Close, but No Cigar; Lakers Will Do Battle With New Challenger

Now we know the Lakers are the ones who are going to show up representing the Western Conference and play a team from the East that for the first time in five years is not from Boston.

It will be the Detroit Pistons, a team Michael Cooper talked about in thoughtful, measured tones.

“They’re here,” he said.

Now, for what’s not here: No Celtic pride . . . no parquet floor . . . no cigars . . . no saunas at midcourt in that hoary hothouse, Boston Garden. Instead, the Lakers get the Pistons, a team that plays its home games in a football stadium, which ought to tell you something about their reputation.

And what kind of Pistons are they?

“Tough and gritty,” Cooper said.

So what does that make the Celtics?

“Soft and sweet,” Cooper said.

And gone. The Celtics are now the answer to a playoff riddle. What’s white and green and no longer seen? When the Lakers defeated the Dallas Mavericks, 117-102, Saturday at the Forum to move on to the championship round, they kept up their end of what has become something of a tradition in the National Basketball Assn.

Like all good sports rivalries, there is often a time limit involved. Someone usually gets old, then they get beat.

The Celtics?

“They’re not getting any younger,” James Worthy said.

In professional basketball, the enduring rivalry has been the Lakers, who have shown in these playoffs they aren’t getting any younger either, and the Boston Celtics. This was especially true in the 1980s.

They played in 1983-84 finals, when Boston won. They played again the next season, and the Lakers won. Last season, the Lakers beat the Celtics again. But Detroit made sure there would not be another Laker-Celtic rematch when the Pistons eliminated Boston Friday night.

If this is the end of an era, Laker owner Jerry Buss didn’t sound as if he believed it.

“The Celtics will be back next year, and so will we,” he said.

Is that a guarantee? Since the Lakers are still under warranty, the one issued by Pat Riley, the Laker coach was amused when he was told what Buss said.

“Tell him to get me a center--besides the one I have now,” Riley said.

What we have now is a final that once again involves the Lakers, but one that is without their longtime protagonists who were killed off in the last chapter. It’s a pity the Celtics couldn’t make it, some of the Lakers agreed. And in something of a surprise, a couple of Lakers actually felt kind of, well, sorry for the Celtics.

However, Kurt Rambis had the same amount of sympathy for the Celtics as he had playing time Saturday--zero.

“Would they feel sorry for us?” Rambis asked.

Yeah, that’s a good point. But even Cooper, who has always had sandpaper for a heart when the Celtics are concerned, admitted he had grown a little soft.

“My heart went out to them,” Cooper said. “I really feel bad for them.”

Riley’s heart stayed put. “I don’t feel sorry for them, but I do have empathy,” Riley said. “They couldn’t make it. Right now, we stand alone as the team of the ‘80s. We have to maintain our identify and our own tradition.

“Romantically, it would make a difference playing Boston,” he said. “We have always measured ourselves against them. But now we have to realize they are no longer around. We’ll play the Pistons with as much respect as we have for anybody.”

Magic Johnson has already decided how best to show how much he respects his good buddy on the Pistons, Isiah Thomas.

“If he comes in here, I’ll have to put him on his butt,” Johnson said. “I’m going for the world championship and so is he. We can speak and have fun the day after it’s over.”

Since it’s already over for the Celtics, Laker General Manager Jerry West explained why.

“They got beat up only playing five starters, and even though they have three great starters, you can’t do that in this league and have a real good team,” West said.

After all, Worthy said, the Pistons are the best team in the East because they beat the Celtics.

“I wasn’t rooting for either team,” he said. “But when I watched the Celtics lose, you have a tendency to feel the pain you saw in their faces.

“They did a great job over the years, but you’ve always got to think about the young teams. Bird, Parish, D.J., you have to think about their ages.”

On the other hand, A.C. Green didn’t care.

“Not at all,” he said. “I just want to win, and I don’t care who we play. I’ll play my family and if I win, I’ll consider it a championship.”

Consider this: If the Celtics were supposed to be in the finals, they should have beaten Detroit, as they were favored to do.

“You thought they were going to win from the beginning of the season,” Johnson said. “But they weren’t the best team.”

The Lakers have to win four more games to prove they are. Johnson said he is already getting himself ready for the Pistons, although the way he said it, Johnson sounded as if he were more like a tire than a player.

“I’ll be pumped up as high as I can be,” Johnson said. “But I can’t be too pumped up, because then I’ll be over-hot.”

For sure, you can’t have that. Just plain hot will probably do, even though the Lakers and Pistons--whatever combination they put on the court--may not be able to generate the same amount of heat that a Laker-Celtic matchup would generate.

“I think it’s kind of the end of a dynasty,” Byron Scott said of the Celtics. “We’re the only team left of us two. But they should have won if they wanted to be here and they didn’t. We’re playing the best team in the East--and it isn’t Boston.”