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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1987)
Thursday, June 11, 1987/The Battalion/Page 7 , Sports LA gives Celts dose of own medicine By Loyd Brumfield Assistant Sports Editor NBA championship series is Analysis , over. Kl111 ' ;®Forget Celtic Mystique, forget the U | U ' i^ e P®-‘ailed ghtrsts Ils of the Boston )( ‘ ( ominj iGa id e n a n d lat 'o'fU'Jfcjrget about , the luck of the itohiH, [rjsh The media wore those terms ‘I’yiulie out. anyway. Besides, after Game '> in its i four of the best-of-seven series, the H:k of the Irish belongs to the KrabtHkers from Los Angeles. 1(1 - “WemtH ion. ’Heti® Los Angeles’ 107-106 victory over ttfle pallet' Boston in the Garden Tuesday night was decidedly un-Lakerlike. Instead of pummeling its foe mercilessly to the tune of a 25- or 30-point win, LA. had to, get this, come back from a 16-point deficit to win. How often are the Lakers in that position? ■ In fact, the Lakers’ win bore a close resemblance to a typical Boston yjetory. The Celtics have become pros at getting beaten into submis sion early, only to roar back with a peace and] lomily inbJ edral at iW ovalty, tlif ted that | anniveJ iem (the H - year to U nil and it] ddespreat ible papal i; next year, of Christ! late surge to bury their opponent. Tuesday night, the Lakers imper sonated the Celtics perfectly. L.A. got off to a miserable start, shooting only at a .392 clip for the first half. The Celtics didn’t have that grand of a first half, either, and they still jumped on L.A. for a 55-47 lead at halftime. It didn’t get any better in the sec ond half for the Lakers, as Larry Bird came to life for Boston, killing L.A. with outside shots to propel the Celtics to a 70-55 point lead early in the third quarter. As the fourth period loomed large, the sold-out Garden crowd sat back, forgot about the 80 degree- plus indoor temperature, and re joiced in the fact that the Celtics were doing something they don’t of ten do in the playoffs —“• blow out a top-caliber team. Okay, so the Celtics actually did destroy the Rockets a couple of times in the finals last year, but they were facing the 1986-87 Lakers this year — a team some prognosticators had P h icked as the greatest team in the istory of the game — and the Cel tics were destroying them. Apparently, L.A. wasn’t too thrilled about the prospect of having the series tied at 2-2 with yet another game remaining in the haunted Gar den where, until Tuesday, the Cel tics had an uncanny ability of com ing back from every deficit to win. They did it against the Bucks, and they did it against the Pistons. Boston’s taming of the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Final was es pecially surprising since the Celtics, riddled with injuries, looked like the walking dead as they methodically ran up and down their homecourt to miraculously dispatch the Pistons, while getting torn apart on the road. It was proof that the Boston Gar den was possessed by the spirits of past Celtic greats. The Lakers, not wanting to be come the umpteenth victim of the “Boston Mystique,” took the Celtics’ magic away from them and shoved it in their collective faces. The result Lakers to battle complacency with 3-1 series lead over Celtics with fist!;^ jn byhonkl the imi| in Seoul | [pouring it j ce he uttionwidq ttic Justice! is heldancj oliticalalM eed :ontinueliii| lion: “Vm ie roarofili id the cra| te-run nets I but theSl BOSTON (AP) — The Los An- jgeles Lakers might be facing a tougher opponent than the Bos ton Celtics tonight. “We have a cushion and as [soon as you start thinking that way, you’re going to lose,” Lakers ;Coach Pat Riley said after prac- Jtice Wednesday. “We have to ■ fight that feeling of security and [fight it hard.” [ The Lakers lead the best-of- seven NBA championship series 3-1 thanks to Magic Johnson’s Shook shot with two seconds re maining that beat the Celtics 107- 106 Tuesday night. Game 5 will be played in Boston tonight, but the sixth and seventh games, if jnecessary, would be at the Ingle- Iwood Forum, where the Lakers [easily won the first two games. “We celebrated Tuesday night fbecause we broke through at Bos ton Garden,” Riley said, referring to the Celtics’ third loss in 88 games there. “We took a second to savor what we had done, but now we have to realize we still haven’t won it yet.” The Laker players are less con cerned than Riley about a let down. “We haven’t accomplished what we want yet,” Johnson said. “I think we’re mentally tough enough to overcome those feel ings of security,” Lakers sixth man Michael Cooper said. “I think we’ll play hard Thursday night. It would be nice to win it on the parquet floor.” “I hope they’ll get complacent, but I’m not counting on it,” Bos ton Coach K.C. Jones said. “I doubt it will be a problem for them. If I were them, I would rather take the title away from us on our own floor.” Tuesday’s game-winning bas ket by Johnson followed a 9-0 spurt by Los Angeles, wiping out a 103-95 Boston lead with 3:30 left. The Celtics, who had blown a 16-point lead earlier, went scoreless for the next 3.18, but a 3-point basket by Larry Bird put them Celtics back in front, 106- 104. Then Kareem Abdul-Jabbar missed the second of two free throws, but Boston’s Kevin Mc- Hale fumbled the rebound out of bounds, setting up Johnson’s hook. “That’s the greatest miss Ka reem ever had in his life,” Riley said. “It gave us an opportunity to win. Then Larry missed a wide- open shot. It was just our day. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but we came away with a big ‘W’.” nc n ithoittenpli i said tliai ■ the fif* ave w ;ould belt n and did be of die ffl ive beet the pas 1 ive beet'l ment ions® is to tnef* id tight 01 1S succeed! est in tltfi detent® 1 ! ts ad fh iresenceij; leasurei b EVERY WED. free draft/no cover s-io Thur. free Hurricane/ $2 Cover s-1© Fri. & Sat. free mixed drinks/$3 Cover J EVERY NIGHT b after 8@ 2 for i all niaht ^ $1 Kamikaze at midnight 764-6575 was a frantic, yet magnificent comeback to tie the game at 93 with about four minutes left. But not even that was enough, as the Celtics discovered the Lakers’ clever scheme and recaptured their mystique, hitting six shots in a row to put the Lakers in a very deep hole. Usually, when the Celtics are that far down in an important game, they can never be counted out. This time the Lakers played the role of the seemingly beaten team and, in Celtic fashion, they rose up to pull within one at 103-102, and took the lead with 29 seconds left on a slam by the elder statesman of the NBA, Ka reem Abdul-Jabbar. They sealed the win with two seconds left when Magic Johnson hit a Kareem-like skyhook. The Lakers comeback may have g roved that they are the best team in asketball, and they should win the series. But don’t write off the pesky Celtics just yet; There is still one game left in Boston. They still have a little mystique left. Ag golfers stand 12th in NCAA tournament By Ed Bodde Assistant Sports Editor The Texas A&M golf team stands 12th in the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship after a first round total of 302. The Aggies are among 33 teams competing for the title on the Ohio State University Scarlet Course in Co lumbus, Ohio. Oklahoma State and Houston Baptist are tied for first at 291. “We didn’t play that well, but we’re still not out of it,” A&M Coach Bob Ellis said. “We need to come back Thursday and play solid golf. There’s still three rounds left.” Individually, Randy Wylie led A&M with a opening round 75. Neil Hickerson and pre-tourna ment All-America selection Roy McKenzie had 76s. Glen Joiner, of Houston Baptist, led all golfers as he fired a 69. “It will take two solid rounds for us to be in the top five,” McK enzie said.“This course is really tough. It’s U.S. Open stuff. If you miss the greens or the fairway by a foot, you’re dead.” The fourth Aggie golfer, Randy Lee, finished with an 82. Other Southwest Conference schools in the tournament are Houston at 303 and Arkansas at 304. “We (A&M) have an inex perienced group,” Ellis said. “They feel bad, but they know they can do better. If they didn’t feel bad, I’d be worried.” The field will be cut to the low 20 teams and ties or all teams within 10 shots of third place af ter Friday’s round. The low 25 in dividuals and ties, or any player- within five shots of 15th place will also advance to the final round. The 72-hole tournament will conclude Saturday. SMU's Mustang club musters $1.5 million DALLAS (AP) — Fund-raisers for a Southern Methodist booster club exceeded their goal by $200,000 when they raised $1.5 million for athletic scholarships and say they’re pleased, in light of the university’s troubles and Texas’ economic woes. “When the drive started, there were many people that doubted we could raise even half our goal, what with the economic situation and the football program,” said John Bauer, chairman of the fund drive. “To not only meet our goal, but to surpass it is just tremendous.” The SMU Mustang Club con ducted the seven-week effort and announced the results Tuesday. The Mustang Club, a major source of income for the athletic de partment, delayed this year’s fund raiser after the NCAA suspended SMU’s 1987 football season because of a pay-for-play scandal. “Considering everything that has happened, we’re extremely pleased,” interim associate athletic director Rob Kingsbury said. “I think Dallas has said it likes the Olympic sports at the university and will stand behind them. I think we will have even more success when we hire an athletic director and football coach.” SMU has been without an athletic director since Bob Hitch and foot ball coach Bobby Collins resigned Dec. 7, 1986. Jackson impressesd with owner’s plan PHILADEPHIA (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson, declaring he had let some fresh air into the closed- door meetings of major-league base ball owners, said Wednesday each team promised to implement a front-office affirmative action pro gram. “Owners are making up for lost time,” Jackson told a news confer ence after meeting with owners from both the National League and American League. “The movement that has begun to take place is im pressive.” Jackson appeared with baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth af ter meeting privately with owners from each league in separate, chan- deliered rooms of a downtown hotel. “Every team in major-league base ball will have a strong and positive affirmative action program in place within the next 30 days,” Ueberroth said. Last month, Jackson gave baseball until June 29 to devise an affirma tive-action plan to get minorities in front-office positions or potentially face boycotts or other economic measures by civil-rights activists. 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