Show Standard-Examine- r Sunday June 5 1988 3B Sports Playoff loss shows Celtics are slipping Lakers From IB the first time in the nine years this team has been whole We have the opportunity now it’s up to us to do it” The Lakers have won four championships since Magic Johnson joined them in 1979 But Riley said something has gone wrong in their first three attempts to repeat Last June Riley guaranteed the Lakers would repeat Now it’s the Pistons who stand in their way “The one thing we have to gear up for is their defense which is just awesome” Riley said “They are primarily a running team which can be as explosive as BOSTON (AP) — The parquet floor with the picture of a winking leprechaun in the middle has been dismantled The 16 championship banners hanging above the old splintered court will not be shifted to make room for a 17th Not this year The NBA’s most successful franchise worn down by age injuries and an unproductive bench failed There will be no seventh game at the Boston Garden Sunday Neither the luck of the Irish the legacy of Bob Cousy Bill Russell and John Havlicek nor the lure of winning one for KC Jones worked Basketball is played on the court not in the memory A rich past may inspire a player but it won’t make his jump shot go in The Boston Celtics who once won eight consecutive NBA titles and reached the final in each of the last four seasons were finished off Friday night by Detroit in Pontiac Mich The Pis0 tons’ victory gave them a 2 triin the Eastern Conference final umph “Detroit was the better team this year” Celtics guard Dennis Johnson said “but we’ve been on top a long time and we’ll be back” In the series Boston made only 411 percent of its shots after leading the league with a 521 regular-seaso- n mark Old reliable Larry Bird made 527 percent of his shots and averaged 299 points per game in the regular season In the six games against Detroit his shooting percentage was 376 and his scoring average was 198 In the last game he made only 4 of 17 shots missing many open jumpers and scored just 16 points The Pistons — and other teams — have caught up to Boston When a season starts the Celtics no longer are a to be playing when it ends “I’ve been here in the league for a while now and all of a sudden you realize that these chances and opportunities aren’t going to come along the rest of your life” forward Kevin McHale said “It’s a very disappointing and empty feeling You know you’ve got to grab it while it’s there” KC Jones did He reached the final in his first four years as coach and won twice But on May 3 he announced that this would be his last season in that job On June 3 he coached his last game green-and-whi- anyone” Johnson had 24 points 11 assists and nine rebounds Saturday Byron Scott had 21 points and Kareem contributed 17 for the LakAbdul-Ja- bbar ers “Basically I was just ready to play” Johnson said “I knew it was up to me to get us going I didn’t want to wait until the second half to get involved in the offense” Johnson had 16 of his points in the first half “It was our game all the way” he 4-- 95-9- said Mark Aguirre led the Mavericks with 24 points Roy Tarpley had 18 and James Donaldson and Derek Harper added 15 each for Dallas Don14 realdson pulled down a game-hig- h bounds and Harper had 1 1 assists The Mavericks in the conference finals for the first time gave the Lakers all they could handle most of the way Saturday But the defending champions had enough to maintain their perfect playoff record at home against Dallas winning for the 10th time in as many postseason games between the teams at the Forum “They showed whey they are the defending champion” Dallas Coach John MacLeod said “Their players showed today how you rise to the occasion They made the big plays “They’re the best team in the league In the last four or five years they’re the most dominant team I’ve seen since I’ve been in basketball They’ve been just awesome” Form prevailed in the Lakers’ seventh game against Dallas as the home team won each and every game Los Angeles had won the first three games at the Forum by margins of 15 22 and 17 points The Mavericks rode fourth- - te six-ga- Associated Press Lakers’ Kareem Abdul-Jabb- ar heads for the basket against Maver- near-certain- icks James Donaldson (left) and Brad Davis quarter surges to their three wins at Reunion Arena Worthy made seven of his nine field goal attempts in the third quarter as the Lakers took the lead for good lead at The Lakers held a halftime The teams played on even terms until five straight points midway through the period — on a jumper by play by Worthy and a three-poi— put Los Angeles on top one-poi- nt Abdul-Ja- nt bbar 5 It was 4 late in the third period when the Lakers outscored the Mavericks 3 over a 2:07 span to go 7 on top The final three points came on a three-poishot by Michael Cooper It was 9 entering the final 12 minutes Dallas drew to within four points before the Lakers scored seven in a row three on another bomb by Cooper to make it 3 70-6- 76-7- 11-- 87-7- nt 87-7- 94-8- ty “I was really bound and determined to try not to let KC lose his last game in the Silverdome” McHale said “He’s had such a great career as a player a coach been successful I didn’t want it to end like this” Jones won 12 titles in the past 24 seasons as a player assistant coach and coach in the NBA His quarter-centur- y ended on a sour note He said the Celtics starting before his tenure as coach and continuing through it “have met the challenge of all these teams coming in with their best effort and have managed to stay on top on the highest level of basketball through all these years except for a couple “I had the pleasure of riding that kind of success these past five years” Now it’s up to Jimmy Rodgers to recreate it He takes over after five years as Jones’ assistant He appears ready to depart from his successor’s reluctance to bring young blood into a tradition-lade- n team The limited playing time of rookies Reggie Lewis Brad Lohaus and Mark Acres received proved insufficient preparation when they were needed in the sixth game because of injuries to starters Robert Parish Danny Ainge and Johnson “We have a great system here We have one of the great starting fives that’s ever played the game and we intend to build on that” Rodgers said “I don’t foresee a great number of things changing I think that’s why our transition is going to be smooth here I think we’ve got a solid group of veterans to work with” Most if not all of those veterans have passed the midpoint of their careers Some — like Johnson and Parish — may have just a year or two left Four starters are at least 30 years old — Parish Johnson Bird and McHale that we “We’ve got some youth have to blend in and that’s a good starting point” Rodgers said The Celtics’ domination of the East had been slipping for some time Once it seemed inevitable that the Celtics would reach the finals This season it seemed inevitable that they wouldn’t “We’ll go to training camp with only one thought in mind as we always do” Rodgers said “and that is to try to get back to a world championship Cowboys plan to play junior varsity schedule CASPER Wyo (AP) — Wyoming basketball Coach Benny Dees looking for an edge in recruiting said Saturday that the Cowboys will field a junior varsity team next season Along with playing junior college teams from out of state Dees said he plans to schedule JV games against all seven Wyoming junior college teams “We’ll take some walk-on- s out of the student body and then we’ll take our freshmen and we’ll play anybody on there probably except seniors if we have to” said Dees in Casper to speak to the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters “And we’ll probably travel with an eight- - nine-ma- n team And they will practice with us every day” Some of the players on the junior varsity squad also will see varsity action said the coach “I know this year when we saw Brigham Young we saw their junior varsity play a junior college in a prelim game when we were up there and (at) Air Force Academy” he said “Then they had a couple of those guys that played in the game against us And that's what we’re planning to do play them both ways” By scheduling games with safijOGBS Wy- oming's junior colleges Dees talent hopes he won’t lose to other Division I schools “I think we missed two players in our state this year because we just didn’t get to see them enough” said Dees One of the schools Dees specifically would like to schedule for a JV game is from Kansas “We’re going to try to get Barton County Kansas in because they have three really good prospects on their team” he said with a laugh “See that gives us a‘ chance to get them to our place let them see Wyoming and see how pretty the school is and look at the facilities It’s just a recruiting aid” Coaching the junior varsity' team will be the Cowboys’ graduate assistant “Billy Kennedy our graduate assistant was going to be coaching it but I’m afraid I’m about to lose him” Dees said “He’s been e offered a job at Northwest Louisiana and if Billy takes that we’ll have to get somebody But our graduate assistant the guy in that position will coach the team” out-of-sta- te fCSS1 (DfflOu in-sta- te JUNE 1 27-JUL- (Not eligible if 1988 out of High School) Boys: Ages 13-1- 7 Put Housing Available u to thfc tt — We want'' your buiinw SPONSORED BY MEADOW GOLD DAIRIES For Further Information Call WEBER STATE BASKETBALL OFFICE 626-649- 6 full-tim- Last year the Bruins finished with 81 points to 28 for runner-up Texas — the biggest winning margin in the meet’s history LSU women’s coach Loren From IB Seagrave also was surprised at his he was surprised by his team’s team’s performance “It was totally unexpected" he high point total "We weren’t thinking that said “We graduated seven last year with probaway” he said “We were thinking more in the 60s or low 70s But bly a cumulative point total of we had some break throughs es- over 40 “We qualified 17 people and I pecially with our throwers" 12 of them performed over think UCLA’s was This eighth their expectations and and above NCAA title and the Bruins betheir best” previous ConferPacific-10 came the first was Williams the biggest protwo to ence team capture ducer for the LSU women in a row championships collegiate interShe won the since 1973 when they completed for mediate hurdles the Friday three of a string straight victory in the meet The Bruins also became the Tigers’ only second-plac1600-metteam to win an ran on the sixth Pac-1- 0 fifth was in and relay team NCAA title in six national collehurdles the giate meets at Oregon NCAA 400-met- er e 100-met- er LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO LIVE? 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