They had come to bury the Boston Celtics, not to praise them.
They had journeyed cross-country, convinced they were the best basketball team in creation. They had blown out playoff foes left and right, building up, peaking for this very day.
Last year, the Celtics were lucky to win the National Basketball Association title in seven games, or so they reasoned. This time, they would become Boston stranglers.
The Los Angeles Lakers looked so good, acted so confident, they had the rest of the country believing them.
Everybody except the 12 guys who wear the Celtic uniform.
There were wide eyes, open mouths and heads shaking in disbelief after Boston`s 148-114 triumph Monday over the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA`s best-of-seven championship series. Game 2 is Thursday in Boston Garden.
The Celtics started out hot, then played better and better. Danny Ainge hit six shots in a row during the first quarter, in which he scored 15 points capped by a 20-footer at the buzzer.
As if the Celtics` 38-24 lead after one quarter weren`t enough, enter Scott Wedman. The reserve forward made 11 of 11 shots from the floor, including four from three-point range. By halftime, Boston led 79-49, and the Hollywood glamor boys were history.
Kevin McHale had 26 points, as did Wedman, and also grabbed nine rebounds. Ainge and Larry Bird scored 19 points each, Robert Parish added 18 points and Dennis Johnson 13 points and 10 assists. James Worthy led the Lakers with 20 points.
”I don`t think the Celtics can play any better,” Laker reserve Bob McAdoo said. ”If they can, I don`t want to see it.”
Boston set five records for a championship series game, including most points and most points in one half. The Celtics did it by totally dominating inside and running the kind of fast break for which the Lakers are feared.
They did it by double-teaming the game`s most unstoppable force, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Parish and a weak-side guard limited the 7-foot-2-inch center to 12 points.
Keep this in mind: By the time this series is over, Parish will be hailed as one of the best centers in the league, mentioned in the same breath with Philadelphia`s Moses Malone and Abdul-Jabbar. Underrated and often maligned because of his uncooperative stance with the media, Parish is nonetheless emerging in the playoffs. He outplayed Malone and may do the same to Abdul-Jabbar.
No wonder the Lakers were so concerned with Boston`s inside game. Parish is motivated, McHale is becoming one of the best post-up players in the league and then there`s a fellow named Bird. So the Lakers packed it in and got burned by Ainge and Wedman.
”I`ve never seen a team shoot the ball like that from the perimeter,”
Laker coach Pat Riley said. ”When a team shoots like that from the three-point range (7 for 9, 78 percent), it takes away a lot of things. You have a hard time trying to fast-break when you`re continually taking the ball out of the net.”
Boston found the net 61 percent of the time on its first shot, with many of the misses gobbled up for second and third shots. When Ainge was told Bird called him the key to the series, the 6-5 guard smiled and said: ”No, I think Larry Bird is the key to the series. I think he`s just trying to take a little pressure off himself and put it on me.”
”Danny`s one of those players who is really streaky, and when he gets it going, he really gets it going,” McHale said. ”This might fire him up for the whole series.
”Scotty was unbelievable, but he`s been doing that for two days in practice. He came out and gave us a huge lift.”
Abdul-Jabbar was a little disappointed he and his teammates didn`t come out with more fire.
”I expected us to play better, and I was surprised we came out flat,”
he said. ”The way they played, put both of them together and you see the type of game you saw today. I didn`t expect them to shoot that well for the whole game. After their big lead, I wasn`t thinking about Game 2. I was just wondering how bad things would get. It got worse.”
Maybe the Lakers were a little too California laid-back. Contrast that with Ainge. He was so obsessed with the game that midway through the third quarter, when Boston called a timeout, he remained on the court, hands on knees, lost in another world. Five seconds or so went by before referee Darell Garretson walked over and told him he could relax.
The Celtics were so into this game that, at times, they moved as if guided by ESP. Just when one Bostonian was trapped or stymied, another would break free for a pass and wide-open layup. They whipped the ball around without looking, somehow knowing exactly where another white jersey would be. Teamwork never looked so easy.
