Uninspired Lakers Fall Flat, 110-96 : Cold Shooting in Boston Means 3rd Loss in 4 Games

The storied Laker-Celtic rivalry wasn’t supposed to be the same this time around, with the injured Larry Bird sitting on the Boston bench in a teal blue sweater and all that warmth from Boston Garden fans inspiring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on his farewell tour.

Something definitely was missing Friday night, and it turned out to be the Lakers.

To commemorate Abdul-Jabbar’s last regular-season visit to Boston and Bird’s first absence from a game in the biannual, bicoastal rivalry, the Lakers produced a monumental clunker. And before a national cable television audience, no less.

Flat instead of inspired, disoriented instead of disarming, the Lakers were blown away, 110-96, by a team that had been struggling with a new coach, young players and the loss of its leading scorer and spiritual leader, who had surgery to remove bone spurs from both feet.

Now it is the Lakers who are struggling. Friday night’s loss was their second in a row and third in four games. Although they still are 16-6 and in first place in the Pacific Division, subtle warning signs that had surfaced in recent games escalated into a full-scale problem against the Celtics.

Assessing the damage, Coach Pat Riley blamed the Lakers’ lax state of mind as much as their physical mistakes. But their play was glaringly poor.

They shot 28.3% in the first half, when they trailed by 14 points, and 37.9% for the game. They regularly missed open jump shots, simple drives through the lane and a few easy fast-break layups. And that was when they took good shots. Most of the night, the offense was stagnant, and their shot selection bordered on awful.

Defensively, they were a little better. But all those missed shots allowed the Celtics, who have been criticized this season for not initiating the fast break, to run all over the Lakers. The tandem of Danny Ainge (25 points, 10 assists) and sixth man Reggie Lewis (22 points, 7 rebounds) did the most damage.

For the Lakers, James Worthy had perhaps the worst game of his career, missing all 7 of his shots in the first half and making 3 of 14 overall. Byron Scott, in his first game back from a sprained right ankle, made 4 of 13, and Abdul-Jabbar (5 of 13) and A.C. Green (3 of 9) also misfired.

Only Magic Johnson, who scored 31 points, was productive. But the Celtics’ defense, combined with the Laker inertia, limited him to 7 assists.

“One of the keys was that we kept the ball out of Magic’s hands a little,” Kevin McHale said. “He usually has 31 points and 17 assists. We cut that down.”

This night, the Lakers and Celtics switched roles. The Lakers played the part of the lumbering, error-prone old guys, and the Celtics were the aggressors who pushed the ball upcourt and forced their opponents into mistakes.

“They wanted our (butts), and they got it,” Riley said. “They whipped us royally.”

By virtue of winning consecutive championships, the Lakers still are considered NBA royalty. But with the results of the last week, they suddenly went from a dominating team with the league’s best record to a team in need of a change in attitude and habits, if not personnel.

Riley and others said the Lakers’ glut of early-season road games--17 of the first 24 by the time they return to the Forum next week--is a factor. But the Lakers also have not been sharp mentally.

“We, right now, are going through mental slippage,” Riley said. “We are not executing against pressure. We are not competing. I think we’ve been ineffective for 2 or 3 weeks now.

“The word is flat. When you’re flat, it’s because you are not intense. Each individual on the team has to do something about that. I can’t motivate anybody. I can show them what has gone wrong and try to correct that, but unless they do it themselves, mentally, I can’t help.”

If Laker players were not aware of their recent failings after close losses to Milwaukee and New Jersey, Friday night’s cold slap in the face by the Celtics certainly must have brought them back to reality.

“I think we’re in trouble,” Worthy said. “This is something you can’t let go on for a long period. We can’t dig a hole and give other teams confidence. We got to find a way to get back. We can’t keep playing like we did tonight.”

The Lakers reached their low point in a horrendous second quarter that Riley called the team’s worst of the season. The teams started the period tied, 26-26, but then the Lakers went into a 3 1/2-minute slide as the Celtics took a 38-28 lead.

During that span, Scott and Michael Cooper had consecutive turnovers, and Cooper and Scott missed open shots. The Laker frustration was typified when Johnson missed a jump shot and Mychal Thompson was called for a foul while tipping in the rebound, nullifying the basket. Riley drew a technical foul, and the Celtics seized upon the opportunity.

With 49 seconds left in the first half, Boston opened a 16-point lead, its biggest of the game.

The Lakers attempted to save face several times in the second half. They pulled within 4 points with 3:45 to play in the third quarter, but the Celtics reclaimed a 10-point lead. The Lakers pulled within 5 points twice early in the fourth quarter, but turnovers, missed shots and Celtic defensive efficiency never let the Lakers seriously threaten.

“That wasn’t a typical Laker performance,” McHale said. “We had something to do with that, but they just weren’t the same team. I don’t know.”

If this was an atypical Laker effort, what about the Celtics? They have won 2 straight games to even their record at 11-11, and they did it in a most peculiar way.

The Lakers simply did not seem prepared for the Celtic running game. It also seemed as if they figured that, without Bird, the Celtics would not put up their usual resistance.

“If Larry had been here, maybe we would have been more into it tonight,” Scott said. “That’s what it felt like, like we could turn it on and beat them. We’d be down, then we’d chatter and get close to them. But when we got close, it’s like we lost something, and we went down again.”

Riley, however, smiled when it was suggested that Bird’s absence was the cause of the Lakers’ brain-lock.

“I don’t know,” Riley said. “If Larry had played, we might have lost by 40.”

Laker Notes

Because of his stormy relationship with Boston Garden fans over the years, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said he did not know what to expect as his farewell tour rolled into town Friday night. What he received was a 1-minute 35-second standing ovation from the fans, and a tribute from Celtic President Red Auerbach, who hasn’t always had such glowing things to say about Abdul-Jabbar. In presenting Abdul-Jabbar with a mounted framed slab of the Garden’s parquet floor, Auerbach said: “How can I get mad at him now? I’ve always said Boston fans were the greatest in the world. And I’m going to repeat it, because he’s the enemy. And yet, what he’s done for the game is unparalleled. We don’t want him to forget anything about this building. . . . He’s gone across this floor so many times that it’s got to happen, we’ve got to give him a piece of this floor.”

Abdul Jabbar credited former Celtic star Bill Russell and Auerbach for being his models during his formative years as a basketball player. “I guess I should start when I was a kid,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I didn’t know anything about this game. I used to watch the team wearing green and a guy on the team wearing No. 6 (Russell). He taught me how to play the game. And they had a coach who liked to smoke cigars. And I never would have learned how to play the game had it not been for the Celtic teams of the ‘50s and ‘60s . . . “

Auerbach, however, expressed a dislike of Abdul-Jabbar in a story in Friday’s edition of the Boston Herald. According to the story, Celtic management was not looking forward to honoring Abdul-Jabbar because of “perceived lack of respect (Abdul-Jabbar has) for Auerbach.” Auerbach’s comment in Friday’s newspaper story: “I don’t want to get in a shooting match with him. But the reason he doesn’t like me is probably because I’ve always said Bill Russell was a better player.” Abdul-Jabbar made a veiled reference to the Herald story in his address to the fans. “There was a vicious rumor going around today that, for some reason, I didn’t like Red or he didn’t like me. There’s nothing further from the truth.”

For what it’s worth: With Friday night’s loss, the Lakers are 4-4 in games in which Abdul-Jabbar is honored. The next stop is Sunday night against the Washington Bullets in Landover, Md.