Lakers’ Magic Man Is at Top of His Game--Just Ask the Celtics

You know he’s working hard, you can see it on his face. You know every game he’s pulling a load that would break a government mule. Still, sometimes the game seems almost too easy for Magic Johnson.

If this was pool instead of hoops, and Magic called his shot, “Eight ball in corner pocket,” you’d have to say, “OK, pal. Which table?”

Sunday Johnson ran the table, ran all the tables, on the Boston Celtics. At the Forum, Magic scored 39 points. Gave out 10 assists. Scuffled for 7 rebounds. Threw in a couple of semi-miracles.

The Lakers beat the Boston Celtics, 106-103. Rack, please.

It was this kind of game for Magic: At the end of the third quarter, after leading his team back from a 17-point deficit, he swished a 45-foot shot, to cut the Celtic lead to four points.

No big deal.

“It felt good all the way,” Magic said. “Once I was lined up, I thought all the way it was gonna go. I knew it was straight, but I thought it might be short. I said ‘Come on! Uh-oh. Uh-oh!’ ”

Listen, it was no big deal.

“It was an easy shot,” Laker guard Michael Cooper said. “Nobody was on him. The way he’s playing, bleep, he coulda kicked it in.”

In the first quarter, Johnson scored 18 points and had three assists, to account for 24 of 28 Laker points. Somebody had to do it.

“He’s got to charge,” said Pat Riley, the general behind the Laker charge. “It’s like in the cavalry movies, when the cavalry comes riding over the hill. The first guy you send out, it’s like, ‘You’re gonna get shot, but we have to send someone out there.’ Earvin has to be that kind of guy. He’s out there waving the red flag.

“If he doesn’t play that way for us, we don’t win.”

Not against the Celtics, certainly.

And it’s not just the stats. The stats aren’t everything. In fact, you could throw the individual stats out the window, if the Forum had any windows.

It’s the e-lec-tricity. When Magic threw in--excuse me, shot --the 45-footer, he danced and jumped and did everything but take a victory lap around the Forum parking lot.

When he slashed and spun through Boston’s barbed-wire defense on a remarkable drive to give the Lakers a 98-97 lead with 1:29 left in the game, Magic danced and twirled and discoed and generally incited the crowd to riot.

Will the kid ever grow up?

This may have been the most animated and excited and exuberant one player has been on a basketball court since 1979, when Magic Johnson was a rookie.

Last Friday, Magic was limping around with a sore Achilles tendon, moping and grousing and groaning about his sore leg and his burdensome workload and so forth. That morning, he was moving around like a tall Walter Brennan.

That night he decided he would drag himself onto the court and try to play. He scored 40 against the Pacers.

Sunday he played 45 minutes. On defense, he was assigned to Dennis Johnson, but also flitted around, double-teaming whichever Celtic had the ball.

He was so exhausted by the closing minutes that he could only manage to score eight of the Lakers’ last 12 points.

With 20 seconds left and the Lakers leading by one, Magic got a screen from Laker newcomer Mychal Thompson, faked a drive, pulled back and lofted up an 18-foot jumper.

OK, maybe “jumper” isn’t the right word. On his outside shots, Magic stretches all the way up on his tiptoes. You’ll never walk into your neighborhood sporting goods store and see a display of Air Earvin shoes. Magic would be lucky to win a jump ball against Spud Webb.

But the tiptoe jumper swished and Magic danced some more.

It was like the previous drive, and like the 45-foot bomb. “It was just one of those things,” Magic shrugged.

Johnson has become a real pain to defense this season.

“It’s just a matter of, what do you give him?” said Boston guard Danny Ainge. “If you play up tight, he goes around you to the basket, if you play back, he goes up with the jumper. I’ve always known he had the ability to do that (hit the jumper). He’s always done it occasionally. This season he’s doing it a little more often.”

Has the increased emphasis on offense made Magic a better player?

“He’s the best player in the game right now,” said Ainge, who has a teammate named Larry Bird, and who plays in the same conference with Air Jordan.

If the league voted today, Magic would be the MVP. Because at this advanced stage of his career, seventh season, he is playing his best ball ever. Along with all the usual things, he is scoring more, leading the team in that, too.

What difference has Magic’s new emphasis on scoring made in the Lakers this season?

“They’re a better ballclub (than last season),” Larry Bird said.

Just in case the Lakers and Celtics meet in the NBA Finals, though, don’t think Magic is going to have an easy time.

“We were kind of trying to take away Kareem’s skyhook and the Lakers’ postup plays,” Kevin McHale said. “We weren’t concentrating on Magic, and we got hurt.”

Will it be different next time?

“I hope so,” McHale said. “I hope we don’t let him score 39 next time.”

Next time, they’ll make Magic call his shots, like you do in pool. Otherwise, sometimes the game is just too easy.