Lakesrs vs. Celtics
They did it to the Sacramento Kings in November, the New Jersey Nets in January, the Phoenix Suns in March and the Clippers every time they saw them.
So why shouldn't the Lakers make the Boston Celtics look like just another bum of the month in June, even if it's the National Basketball Assn. championship that's at stake?
If the Celtics backpedal any farther than they did at the Forum in Tuesday night's 126-113 loss to the Lakers, they'll be putting up beach umbrellas on Cape Cod in a matter of days.
Everyone might have assumed that the Laker fast break would wear down the Celtics, but did anyone think it would take just 2 minutes 33 seconds?
By that time, it was 9-0, Lakers, and while the outcome of this game may have still been in doubt, the tempo certainly wasn't.
Try warp speed, on a night the Celtics would have preferred a Boston Pops waltz.
How impressive was the Laker fast break, Boston Coach K.C. Jones was asked?
How impressive is Mt. Everest, he shot back.
"We wanted to push it, post it, and drive it," Laker Coach Pat Riley said, "and keep doing that for as long as we could."
Judging by the way they ran, the Lakers could keep going until the 21st Century or until Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retires, whichever comes first.
The Lakers ran the break 13 times in their first 16 possessions. They scored on 22 of 35 breaks in the first half, 39 of 66 breaks for the game.
"We ran about as well tonight as we can," said Bill Bertka, the Laker assistant coach.
In the Celtics' defense--of which, incidentally, there was very little Tuesday--they haven't had the luxury of spending weekends in Santa Barbara, as the Lakers did while waiting for the Celtics to dispose of Detroit.
But it's obvious the Celtics have no better idea of how to stop James Worthy than anybody else in the NBA these days.
Worthy had 33 points Tuesday night, 23 in the first half, when he made 11 of 13 shots. When the Celtics retaliated by running everyone but Red Auerbach at him, Worthy responded by dishing off for a career-high 10 assists. For good measure, he also picked 9 rebounds off the boards, where the Lakers pounded the Celtics by a 47-32 margin.
How do you slow down Worthy? A Denver boot might work--not something out of Doug Moe's Western collection, but the kind they put on scofflaws' illegally parked cars.
Michael Cooper, the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year, had an idea.
