Magic’s Hook Reels In the Celtics, 107-106 : His Basket With :02 to Play Gives Lakers 3-1 Advantage

At 11:36 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, as Larry Bird’s three-point shot from the left corner bounced long off the opposite rim, a hush descended on the north end of Boston, if not all of New England.

It was the kind of hush that could chill the heart of a Boston Garden ghost, break the heart of a Boston Celtic legend, and send Red Auerbach screaming into a bitter Boston night.

There would be no mystique on Causeway Street Tuesday, only Magic. The kind of Magic, in the words of Boston Coach K.C. Jones, that could cause an earthquake in Los Angeles--and, with one more win, a championship for the Lakers.

All season long, Magic Johnson had promised deliverance, and with two seconds left Tuesday night, the Laker guard delivered with as dramatic a basket as he has made this season: A sweeping, 12-foot “junior, junior, junior sky hook” that gave the Lakers a 107-106 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the National Basketball Assn. finals.

But the Lakers, who fought back from 16 points down in the third quarter and 8 points down with 3 1/2 minutes to play, could not be sure that they had taken a 3-1 lead in this series until Bird’s last-second shot had spun out of the basket.

“It was there,” said Bird, who had pushed free from James Worthy and had a clear shot at the basket. “I didn’t know if I’d made it or not because I was floating to the left.

“But it was on target. It was either short, long or in the hole.”

It was long, and the Celtics--seeking to become the first team since their 1969 predecessors to repeat as champions--now find themselves in the kind of hole that no team has ever overcome in the championship round.

The Lakers, meanwhile, were staring at the same black hole in which so many Celtic challengers of the past have disappeared. Down 79-63 with 4:54 to play in the third quarter, the Lakers were on the brink of going from 2-0 shoo-ins to 2-2 parquet patsies.

With a trapping defense and a monster three-pointer by Michael Cooper--”That broke our backs even though we were still ahead,” Bird said--the Lakers overcame that deficit.

But after drawing even at 93 on two free throws by Mychal Thompson with 6:14 to go, the Lakers fell back again by eight.

Danny Ainge, who had 23 points, buried a 21-footer from the right of the key. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tied it with a sky hook, but Bird ignored an onrushing Abdul-Jabbar and threw in a shot from the corner, Dennis Johnson and Ainge scored fast-break layups and Bird tossed in a fallaway from the top of the key, with Abdul-Jabbar in his face once more.

An eight-point lead at home, where the Celtics had lost just three times in 97 games at the Garden since the Lakers closed them out here in the 1985 finals, and only 3 1/2 minutes to go?

It was about time for Auerbach, the Celtic general manager, to reach for his victory cigar.

Instead, the Celtics threw away the ball on three trips down the court.

First, Michael Cooper forced Dennis Johnson into a jump ball, dove on the floor after another loose ball, and controlled another tip against Ainge.

Bird missed a jumper, and Mychal Thompson, who had 16 points and 9 rebounds, made one of two free throws with 1:59 to go.

Abdul-Jabbar snatched the ball out of the hands of center Robert Parish, and Cooper connected for three from the right side. It was 103-100, with 1:32 to go.

On the Celtics’ next trip down, Bird’s pass for Kevin McHale went off McHale’s hands and out of bounds.

James Worthy, went one-on-one against McHale and tossed in a soft jumper from the lane. The lead was one, 103-102, with 59 seconds left.

Bird missed a shot inside, and Mychal Thompson grabbed the rebound.

The Lakers called time out, during which Magic Johnson had a message for Abdul-Jabbar.

“I told him to set it up,” Johnson said.

It was an alley-oop pass from Johnson, which Abdul-Jabbar jammed home to give the Lakers their first lead of the second half, 104-103, with 29 seconds left.

It lasted all of 17 seconds, as Bird was true for three from the left corner with 12 seconds to go. Riley called the Lakers’ last time out.

But here was still time for one last disaster to befall the Celtics. Abdul-Jabbar, sandwiched on a drive between McHale and Robert Parish, was fouled by McHale with eight seconds left.

Abdul-Jabbar made his first free throw, but rimmed the second, his fourth miss of the night.

“It looked good to me,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who also missed 12 of 17 shots from the floor. “It bounced in and came out. That was my night tonight.”

The ball, however, went off McHale’s hands and out of bounds.

Lakers ball, eight seconds to go.

McHale intimated he may have been pushed. Thompson intimated that he may have been the guilty party.

“It wasn’t an illegal push,” he said, “but it was as NBA push. I got my hand on the ball and tried to keep it there. I used all the strength that I could. All that weight work I’ve been doing paid off.”

The ultimate payoff came, of course, from Magic.

Cooper, who made the in-bounds pass, threw it in to Johnson, who had popped out to the side and found himself guarded by McHale, who had been caught in a switch.

“I started to take the jumper,” Magic said, “but I saw him coming at me, so I decided to cut toward the middle.

“I put it up, and saw it as I released it, but then someone jumped in my face. I never saw it go in.”

Everyone else on the court saw it, however--it was the only basket of the quarter for Johnson, who scored 29 points, 19 in the first half. So did the screaming crowd of 14,890, which stopped yelling when Bird missed.

“The playoffs have just started,” Riley said afterward. “I don’t have a whole lot to say, other than we play for the title Thursday.”

On this nights, the last word was Magic.