NBA CHAMPIONSHIP : Lakesrs vs. Celtics : Magic Key to Laker Run-and-Gun

Magic Johnson and the Lakers ran the Boston Celtics out of the Forum Tuesday night.

“Magic has had some great games in the playoffs,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “He’s the push man. He was pushing it up the court tonight. He was animated. He was talking to the players. He was telling guys to get it off the boards, get it out of bounds, and let’s go with it. We’re going to go as hard as he’s going to push the ball.”

Johnson scored 29 points and passed off for 13 assists as the Lakers took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. He also had 8 rebounds and 1 blocked shot. He hit 13 of 25 shots, andhe also made all 3 of his free throws in 39 minutes.

“Magic played a great game,” Laker General Manager Jerry West said. “But he’ll probably play a better game than this before the playoffs end.”

Said Laker forward James Worthy, who scored 33 points: “Magic’s the floor general. The team looks to him in the crucial part of the ball game.

“This has been his year. He had eight great years, but this one tops it.”

Said Laker guard Michael Cooper: “Magic has been playing steady all year long; that’s why he’s the MVP.”

Said Laker center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: “I’ve seen him have some great playoffs. But I think overall he had a great game, and that was a key for us. He pulled everybody into it.”

The Lakers, who were coming off an eight-day layoff after winning the Western Conference title against Seattle, did not look rusty as they built a 9-0 lead at the start of the game.

They had 66 fast breaks, 35 in the first half and 31 in the second, as showtime returned.

“We’ve been running well throughout the playoffs except in the first two games against Seattle, when we were just trying not to lose,” Johnson said. “But we’ve been running well, and tonight it carried over. We just wanted to push it up the court.

“It’s only one game. We’ve got to play even better on Thursday. There’s no question that Boston is going to come out strong. We have to be ready to play better than we did tonight because you know that they’re going to play better.”

Asked about the Laker break, Celtic Coach K.C. Jones said: “Mt. Everest is a monumental mountain. Most impressive, isn’t it.”

Said Riley:”We ran the break well. We ran it hard and we ran it well. We had 35 breaks at halftime and we only ran 10 set plays, so I like that. We didn’t want to walk it up and get into a halfcourt game with them.”

Said Cooper: “I think we’re at our best when we’re running. Our break was working 60%-70% of the time.”

Said Laker forward A.C. Green: “Our approach is that we wanted to focus on running, running running.”

The Lakers, who have been criticized throughout the playoffs for celebrating too much, tried to tone it down a bit against the Celtics.

“We’re not trying to show up the Celtics,” Johnson said. “That’s how we play and get each other up. They high-five, and nobody says anything.”

The Lakers looked as if they were going to run away with it after they built a 21-point lead in the first half.

“I couldn’t get enough,” Riley said. “We’re not into obliterating people. We just wanted to make sure we could continue to sustain it.”

The key to the Laker fast break was rebounding. The Lakers outrebounded Boston, 27-12, in the first half and finished with a 47-32 edge on the boards.

“The rebounding was the key to me,” Riley said. “They were missing a lot of shots. We were rebounding and going off the boards to the break. Obviously, that’s going to be a key to this series.

“We had the energy to push and keep running and keep pushing and keep challenging and keep attacking. We worked very hard all week on our game. We didn’t know who we were going to play, but we were drilling our fast break and the attitude to get out, and I thought that paid off.”

Said Abdul-Jabbar, who grabbed 10 rebounds: “The key was not to let them get any offensive rebounds and second shots.”

Riley was running players in and out of the lineup in an effort to tire the Celtics out at the start of the game.

“The players were tired,” Riley said.”After six minutes, their tongues were hanging out. The layoff had an effect on the players being able to sustain that kind of pace.”