Celtics and Lakers Are Showing Their Age

Count the championship banners.

One, two, three, four and still much more. Go all the way up to 16, green, white and hovering over today’s Celtics from the ancient rafters of the Boston Garden. Then stop.

Check the championship smiles.

The bubbly Magic, grinning broadly moments after the Los Angeles Lakers won their second straight NBA title only seven months ago. Even the dour Kareem, exulting in that back-to-back feat last achieved in 1969.

Now cut to the present.

Bird is on the bench in street clothes, Kareem is on the bench in crunch time and their teams -- winners of eight of the last nine titles -- are losing to the Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings.

“The reasons both teams are struggling are fairly obvious,” said Charlotte forward Kurt Rambis, who was with the Lakers when they faced the Celtics in three of the last five NBA finals. “The Celtics miss their leader (and) the Lakers are struggling because of the pressures of winning back-to-back championships.”

On Nov. 19, Larry Bird underwent surgery on both heels. He is expected back with the Celtics in late February or early March.

In Los Angeles, Magic Johnson’s brilliance remains, but 41-year-old center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, may lose his starting job. General Manager Jerry West denied a newspaper report that consideration is being given to benching the oldest player in league history.

But the Lakers are still in first place in the Pacific Division. The Celtics, who have made the playoffs in 34 of the last 38 seasons, are struggling to make them this season.

Things did seem to be getting better for Boston.

After losing five of six games, it won its next two, even if they were against Charlotte and the Los Angeles Clippers. Then came Indiana, which hadn’t won on the road all season.

Until Wednesday night .

Indiana routed the Celtics 127-108. That dropped Boston, which had lost a total of eight home games the past three seasons, to 12-7 at home and 15-17 overall.

A week earlier, after the Celtics had blown a five-point lead in the last 2 1/2 minutes at home and lost to Phoenix 106-104, guard Danny Ainge said, “This is the low point of the year, that’s for certain.”

It got lower against Indiana.

“It can’t get any worse than this,” Ainge said after that loss. “Teams are coming in here with the feeling they can beat us. They can smell it. They feel we’re vulnerable.”

Boston, which never lost more than 26 games in any of Bird’s nine previous seasons, won three of its first 13 road games, beating only Miami, New Jersey and San Antonio.

“They are missing one of, if not the greatest, players who ever played the game. It’s that simple,” Phoenix Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons said.

“There’s so many things he does other than scoring, such as adding leadership,” Rambis said. “You can’t expect to maintain the status quo when you lose a player like Larry.”

“The one thing I do like is this team, through adversity, has really stayed together very well and continued to work very hard and we’re making improvements,” Boston’s first-year coach, Jimmy Rodgers, said.

Last season, the Celtics had a weak bench and an overworked, aging starting five and lost the Eastern Conference final to Detroit. Rodgers, promoted from his assistant’s job, was committed to developing young players at the expense of victories even before Bird was hurt.

Bird’s absence gave second-year forwards Reggie Lewis and Brad Lohaus and rookie guard Brian Shaw even more playing time. All three, especially Lewis, have progressed, and 13-year veteran center Robert Parish is having perhaps his best season.

But, Shaw said, “We come out some nights and we’re real aggressive and we come out other nights and we’re real flat.”

A decline in guard Dennis Johnson’s offense and the lack of a reliable player to turn to in the final seconds also have hurt. And the Celtics are adjusting to Rodgers’ system, which emphasizes a running offense and pressing defense more than former coach K.C. Jones’ system.

Bird will have to get used to it, but that should be a minor inconvenience.

“It will be a tremendous boost for our team, not only with the addition of him but the fact that the younger players have had the opportunity to play valuable minutes and gain experience,” Shaw said. “He makes everyone else around him play much better.”

But Ainge, taking nothing for granted in an unusual season, isn’t sure the Celtics will regain their former greatness when Bird comes back.

“That’s no guarantee,” he said. “Everybody’s got to do a lot of things better.”

Even without Bird, the Celtics beat the cold-shooting Lakers 110-96 in Boston on Dec. 16, the second loss in Los Angeles’ current streak of eight road setbacks, its longest in 13 seasons. The Lakers played 17 of their first 24 games on the road but are unbeaten at home.

Their 22-12 record at midweek was five games off their 27-7 mark after 34 games last season. Veteran forward Orlando Woolridge, in his first year with the Lakers, has been a disappointment, Byron Scott and James Worthy are shooting worse this season, and Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring has dropped by six points a game.

“I can’t remember it this bad,” Johnson said after Los Angeles’ seventh consecutive road loss. “I’ve been looking for a while saying, ‘what is it?’ People say defense and, for a few games that was it. But overall it has been our lack of offensive firepower.”

The most dramatic dropoff has been in Abdul-Jabbar’s performance in his 20th and last NBA season. Described by one columnist as “a parody of his former overwhelming self,” his playing time has decreased.

“If I’m not helping the team,” he said, “I shouldn’t be out on the court.”

Last Tuesday night, the Lakers lost 106-97 at Sacramento, which had the NBA’s second worst record.

“We’re playing hard,” Johnson said, “but we’re playing stupid.”

“We need something to shake things up,” Los Angeles Coach Pat Riley said. “I believe the road defeats are mental and our grading system shows some players are 100 percent less effective on the road.”