Rebounding Edge Made a Difference in '84, Too

1984 NBA Finals

While champagne was pouring freely over the heads of the Celtic players long past midnight in Boston yesterday, the stunned and dejected Los Angeles players were poring over the reasons why the Lakers had not won the National Basketball Association championship.

Although the reasons varied as to why the Celtics achieved a 111-102 victory in the decisive seventh game Tuesday night at the Boston Garden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the overpowering Laker center, seemed to have the best grasp of what had happened.

"The Celtics are better," said the 37-year-old Laker captain and the leading scorer in N.B.A. history. "A lot has been said during this series about us having the better talent on paper. Maybe so, but that's not where basketball games are won and lost.

"I told some of the guys before the game that we had to control the boards to win. We didn't, they did."


Then after a pause, the 7-foot-2-inch center got his point across by citing the rebounding statistics that he apparently had painfully memorized.

"Sixteen rebounds for Robert Parish," he said, referring to the total for the Celtic center in Game 7. "They controlled the defensive boards and we did not hit our shots from the outside, and we had a lot of them. They outrebounded us, 52-33, and 20-9 on the offensive boards."

For the entire series, the Celtics played tougher than the Lakers. They outworked the Lakers on the backboards and that stymied the heralded Los Angeles fast break. Over all, the Lakers were outrebounded, 337-306, for the series, including by 131-96 on the offensive boards. They won the two games in which they outrebounded the Celtics.

Two other things hurt the Lakers Tuesday night: the absence of Bob McAdoo, an excellent scorer who never played because of a strained Achilles' tendon, and the Celtic efficiency at the free-throw line. Boston made 43 of 51 foul shots and Los Angeles 18 of 28.

Before the matchup between the N.B.A.'s two most powerful franchises, the hype was whether the bigger and more physical Celtics could beat a team noted for finesse and speed.

"I heard all the hoopla of our differences from day one of this series, everybody did," said M. L. Carr of Boston. "I have always thought basketball games are won and lost inside and under the baskets, but everyone overlooked one thing; When the 15th championship flag hangs from the rafters of the Boston Garden, we will be remembered as the team that did what it had to do to win."