Lakers Could Look Back to Find Future Answer

Laker silver linings scrounged from the mess made of Game 1 of the NBA Finals:

1. Lakers now realize they can’t beat the Pistons two-on-five. It was a sporting gesture and it gave ABC at least one extra game to run promos for “Desperate Wives,” but now the Lakers know.

2. Before the game, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy provided courtside analysis for ABC. Before and during the game, Byron Scott provided courtside analysis for ABC. Lakers are absolutely routing the Pistons in courtside analysis for ABC.

3. Shaq’s making free throws.

4. As bad as things looked for the Lakers on Sunday night, and they haven’t looked that bad since, oh, Game 2 against Minnesota, the situation could be worse for Los Angeles. Los Angeles, you could be Philadelphia. Consider Philly’s plight in recent weeks:

* Lost the Triple Crown with Smarty Jones.

* Lost the Stanley Cup Eastern Conference with the Flyers.

* Fell one game short of the Final Four with St. Joseph’s.

* Watched the Phillies remain two games behind Florida in the NL East on Sunday by losing to Atlanta on a three-run home run by, of all people, J.D. Drew.

* Watched the Pistons reach the 2004 NBA Finals with the coach of the 2003 76ers, Larry Brown.

Oh, and Terrell Owens is already complaining about not getting the ball enough with the Eagles. And it’s June.

5. Brown has been here before -- up a game over the Lakers in the Finals -- and did not win the series. As Al Michaels put it at the end of Detroit’s 87-75 Game 1 victory, “The Lakers have won nine titles in L.A. On four of those occasions, they lost the first game -- including most recently three years ago against Larry Brown’s then-76ers.

“Doc, we may be here awhile.”

Doc Rivers laughed and replied, “Yeah, I think you better get comfortable, Al.”

6. The Lakers have been here before -- down a game to Detroit in the Finals -- and won the series. That was in 1988, sometimes recalled as the last championship year of the Showtime era, best remembered as “The Year Pat Riley Couldn’t Keep His Trap Shut And See What Almost Happened?”

After winning the title in 1987, Riley informed a delirious crowd at the Lakers’ celebratory street party that, “Next year, we’re going to win it again.” At the time, the NBA had gone nearly two decades without a repeat champion. At the time, Riley’s cocky guarantee was what passed for Self-Inflicted Laker Adversity.

How quaint. But then, those were simpler days.

As illustrated in the new five-DVD boxed set, “Los Angeles Lakers: The Complete History,” the ’88 Lakers nearly buckled under the weight of Riley’s guarantee. This was not Rasheed Wallace muttering, mantra-like, that the Indiana Pacers “will not win Game 2.” That was merely one game, in the NBA of 2004, against one severely offensively challenged opponent.

(Say what you will about Rasheed, but he was shrewd enough to know how to pick that spot.)

Riley made his pronouncement when the NBA still had 23 teams, not a watered-down 29 going on 30, with Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, Mark Aguirre, Clyde Drexler and a 24-year-old pain in the paint named Karl Malone still among the able-bodied competition.

After sweeping San Antonio in the first round of the ’88 playoffs, the Lakers staggered through three consecutive seven-game series against Utah, Dallas and Detroit before turning Riley into a prophet and ordering him to never do that to them again.

The footage from ’88 feels like a find from an archeological dig, unearthing one ancient artifact after another. O.J. Simpson applauding at courtside. Short shorts. Dancing Barry. The Forum rafters. The Lakers’ fastbreak.

Scene from the boxed set: Scott with a no-look pass to Magic with a no-look pass to Worthy for a thunderous one-handed overhead jam.

Scene from the boxed set: Abdul-Jabbar with a length-of-the-court outlet pass to a streaking Scott and a blink-of-the-eye basket.

Scene from Sunday night at Staples Center: Detroit turns the ball over, Lakers get it to Devean George, who sprints through the middle of the lane. And misses. Rebound out to Detroit’s Chauncey Billups, who dares to push the ball up the floor before pulling up for a jump shot. He misses too. Rivers is beside himself. “That’s a rare fastbreak, Al! A rare fastbreak!”

Separated by only 16 years, the ’88 Finals and the ’04 Finals appear to be different sports. The ’88 Pistons were the original Bad Boys, noted for their physical play and defensive tenacity, yet they averaged 109.2 points a game during the season and scored 100 points or more five times in the Finals. The Lakers, rallying from a 3-2 series deficit, won Games 6 and 7 by scores of 103-102 and 108-105.

That probably won’t happen this time. A couple of quotes featured in the ’88 championship review also sound from a time and place far, far away.

From forward Kurt Rambis: “You’ve got to be expected to sacrifice yourself, any ego you have, for the benefit of the ballclub.”

From Chick Hearn’s narration: “Realizing that it wasn’t going to be easy may have been the Lakers’ greatest asset. While this was unquestionably one of the most physically gifted teams in the league, the Lakers knew that they would have to prove it night after night if they wanted to earn their place in history.”

7. The ’04 Lakers still have time to get it right. Listening to Rambis and Hearn would qualify as a step in the proper direction.

“Well,” Al Michaels said during the fourth quarter Sunday night, “if the Lakers are to win the championship, it’s been full drama for six months, so why not two more weeks?”