Cooper Shows Celtics He Has His Own Little Magic Show

Right from the start, something was seriously wrong. The Lakers, when they had the ball, could actually be seen with the naked eye.

The Lakers were so slow offensively Thursday night that they were often on the same end of the Forum court as the Celtics.

Was this the end of the fabled one-game Laker dynasty?

It was not, thanks to Michael Cooper.

You remember Cooper. Mr. Defense. In your shirt. He’d hound-dog the other team’s shooter, get you an exciting Coop-a-loop now and then, duke it out with an occasional opponent, blow a kiss to his wife Wanda, and fade into the wallpaper.

Thursday night, a new Coop emerged. The league’s Defensive Player of the Year came off the bench late in the first period and blew the game open with a display of shooting and fast-break dealing that was spectacular.

How spectacular was it?

Well, after the game, just outside the Laker locker room, Cooper got a big hug from Fonzie (Henry Winkler). You know the old saying, “Defensive guys don’t hug the Fonz.”

Cooper’s amazing offensive display invited comparisons with, uh, with, well . . .

“He’s so quick,” said running mate Byron Scott, “he pushes the ball just as fast as Magic does.”

Hey, I didn’t say it. I don’t want to get drummed out of the Sportwriter Union for sacrilege.

“What I liked about Coop,” said Laker Coach Pat Riley, “was that he was pushing the ball like Earvin (Magic). Early in the game, (Celtic guard Danny) Ainge was stifling our break. Michael came in and just blew right by ‘em.

“I was impressed with his shooting, but I was more impressed with his push, his creating off the break. He’s gonna want Magic (salary) numbers next year, 2 1/2 million, I can see it.”

Cooper might have earned that much in five minutes of the second quarter. The Celtics were still in the game, trailing by seven, slowing the pace, making the Lakers look human.

Then Coop’s Troops outscored the Celtics, 20-10, with Cooper accounting for all 20 Laker points.

In that run, he buried two three-point bombs, threw six assists to four different players, all on the dead (excuse the expression, Celtics) run, and and hit one common jump shot.

“I came in looking to shoot,” said Cooper, who used to be so tentative on offense he would look to pass off in a game of horse.

No doubt Cooper also would have excelled on defense during that frantic five-minute stretch Thursday night, but I don’t think the Celtics ever got the ball.

Any time the Laker fast break bogged down for more than two or three seconds, any time Worthy or Kareem got double-teamed inside, Cooper would spot up outside the three-point arc, check his toe placement, inhale, and loft a three-point rainmaker heartbreaker.

From the bench, Wes Matthews was singing out, “Make ‘em pay, Coop! Make ‘em pay !”

It was one of the fine three-point shooting exhibitions of the season. Six for seven on the night.

“He’s got all day out there,” Danny Ainge moaned. “He’s just standing out there, looking around, shooting the breeze.”

The reason the Celtics left Cooper alone out there was that the Lakers had seven or eight guys on the court. Or did it just seem that way?

“I think they’re so worried, James (Worthy) has ‘em so helter-skelter, they don’t know how to play us,” said Matthews. “They don’t know how to defend us. Do you double up on Worthy, on Kareem? We’ve got 7, 8, 10 different angles we come at you from.”

Some of the angles were new. Cooper’s offensive moves are becoming infectious. Team captain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, using Cooper as a role model, tried to execute a Coop-a-Loop on a pass from Byron Scott. Or was it a Kareem Ka-ram?

It wasn’t clean, it bounced off the rim, up, then down through the basket, Celtic-mystique style. Coop will work with Cap on that one in practice.

Through it all, Cooper was cool. The exciteable young man who woofed and high-fived the opponents into fits of anger earlier in the playoffs has toned down.

During the Golden State series, Cooper and the Lakers got together and decided to become more businesslike on the court, do less jiving and fiving.

Contributing to that decision was an offhand comment by a league official, which, relayed to Cooper, caused him to fume and vow to channel his energy completely into his floor game. There may have been word sent from within the Laker organization, too, to cool the happy stuff.

This turned out to be a bad move--for the Boston Celtics and CBS. The more businesslike Lakers have turned the NBA finals into a yawner. Thursday night, Cooper shot the CBS ratings all to hell. Hey, Cooper, “Cosby” and “Cheers” send their love.

The Lakers shipped the Celtics back to Boston in full body casts, packed in ice, humming the Joni Mitchell song (“Woodstock”), “ . . . and we got to get ourselves back to the Garden.”

The Celtics fly home today, except for Larry Bird, who will jog from L.A. to Boston, just to keep loose.

If Bird can’t stop Cooper and the Lakers, who can? Thursday night, the only guy who could catch Cooper was the Fonz.