As Boston guard Dennis Johnson walked past the Laker shower room Sunday afternoon, he spotted Laker guard Michael Cooper, who had not yet made it into the shower, but was soaked through with champagne.
"Same place," Johnson called to Cooper. "Same time. Next year."
But should the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers gather for another of their annual June reunions in 1988, things will not be the same. The Lakers, not the Celtics, will be defending National Basketball Assn. champions.
Sunday afternoon, in the 100th game they played this season, the Lakers added a fifth ring to their Los Angeles collection--fourth in this decade--by finally subduing the Celtics, 106-93, to win the championship series, 4 games to 2.
"No question this is the greatest one," said Magic Johnson, who became the first player to be named the playoffs' Most Valuable Player three times (he also won in 1980 and '82; the award has been presented only since 1969).
"Because of the fact of what we did in the regular season, our record, what we did in the playoffs, this is a super team, the best team I've played on," added Johnson, who didn't shoot well Sunday (7 of 21) but scored 16 points and had 19 assists.
At this rate, the Lakers may need to seek out another nemesis. After losing eight straight times in the finals to the Celtics, they've become Boston bashers in their last two rendezvous in the finals--1985, when they also won in six games, and now '87.
"They should give every champion the whole next year off," said Laker Coach Pat Riley, who was as much relieved as he was elated. "I'm going to guarantee everyone we're going to repeat."
Those kinds of guarantees, of course, are better etched in silly putty than in stone. Just ask the Celtics, who became the 18th straight NBA champion to fail to repeat.
"We found out there are no quitters on this team," said Boston's Larry Bird, referring to the Celtics' unwillingness to cave in to injuries that would have crippled lesser teams.
"But we're still a bunch of guys who lost a championship. That means, I guess, that we're a bunch of losers. We'll just have to come back."
The Lakers, meanwhile, are a bunch of guys who didn't like the stigma that came with losing to Houston last season in the Western Conference finals.
"We were disappointed in ourselves (then)," Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said after scoring 32 points to lead the Lakers Sunday.
"We wanted to see what we could do to earn respect. This is a great testimony to what we've achieved."
By halftime Sunday, the Lakers had achieved nothing but a five-point deficit--they trailed, 56-51, Magic had made just 2 of his first 10 shots, and Riley had to be wondering whether the fears that had caused him two sleepless nights were about to be realized.
"As a coach, you always worry," Riley said. "I know I was saying all the right things, but there's always a doubt that something is going to be stolen from you.
" . . . If we let this get away from us, it would be the longest summer we ever spent."
The last thing Riley wanted, even with the home-court advantage, was a seventh game Tuesday.
"As a team we could feel the pressure mount, and rightfully so," Riley said. "It's just a natural phenomenon on the favorite or the team that's supposed to do so well that the squeeze gets to you.
"The first half we played anxious and got beyond ourselves, but in the third quarter we gathered and played with tremendous strength."
And when the Lakers finally flexed, the Celtics were the ones who had the life squeezed out of them.
In the first 7 minutes 22 seconds of the third quarter, with Abdul-Jabbar on the bench nearly the entire time after picking up his fourth foul, the Lakers outscored Boston, 18-2.
The Celtics hit just 1 of 11 shots in that stretch and turned the ball over four times.
"You know us," said Bird, who misfired four times during that span and finished with just 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting.
"When the Celtics break down, they have major breakdowns, especially this year."
The Lakers greased that breakdown by switching to what they call their Red defense, extending their pressure to 25 feet away from the basket.
And if there was one play that revealed what can happen to a team exposed to that unrelenting pressure, it was the play that gave the Lakers the lead they never relinquished.
James Worthy slapped away a pass Kevin McHale intended for Dennis Johnson. The ball skittered toward midcourt with Worthy in full pursuit. Just before the ball went out of bounds, Worthy dived to the floor and knocked the ball with his left hand to midcourt, where Magic Johnson scooped it up, took a couple of dribbles and jammed it home.
Lakers 57, Celtics 56. K. C. Jones called time out for Boston to regroup, but it was a futile gesture.
"If I didn't run and James saves it, we lose two points," Magic Johnson said. "We lose the crowd. We lose everything.
"When James dove on the floor, that was the best moment (of the game), to me."
