THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES : LAKERS WIN SECOND CONSECUTIVE TITLE : Other Views : Lakers Didn’t Score High Nationally on Style Points

For two weeks, the Pistons hung over Los Angeles like smog. They just wouldn’t go away, like “celebrities” Bert Convy or Charo. The Pistons kept popping up in Hollywood like another “Friday the Thirteenth” sequel. Rambo lives! Rocky survives.

You kept wondering how in the name of Donald Carter--the Mavericks’ owner--the Pistons didn’t get Showtime--smoked the way Dallas did in its Game 7 of the Western final. I’ll tell you why; the Lakers were playing on fumes.