THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIPS : LOS ANGELES LAKERS vs. DETROIT PISTONS : A Dream Series, to Some : Magic, Isiah Have Already Played This One, 1-on-1

Sweet dreams? With Rick Mahorn around, there’s always the chance this could become a Nightmare on Prairie Street.

But for Earvin Johnson and his little buddy, Isiah Thomas, the National Basketball Assn. final series is their own private fantasy come to life: Magic vs. Pocket Magic, winner-take-all, loser pays for the carriage ride they take together in Central Park each summer.

Pick a winner? Pick the dreamer. Johnson is seeking to make reality of the Lakers’ quest to become the first team in 19 years to repeat as champion. Thomas wants to give those notorious hellions, the Detroit Pistons, their first taste of hoop heaven.

“We’ve always fantasized about it,” Johnson said Monday at the Forum, where the best-of-seven series opens tonight. “In your dreams, it always comes out the right way.”

If the happy ending is Johnson’s, he’ll have a ring for every finger on one hand. The Lakers have won four titles since Johnson left his home in Michigan for California, making him the most popular import from Detroit since the Mustang.

The Pistons, however, have already shattered a Boston Celtic-Laker dream rematch by bouncing Boston out of the Eastern Conference finals in six games. And after beating the Celtics, no one seems out of reach to the Pistons.

“There aren’t any great superstar teams anymore,” center Bill Laimbeer said. “Parity has taken over.”

Laimbeer wanted no part of Pat Riley’s claim that the Lakers are bidding for “greatest-team-ever” status with another title.

“If the Lakers win the series, it means they’re the best team this year,” Laimbeer said. “But as far as being a dominant team, I don’t think they’ve dominated anybody.

“There are no monster squads this year.”

No monster squads, perhaps, but how about a squad full of monsters and other ghoulies, ghosties and things that go bump in the night? On reputation alone, the Pistons should have a wing in Sing Sing named after them. The Lakers may be well advised to break out their spiked high-tops.

But even after seeing Detroit give the Celtics the once-over in the East, Riley said he has no intention of playing Miss Manners to the Pistons’ nasty habits. Yet.

“I’m not going to lobby about it or complain about it,” Riley said. “We’re just going to play.”

On the other hand . . .

“If you’re talking about tripping, holding of jerseys, and forearm smashes, all those things aren’t part of basketball,” Riley said. “If those things are allowed, it becomes different.”

No sense in worrying about that stuff, though, according to Byron Scott.

“We don’t look for trouble,” Scott said. “It’s going to happen, anyway.”

Listen to Detroit Coach Chuck Daly, and the Pistons are about as threatening as Dancing Barry.

“We have midget guards, a center who can’t jump over the paint, a power forward who can’t get off his toes--everybody is bigger than us,” Daly said.

“I think we’re a bunch of pussycats. I wish we were more physical.”

Daly conveniently overlooked the fact that one of those Piston pussycats, Dennis Rodman, was fined by the league Monday for fighting with Boston’s Brad Lohaus.

Of course, it’s possible Daly hadn’t heard about Rodman’s fine yet. He showed up late for the mass media conference that occupied the court between the Laker and Piston practices.

“Sorry I’m late, guys,” Daly said. “I had to talk to Al Davis about our kicking game . . . what to do when it’s third down and long yardage.”

Daly, who used to drop-kick and punt for his high school team in Pennsylvania, said that if the Pistons are to live up to Davis’ Raider motto--”Just win, baby,” which they adopted as their own--they must cut the legs out of the Laker running game.

“Everybody talks about slowing it down,” Daly said. “The best way I know how is to make our shots.”

On a team loaded with scorers--Adrian Dantley, Joe Dumars, Vinnie (Microwave) Johnson, even Laimbeer--Daly said Thomas must carry the greatest load, even at the risk of resurrecting an old rap, that when the most must be done, Thomas tries to do too much.

“If we’re going to win in the playoffs, we don’t want him to go crazy with the ball,” Daly said. “I told him ‘Let the game come to you, but we have to have a big game from you.’ ”

The kind of game, in other words, that Thomas delivered against Boston, especially in Game 5, when he scored 29 of his game-high 35 points in the second half. It was only a year ago, in the closing seconds of another Game 5 against the Celtics, that Thomas made the pass that haunted him for months afterward, one that was stolen by Larry Bird and converted into a game-winning basket by Dennis Johnson.

“I think he’s showing in the playoffs this season the real Isiah,” Johnson said. “Now there’s just one more step, to big-time, money player. He’s out to show the whole world he deserves to be out there.”

Thomas and Johnson have been friends ever since Mark Aguirre introduced them in Johnson’s hometown of Lansing, Mich., seven years ago, when Thomas was still in college in Indiana and debating whether he should turn pro. Johnson said he offered no advice then, and he also let Thomas keep his own counsel last spring, when the Detroit guard made some seemingly racist comments about Bird.

Johnson said Monday, however, that he was impressed at the way Thomas dealt with his troubles.

“I’ve seen a mental toughness in him,” Johnson said. “He’s handled every situation--the media, the games--very well.”

The constant comparisons to Johnson would seem to be an obstacle to Thomas establishing his own identity. But when asked if he minded the Pocket Magic tag, Thomas shook his head.

“I have no qualms being compared to greatness,” he said.

Besides, while Thomas may not have as many rings as Johnson does, he has been on as many GQ covers.

As gifted as Thomas is, the comparison isn’t especially valid, according to both Riley and Scott.

Noting the difference in height between the 6-foot 9-inch Johnson and 6-1 Thomas, Riley said: “Can Isiah Thomas guard Roy Tarpley?”

Tarpley is the 7-foot Dallas forward that Johnson covered in the last two games of the Western Conference finals.

Scott, who will draw the Detroit point guard as his defensive assignment, said that while Thomas and Johnson are both great improvisers, they do so for different reasons.

“Magic creates to pass,” Scott said. “Isiah mostly creates to score.”

These days, no one is scoring with any ease against the Pistons, who come into tonight’s game having held the opposition to an average of 90.8 points in their last dozen playoff games. While much has been made of the Detroit muscle, Riley said he is just as concerned about the Pistons’ speed.

“When they come off the bench with (John) Salley, Rodman, Vinnie and Dumars, they present real quickness problems,” Riley said.

That would seem to be especially true for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who seemed worn out at the end of the Dallas series, according to Maverick center James Donaldson. Daly watched the tapes of that series, however, and came away with a different impression.

“By the sixth or seventh games, he looked like a young child again,” said Daly, words the 41-year-old Abdul-Jabbar may like to remember if he ever has a mid-life crisis. “In each series they’ve been in danger, he’s the guy who surfaced as much as anyone.”

The idea was floated that perhaps the Pistons, satisfied by their breakthrough against Boston, might not be ready for the Lakers.

“That’s something we’ll have to find out,” Daly said. “ . . . We’ve played enough games against Boston.

“Isiah said it best: ‘Boston brings out the best and worst in you. Boston makes you a better person.’ ”

That being so, let the California dreamin’ begin.