBA champions, the Celtics, winds its way through Boston today, Laker General Manager Jerry West will be sitting in his office at the Forum, trying to figure out a way to prevent another party in Boston next season.

“They had a perfect year,” West said of the Celtics.

West saw the end of a nearly flawless championship season on television Sunday when the Celtics beat the Houston Rockets for the NBA title, 114-97, winning the series, four games to two. West said he was impressed.

“They didn’t start out to win a lot of games, but to win a championship,” West said. “They earned it. They deserved it.”

The Lakers didn’t and that is what West is working on.

For nearly three weeks, since the Lakers ended their shortened season with a stunning, five-game upset loss to the Rockets in the Western Conference finals, West has been holed up in his paneled office nearly every day.

That Houston victory kept the Lakers at home from the finals for the first time in five years and instead sent the Rockets off to Boston.

Now that it’s all over, would the Lakers have done any better?

Maybe not, West said, but it would have been a different series.

“It’s really hard to tell how we might have fared with Boston, but what you’ve got to look at is the Houston team and its front line,” West said. “To begin with, there’s no better front line in basketball with Akeem Olajuwon, Ralph Sampson and Rodney McCray.

“The difference was experience,” he said. “They didn’t have it. Boston did. Now, we would have played the Celtics a lot differently than the Rockets because we have an experienced front line and we don’t play like Houston.”

Certainly the Lakers did not play as well as Houston, either. But West explained that although the Rockets directed most of their patterned offensive plays toward Olajuwon and Sampson, the Rocket backcourt was not nearly as productive in set plays.

By contrast, West said, the Laker guards have more ability to score from half-court sets than the Rocket guards.

“It is not always necessary that our front line control the offense,” West said.

Of course, whether any of this would have made any difference in a Laker-Celtic championship series is irrelevant because the Rockets never allowed one to materialize.

It should be noted that the Boston Celtics are not one of West’s favorite teams and never have been, but he still recognizes a good thing when he sees one and the Celtics are plenty good.

In the 27 years since West became a Laker player, only one time have the Lakers beaten the Celtics for the NBA title. That was last season and now the Celtics have won it back.

West isn’t sure that the Celtics are going to able to repeat. No team has won consecutive championships since 1969. The Lakers became the 17th defeated former titlist this season.

“Just like we did, they’ll find it is harder the second time around,” he said. “Nothing goes smoothly. They have to remain relatively injury free, which they did, except for when (Kevin) McHale went out a little bit.

“But of course, there’s always the X factor,” he said.

The X factor?

“Larry Bird,” West said.

“He can change the course of events all by himself. Like in this series. When you get into position to win with a team like that and a player like him, the results are pretty predictable.

“They’ve got three players in their starting lineup who are as good as anyone in the league at their position. Bird, McHale and Dennis Johnson. But two of the three don’t get any publicity because of the one player that does.

“There is no better forward in the league than Kevin McHale--not (Charles) Barkley, not anyone. His total game is just tremendous. And Johnson is so steady.”

But West saved his greatest praise for Bird, who won a second championship series MVP award Sunday with his third playoff triple double and second in the series. In the six-game finals, Bird nearly averaged a triple double: 24 points, 9.6 rebounds, 9.5 assists.

“He is the epitome of what a great player should be,” West said. “The Celtics always seem to have one guy who rises above and beyond other people. Add that to the talent they have and they’re going to win.

“What he does is change everybody’s perception of what the game is about. The focus is on the team instead of the individual. Not all their players had outstanding games. If we would have had players who played as badly in places, we would have been brutalized in the press.

“But he keeps the emphasis on team . He makes wins feel better and losses not hurt so much because no one’s pointing any fingers.

“Larry Bird is such a special player. They just don’t get any better than him,” said West, whose job is to find a way to make the Lakers better than either of the teams that played in the finals. They can worry about Bird later.