Celtics Fall to New ‘M’ Squad: Magic, Mychal : Lakers Rally for 106-103 Win at Forum

You can be sure there was dancing in the hills of Bel-Air, home to Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry West.

The same holds true for the mansions high above Beverly Hills, home to Jerry Buss, and the boulevards of Brentwood, home to Pat Riley.

And you can bet your last Celtic-buster T-shirt that nobody was dancing in Boston, not after the Lakers came from 17 points down at the Forum Sunday afternoon to beat the Celtics, 106-103, giving Los Angeles a two-game sweep of the teams’ regular-season tete-a-tete and the best record in the NBA (38-12), a game better than Boston (37-13).

But did you know they were dancing on the beaches of the Bahamas?

For that, you’ll have to take the word of Mychal Thompson, the native Bahamian who couldn’t have timed his Laker debut better, coming in cold to score 10 points and grab four rebounds in 29 minutes, including the last 19:54.

“Everybody in the Bahamas is a Lakers’ fan, and everybody there hates the Celtics,” Thompson said. “The streets were empty there today. Everybody was watching me.

“I was always a Laker fan, when they had Jim McMillian and Happy Hairston and Gail Goodrich and were winning 33 in a row. . . . And ever since Magic came here, everybody there is for the Lakers.”

In a game in which Abdul-Jabbar had just one basket midway through the fourth quarter and Byron Scott’s jump shot went on vacation--he made just 4 of 17 attempts from the floor--Thompson’s arrival was as refreshing as a Caribbean breeze.

“When I heard the news (that he had been traded from San Antonio on Friday), I felt like I had just won the California lottery,” Thompson said. “This morning, coach (Bill) Bertka ran over the plays with me and told me that if I could remember half of them I would be a real genius.

“Well, you’re looking at a certified genius because I remembered all of them.”

Thompson may not have been the difference in this game. Magic Johnson, after all, scored 39 points in 45 exhausting minutes, including 18 points in the first quarter, a 45-foot, one-handed push shot to close out the third quarter, and eight of the Lakers’ last dozen points, including two free throws with four seconds left.

James Worthy had 26 points and Abdul-Jabbar, who had what he called a terrible game, made two straight sky-hooks, a go-ahead layup with 55 seconds left, grabbed a rebound of a Robert Parish miss on the Celtics’ next possession, and two pressure free throws with 14 seconds to go.

But let’s just say the 6-10 Thompson was noticed, even if his name was misspelled (“Michael”) on the Forum scoreboard when he first entered the game with 1:13 left in the first quarter.

“Why would San Antonio do something like that?” said Boston’s Larry Bird, who had an ice pack wrapped around his right hand (jammed finger) and both feet in ice pans.

“If they wanted money, we would’ve been glad to keep them in business. Maybe they’ll lend us Artis Gilmore for a while.”

Thompson hit his first shot, a little jump hook over Boston center Parish at the start of the second quarter. He threw a bounce pass to Worthy for a basket, hit another hook shot, and tipped in a miss by Scott, all in his first five minutes of play.

Then, down the stretch, while Laker Coach Pat Riley kept A.C. Green on the bench, Thompson helped contain Kevin McHale, his ex-college teammate, who had 16 points in the first half but just seven in a foul-plagued second half.

He also grabbed the rebound of a miss by Danny Ainge with the Celtics ahead, 96-94, with just over three minutes to go, and set a screen for Magic Johnson’s 18-foot jumper that gave the Lakers a 102-99 lead with 23 seconds left.

Dangerous to draw conclusions after just one game? Try telling that to Laker owner Buss.

“This kid is a major ballplayer,” Buss said while breaking away from a crowd of well-wishers after the game.

“If Jerry West is remembered for a single trade as general manager of the Lakers, this may be the one. He’s a great player at a position we really needed to strengthen.”

For most of the first three quarters, the Celtics appeared to be dealing from a position of strength. They led by 10, 22-12, before steals by Scott and Green contributed to three straight Laker fast-break baskets, about the only time the Lakers were able to run.

The Celtics answered that by reeling off nine straight points, and led 32-28 at the end of the first quarter.

At one point, Magic Johnson--with 18 points and 6 assists--had accounted for 30 of the Lakers’ 36 points. But the Celtics’ balanced scoring--four starters were in double figures and the fifth, Ainge, had nine--accounted for an eight-point lead, 58-50, at the half.

The lead became 17, 75-58, as Johnson cooled off, Scott and Abdul-Jabbar stayed iced, and Bird hit a turnaround eight-footer with 5:41 to go in the third quarter.

“I was thinking, ‘We’re 0 for 6 on national television, 0 for 7 if we lose today, I was going to ban CBS from the Forum,” Riley said.

“Actually, I didn’t feel that bad. I knew if we didn’t quit--we usually don’t, but sometimes when you get down by 17 you start thinking a game might be history--if we could get it down to 10 or 12 points, we’d have a shot.”

The Lakers’ chances were enhanced greatly when Parish and McHale drew offensive fouls--the fourth foul on each--on consecutive possessions, sending both Boston big men to the bench.

McHale also drew a technical from referee Paul Mihalak, and when Magic made the free throw, the Boston lead was under double figures, 78-69.

After Bird missed two free throws, Magic threw in a little bank shot as he was knocked out of bounds by Boston 7-footer Greg Kite. He made the free throw, and it was 78-72.

It became a four-point game as time ran out in the third quarter when Magic dribbled just across the mid-court line and let fly with his one-hander, which sent the crowd into a frenzy when it circled the cylinder and went in.

“You want to get tougher when you have a big lead,” Bird said, “but we lost our composure on those two offensive fouls. Those type of calls really hurt our team, and then McHale gets a ‘T.’ ”

And the Lakers got the lead when Michael Cooper, who missed all six of his other shots, hit a three-pointer to make it, 86-85, with 8:41 to go. Neither team led by more than three the rest of the way.

“It was a big shot,” Cooper said. “I’m glad I hit something, besides fouling people.

“We probably shouldn’t have won this ballgame under the circumstances, but we kept plugging.”

Including Abdul-Jabbar, whose record streak of consecutive games of double-figure scoring appeared about to end at 742.

“Nothing was going right for us--I had a terrible game and so did a couple of other guys, but we kept our nose in it,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “They can have the streak. I just wanted the win.”

And after Bird--who scored just two of his 20 points in the final quarter--missed a last-second, off-balance bomb with Worthy in his face, the Lakers had it.

After his first Laker-Celtic game, Thompson said he was looking forward to more.

“I hope we can see these guys one more time,” Thompson said. “In late May.”

It’ll be better in the Bahamas if they do.

Laker Notes

Boston Coach K.C. Jones may have heard one too many questions about Mychal Thompson after Sunday’s game. Jones duly praised Thompson, saying: “He makes them (the Lakers) a big team now, it gives the Lakers a 6-10 guy who can come in with Kareem.” But later, Jones deadpanned, “Gee, golly, I’m glad I’m not out here in this division.” . . . Byron Scott, on his terrible shooting day: “We got a ‘W’ out of it. If we had gotten an ‘L’, it would have been a long rest of the day and a long tomorrow, because I would have felt responsible for it. I was so ready to play, so into it, maybe I lost control of my emotions and was doing everything extra fast.” . . . The Celtics, down by one, 104-103, with seven seconds left, almost got the ball right back when Danny Ainge slapped away James Worthy’s in-bounds pass, which was intended for Michael Cooper. The Celtics claimed the ball hit Worthy before going out of bounds. “It didn’t touch me,” Worthy said. “Jess (Kersey, the referee) was right there. The ball went straight through my legs.” . . . The Lakers outrebounded the Celtics, 40-38, just as they had outrebounded them in Boston (38-32). . . . Mychal Thompson, on whether Kevin McHale deserved his technical foul: “He’s out there crying and bitchin’ all the time, he should have gotten four or five of them.” . . . Boston guard Ainge made just 3 of 11 shots, one reason the Lakers were able to put so much double-team pressure on Larry Bird.