Lakers Heavy Favorites

May 26, 1985

The Lakers are heavy favorites in Las Vegas. On Friday, you had to pluck down $170 to win $100 on LA in the series, while a $100 bet would win $150 if you took the Celtics. The Celtics were only one-point favorites in Game 1, which is very rare for a game in Boston Garden . . . LA ticket agencies are getting up to $350 per ticket for games in the Forum next week . . . Kareem Abdul-Jabbar needs only 62 points to surpass Jerry West's career playoff scoring record of 4457 points . . . LA coach Pat Riley, who is in the finals for the fourth time in four years, is the first coach in league history to accomplish the feat . . . Another rap on the 2-3-2 format is that the teams are going to have to play in LA on Friday, June 7, fly all day Saturday, and play in Boston on Sunday afternoon (assuming the series goes at least six games). "That's one of the things the 2-3-2 was supposed to avoid, and now we're doing it again anyway," said Celtics GM Jan Volk. Blame CBS. Meanwhile, the network folks are thrilled with the time lag between the conference finals and the championship round. Four days of hype and anticipation should be good for the ratings . . . CBS analyst Tom Heinsohn is already getting heat from the West Coast for his alleged bias toward his old Boston team.