Magic's Hook Reels In the Celtics, 107-106

It was the kind of hush that could chill the heart of a Boston Garden ghost, break the heart of a Boston Celtic legend, and send Red Auerbach screaming into a bitter Boston night.

There would be no mystique on Causeway Street Tuesday, only Magic. The kind of Magic, in the words of Boston Coach K.C. Jones, that could cause an earthquake in Los Angeles--and, with one more win, a championship for the Lakers.

All season long, Magic Johnson had promised deliverance, and with two seconds left Tuesday night, the Laker guard delivered with as dramatic a basket as he has made this season: A sweeping, 12-foot "junior, junior, junior sky hook" that gave the Lakers a 107-106 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the National Basketball Assn. finals.

But the Lakers, who fought back from 16 points down in the third quarter and 8 points down with 3 1/2 minutes to play, could not be sure that they had taken a 3-1 lead in this series until Bird's last-second shot had spun out of the basket.

"It was there," said Bird, who had pushed free from James Worthy and had a clear shot at the basket. "I didn't know if I'd made it or not because I was floating to the left.

"But it was on target. It was either short, long or in the hole."

It was long, and the Celtics--seeking to become the first team since their 1969 predecessors to repeat as champions--now find themselves in the kind of hole that no team has ever overcome in the championship round.

The Lakers, meanwhile, were staring at the same black hole in which so many Celtic challengers of the past have disappeared. Down 79-63 with 4:54 to play in the third quarter, the Lakers were on the brink of going from 2-0 shoo-ins to 2-2 parquet patsies.

With a trapping defense and a monster three-pointer by Michael Cooper--"That broke our backs even though we were still ahead," Bird said--the Lakers overcame that deficit.

But after drawing even at 93 on two free throws by Mychal Thompson with 6:14 to go, the Lakers fell back again by eight.

Danny Ainge, who had 23 points, buried a 21-footer from the right of the key. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tied it with a sky hook, but Bird ignored an onrushing Abdul-Jabbar and threw in a shot from the corner, Dennis Johnson and Ainge scored fast-break layups and Bird tossed in a fallaway from the top of the key, with Abdul-Jabbar in his face once more.