Spirited Rivalry

BOSTON

It's probably a fairly important event when one head coach is talking about the now-deceased rival coach in the present tense, as if it was more than his spirit that filled the arena. Then again, the Lakers vs. Celtics is nothing if not uniquely dramatic. Why else would Janet Jackson be calling Magic Johnson to ask for tickets for the upcoming games in Los Angeles?

There undoubtedly are a few sourpusses in San Antonio and Detroit who believe the NBA would have gone to any lengths to ensure the Lakers played the Celtics in the championship round for the first time since 1987. No sport deals with the notion of conspiracies more than professional basketball. And even one of the people in the Finals, Phil Jackson, couldn't resist the notion of the Celtics having gotten here as the result of a conspiracy.

Jackson wasn't about to let the trade that brought Kevin Garnett to Boston go without comment. It was, after all, former Celtic Kevin McHale, now the general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who made the deal with former teammate Danny Ainge, now the GM of the Celtics. "Danny Ainge and Kevin McHale . . . don't you think they collaborated on all this?" Jackson said before Game 1. "Red's ghost swayed McHale to make the Kevin Garnett trade with Boston last year rather than with someone else."

Red's ghost?

"The ghost of Red Auerbach is present," Jackson said. "It's very present."

Chances are that Jackson, having pushed beyond 60 years old and having been with the rival Knickerbockers during his playing career, knows as much about the Celtics' history, perhaps more, than the Boston players. Magic, who waged some of the historic battles with Larry Bird and the Celtics, said before the game that he and the Lakers were disappointed if they got to the Finals and the Celtics weren't there to meet them.

Asked whether it mattered to his players that they were playing the Lakers, Boston Coach Doc Rivers said: "I think it matters; I don't know how much. But our guys know the Celtics' history, from the day they walk in the door."

So the series began Thursday night with more than a dozen fascinating story lines, including: Which of the two teams will live up to its storied history? Will Jackson, tied with Auerbach with nine NBA championships as a head coach, surpass him by beating Auerbach's old team? Will Kobe Bryant, with a fourth championship, start to approach becoming the next Michael Jordan? "If you want to get in that club," Bryant said, referring to Magic and Jordan and their 11 combined championships, "then you have to win."

Not since 1998, when Jordan's Bulls and the Utah Jazz played their repeat final, has the league and the pro basketball community been so excited about the championship round. It's not that the Spurs, Nets, Pistons, Mavericks and Heat weren't worthy of excitement. It's just that nothing stirs basketball fans like rivalries, and there's no basketball rivalry like Celtics-Lakers.

The details seemed to get lost in the anticipation, though not for the two teams and their coaches. The Celtics took note of so many people in the media and among former players picking the Lakers to win the series. It was the Celtics, after all, who had the best regular season record. It was the Celtics who had the tougher road to negotiate through the first three rounds of the playoffs. While the Lakers had to struggle with the defending champion Spurs, they breezed past the Nuggets and Jazz before that. The Celtics, meantime, had two seven-game series to sweat, including one with Cleveland, last year's finalist, and a six-gamer with recent champion Detroit.

"Yes, we can use it as motivation," Rivers said. "But you still have to go and play."

Rivers tried to have the Celtics fixated on defense and rebounding, two things Boston does tremendously well that L.A. hasn't. The Lakers planned to run as much as possible. The Celtics planned to slow them down whenever possible, and with that game plan right out there for everybody to digest, it appeared that even though the two hadn't played a series in 21 years, some things hadn't changed at all.