Lakers' Fifth Title Is a Feat of Magic
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.
