NBA PLAYOFFS : Lakers Need Hunger to Clinch in Portland

Another pig-out at A.C. Green’s place in Portland. Only this, perhaps, can stop the Lakers now. Only another meal prepared by Sister Irving and her friends from Albina Church of God can slow them down, or at least make them slog through Game 5 of this Western Conference championship series the way they did in the only game Los Angeles lost.

Between Games 1 and 2, on the team’s day off, Green invited everybody over for Sunday dinner. “He lives out there in the trees, next to Paul Bunyan’s place,” teammate Mychal Thompson said. “I keep telling A.C. he’s got to be careful in those woods, because somebody’s liable to mistake him for Sasquatch. With those shoes of his, they’ll think it’s the second coming of Bigfoot.”

The whole team went. So did the relatives, friends and fellow parishioners of the Portland-born namesake of A.C. Green Sr., and the pastor’s wife, who cooked. Magic Johnson appreciated it. His own mother feeds the Lakers’ faces whenever they visit Michigan. “After all those hotel rooms, we couldn’t wait to get over to A.C.’s,” Magic said.

So there they sat, in Green’s rec room, after playing bumper pool and air hockey and even shooting baskets, digesting a supper that made each Laker ache. Magic swears some of them turned gold and purple. He can still picture it, the scrumptious barbecue and the vegetables and tray after tray of pies and cakes. When Magic looked around, every teammate within view was sound asleep.

Next day, the Lakers weren’t hungry. Portland made them look as though their feet were nailed to the floor. Every rebound of any importance went to the Trail Blazers. The 28 the Lakers did manage to lay hands on marked an all-time Portland low for a playoff opponent. Portland got 51.

And the good host, A.C. Green, played three minutes. Got no baskets. Got no rebounds. Got no assists. Didn’t even foul anybody.

Woe was the Lakers and woe was Green, the guy who left 15 tickets at the gate for brother Lee and sister Faye and nephews and nieces and daddy A.C. and neighbors who knew him before he sprouted from a 5-foot-11 eighth grader to a 6-8 high school senior, before he took Benson Tech to the state title, before he went off to Corvallis to become the second-leading rebounder of all-time for Oregon State, before those sneaky Lakers picked him in the 1985 college draft to make a great team even greater.

Where had Green gone?

Why wasn’t he playing?

Sure, Sam Perkins was starting now, but if the Lakers needed some dirty work done on the glass, who could clean like A.C. Green?

A.C. got by.

How?

“By faith,” he said. “I didn’t necessarily have any assurance.”

The guy who intends to become an ordained minister put his hand in the hands of the man who stilled the water. And in Game 3, things got better. He played 26 minutes, one fewer than Vlade Divac. He grabbed nine rebounds. Got nine points. Made some of Portland’s large guys look fat and sassy.

Clergy friends from Texas called before Sunday’s Game 4. “Be committed,” they said and then repeated, a thought for the day. “Be committed,” which A.C. committed to memory.

A minister, Dave Soto, his apartment roommate for A.C.’s first four years in Los Angeles, also checked in. Saturday night, his wife had a baby. “How about winning one for my baby?” he asked A.C.

“I’ll see what I can do,” A.C. answered.

He energized the Lakers, is what he did. Same way he did when he replaced Kurt Rambis in the lineup, lo those many years ago. Same way he did for the Western Conference’s starting lineup in last season’s NBA All-Star game, after Green was voted into it by America’s fans over Utah’s Karl Malone--or (be honest now) had you forgotten?

A.C. didn’t rot on the Laker bench. He accepted it, as God and Mike Dunleavy’s will.

“I’ll sacrifice my numbers. I’ll sacrifice my body,” he says. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win. I don’t care when I get into the game. I don’t care if I don’t play in Game 5. As long as we win.”

That is what A.C. Green is willing to do for the Lakers. The dirty work. No work. Whatever. He’ll just take care of the dinner reservations from now on, if necessary. That’s why A.C. Green means what he means to the Lakers.

“A.C. Green is the best,” Thompson said.

“A.C.’s the guy you like to be around,” Magic said.

“Playing on the same team with A.C. Green has been my great personal pleasure,” Perkins said.

And oh, did the Lakers play with A.C. Green in Game 4. If Portlanders hadn’t been pulling for Portland, they would have been proud of him. Ripping the ball from the backboards. Scrapping for it down below. Volleyballing it with Perkins. One time, A.C. remembered with a laugh, he and Perkins and Johnson were fighting one another for the same ball, like fish for the same worm, and eventually it squiggled away. That’s how hungry they all were. They didn’t even recognize one another.

A.C. had such a good time out there, he said: “If I hadn’t had my mouthpiece in, I’d have played with a smile.”

This time, he worked 28 minutes. He had 16 points, seven rebounds, didn’t miss a free throw. Five of his boards were on offense. One time he tore the ball away from a Portland player and flung it into the air with the wrong hand, right into the hoop. A.C. shadow-boxed the basket standard. He could hardly contain himself.

Nor could the fans.

A noise went up, one A.C. didn’t recognize.

It was a chant: “A.C.! A.C! A.C!”

“Is that what they were saying?” Green asked, an amazed expression on his face. “I can’t believe it. I’ve never heard that before, except maybe from my nephews.”

Since he didn’t have his mouthpiece in, he did smile.

“Maybe they meant my father,” he said.

A.C. Jr. can’t wait to get back home.

Oh, except for one thing: “The only people rooting for us in Portland will be my family,” he said. “We’re going into a swarm of bees. They’re going to throw everything they’ve got at us up there--pitchforks, garden tools, jackhammers, everything. I’m smiling now, but tomorrow, the smile wipes away.”

Take it from the man who lives there, the Lakers are not yet out of the woods. Thanks in large part to him, however, they can definitely see the light.