The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 51

'How else can I explain those rainbows when there is no rain? MAG The New Starting Center Puts Lakers Over the Top, 123-107 rem the Dwli Day kit ma TO CogAtijjclcs Suites BUSINESS CC PART III SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1980 ports a coffee table, the Lakers won the championship of the NBA four games to two. Magic, who literally laughed at the added pressure when Abdul-Jabbar was scratched, started at center and scored 42 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and handed out seven assists. He made 14 of 23 field-goal attempts and 14 of 14 free-throw attempts. The Lakers outplayed the 76ers from the start but with five minutes left, Philadelphia pulled within two points, 103-101. As 18,276 Spectrum fans sat back and waited for reality to take over from fantasy, the Lakers outscored the 76ers, 20-6.

Magic had 11 of those 20 points. When Jamaal Wilkes threw down a dunk to give the Lakers an unsur-mountable 12-point lead with 50 seconds left, Abdul-Jabbar must have spiked his TV to his living room carpet in jubilation. It is the Lakers' first NBA championship since 1972, a perfect anniversary present for the team's 20th season. In those 20 years, the team has been in the finals 10 times, and won twice. Johnson was voted the Most Valuable Player in the series, Abdul-Jab-bar's monumental contributions in the first five games notwithstanding.

Magic had help. Who can believe t. t. Quiet Jamaal Wilkes, a non-All-Star, outplaying Julius (Dr. J) Erving? Wilkes scored 37 points, the 1 "ii mi if i imimii iniiiii most he's had since high school.

Erving had 27 points. Brad Holland, laker rookie, out-scoring teammate Norm Nixon, 8 to Until Friday night, Holland was the Human Victory Cigar, entering games only when the outcome was decided. He scored six straight points near the end of the first half. The Lakers without Abdul-Jabbar, remembered outrebounding the 76ers, 52-36 (17-7 on the offensive boards)? It's called desire. Wilkes, Jim Chones and Mark (the Shark) Landsberger had 10 rebounds each.

No 76er had 10. Jim Chones, the reluctant standin for Abdul-Jabbar, outplaying Darryl (Chocolate Thunder) Dawkins? Chones had 11 points and 10 re-Please Turn to Page 6, Col. 1 PAINFUL LESSON 76ers' Fondest Dream Winds Up a Nightmare By ALAN GREENBERG Time Staff Writer PHILADELPHIA The 76ers learned a painful lesson Friday night: That sometimes the worst thing that can happen is for your fondest wish to come true. You may live to regret it. Throughout his career, many teams have suggested that the best way to defense Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is to keep him from showing up.

Well, he didn't Friday night because of a sprained left ankle suffered in game five, and watched game six on TV from his home. Over the long run, nobody would dare argue that the Lakers without Abdul-Jabbar are as good as they are with him. PARTY TIME Magic Tells the Captain: Let's Dance By TED GREEN Tinwt Staff Writar PHILADELPHIA The season started with Magic Johnson gleefully hugging Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after the captain tossed in a skyhook at the final buzzer to win the opener in San Diego. Six months later, the season ended with Magic Johnson gleeflully hugging the National Basketball championship trophy. "I know your ankle hurts, Kareem," Johnson said, "but why don't you get up and dance, anyway?" All the Lakers were dancing late Friday night, and pouring champagne THE MAGIC NUMBERS LOS ANGELES Mill FG FT RAPT Chones 43 5- 1-1 10 3 11 Wilkes 4J 16-30 5-5 10 2 4 37 Johnson 47 14-23 14-14 15 7 3 42 Nixon 40 1-10 2-2 3 3 4 Cooper 39 4-9 -9 4 6 4 16 Lndsbrgr 19 2-7 1-2 10 0 4 5 Holland 9 3-4 2-2 0 0 2 Byrnes 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 Totals 240 45-92 33-35 52 27 22 123 Shooting: Field goals, 48.9; free throws, 91.4.

PHILADELPHIA Min FG FT RAPT Erving 39 13-23 1-4 7 3 4 27 Clones 26 2-3 2-2 6 2 4 6 Dawkins 31 6-9 2-5 4 1 5 14 Hollins 26 5-13 3-4 1 6 4 13 Cheeks 40 5-11 3-3 2 0 2 13 Jones 29 4-0 0-0 9 1 4 Bibby 21 4-10 0-2 3 3 2 Mix 25 -ll 2-2 4 2 1 1 Spanrkl 1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0 Toone 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0 Richrdsn 1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0. Totals 240 47-89 13-22 36 27 27 107 Shooting: Field goals, 52.8. free throws, 59.1. SCORE BY OUARTERS Los Angeles 32 28 33 30-123 Philadelphia 29 31 23 24107 Three-point goals Johnson 0-1; Landsberger 0-1; Erving 0-2; Hollins 0-1; Bibby 0-2; Richardson 0-1 Attendance 18,276 on each other, and praising Abdul-Jabbar, after they won the 1979-80 championship with a 123-107 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 6 of the final series. This was an improbable win, and an improbable end to a season that had an almost dreamlike quality, for it was accomplished without the game's most dominate player.

Abdul-Jabbar watched the clincher on TV, having sprained his left ankle the previous game. So for a few minutes, dreamlike minutes, the Lakers' locker room seemed strangely subdued. Maybe because reality hadn't set in. Maybe because Captain Kareem had not been there to share it. Maybe just because.

As he did the first of many TV interviews, you could see those were tears, not just sweat, under Magic Johnson's eyes. But then Butch Lee popped open a bottle of champagne, someone started spraying another and it wasn't a dream, anymore. Before long, Coach Paul Westhead's three-piece, pinstriped suit and perfectly styled hair were drenched in the bubbly, too. Johnson eventually joined in, but first he said he had something important to say. "Big fella," he said.

"We did it for you." And: "Kareem is the one who got us this far. And he was with us (in spirit) tonight." It was a nice gesture from the man of the hour, from the series' Most Valuable Player, from the rookie who scored 42 points and proved that he is not only a man for all positions but for all leagues. From an NCAA title a year ago last March to an NBA title in May, it could only be Magic. "Magic Johnson is the Mr. Opportu-Please Turn to Page 7, Col.

1 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Angels Make a Big Hit in K.C. and Win, 11-1 Story on Page 2 mm But this was not the long run. Just 48 minutes. Forty-eight minutes of Magic Johnson and Jamaal Wilkes playing the games of their lives, and an inspired Lakers team reminding anyone who might have forgotten that no man-even basketball's ultimate weapon -is indispensable. He didn't beat us.

It was the Lakers that beat us," Caldwell Jones said. "He wasn't here in person but I'm sure he was here in spirit, and the Lakers played like they could feel him in spirit. They won it for their captain. They played with the intensity you need to be a champion" The 76ers certainly didn't and they knew it. All series long, they talked about how they had to get tough and keep the Lakers from dominating the backboards "It's something we never really solved," Julius Erving admitted.

"And we certainly didn't solve it tonight" Please Turn to Page 6, Col. 3 Magic 14, by Sammy Calm and Jul Styna By SCOTT OSTLER Times Staff Writar PHILADELPHIA When they erect the statue of Magic Johnson in some prominent location in as they surely will soon, chiseled on the pedestal will be Magic's favorite saying: "It's winnin' time." That's what time it was Friday night in the Spectrum when Magic, a 20-year-old rookie, led the Lakers to one of the true upsets in National Basketball Assn. playoff history, a 123-107 win over the 76ers. With center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar watching the game from the comfort of his living room, 3,000 miles away, his sprained left ankle propped up on world champion Pirates' chagrin. The once-reluctant reliever weathered two shaky innings pitching five scoreless innings in his innings of work to register a win (his first as a starter tihis year) in the Dodgers' come-from-behind, 8-6 defeat of the Pirates, the hottest team in baseball these days.

Reuss, a starter most of last year, figured again to be in the rotation this year. But he was unhappily surprised to find himself very much out of it, even though he performed more than adequately in spring training. Yet he adapted well enough to bullpen duty. He never pretended he liked it, but he didn't ask to be traded either. He never really asked for anything, as far as that goes.

Friday night's Please Turn to Page 4, Col. 2 PREAKNESS Risk has been displaying some of the same traits. "Nothing seems to be bothering her," trainer Leroy Jolley said Friday. "She has the greatest temperament of any horse I've ever been around. She's very kind and very quiet and very much like Affirmed in that way." As a winner of seven of eight career starts, she's much like Affirmed in other ways, too.

"The more I think about her performance in the Kentucky Derby," Jolley said, "the more I think it was a super effort. She came off a soft slow pace to finish with the ninth-fastest time in the 106 years of the Derby. It was faster than I thought she was capable of. She's smaller and lighter than most of the colts, but she has the same rugged determination as Foolish Please Turn to Page 8, Col. 3 HE'S EVERYWHERE OK, when was the last time anybody played every position in the deciding game of an NBA title round? The amazing Magic Johnson, who only three years ago led his high school team to a state championship and only one year ago led his college team to the NCAA championship, put on a show-stopper Friday night and did it at center (above left, he scores over Darryl Dawkins), at forward (above right, he goes head to -head with Julius Erving) and at guard (below, he hits open man).

Times photos by Joe Kennedy Reuss Gives the Dodgers a Start and an 8-6 Win By RICHARD HOFFER Times staff Writer Don Stanhouse, whose relief has mostly been comic since he's been removed from the bullpen and installed in the trainer's room, adopted a posture of outrage, instead of his usual outrageous posture. "Damn it," he said to Jerry Reuss, who was trying to gather some concentration before Friday night's game in a dark corner of the trainer's room, "you found yourself a niche and now you go screwing it up. You're a reliever fax goodness sakes." Reuss had been a reliever and, with Stanhouse on the disabled list, was one of the Dodgers' most effective. He had three wins, three saves and an ERA of 1.42. But Friday night, with scheduled pitcher Dave Goltz down with the flu, Reuss was a starter, much to his colleague's mock chagrin.

And a very effective one at that, much to the ters from people who wouldn't know the Arc de Triomphe from a claiming race. All they know is the Kentucky Derby. What I'm saying is that it's recognized as the greatest race anywhere and so whatever happens now we've still had a very good year." It could get better today, though Firestone said even disregarding the -improved competition he has believed for some time that this would be the toughest of Genuine Risk's Triple Crown tests. At 1316 miles, it is shorter than both the Derby (1V4 miles) and Belmont Stakes (1V6), and Genuine Risk is bred for distance. The filly's father was Exclusive Native, who also sired Triple Crown winner Affirmed, a winner at just about every distance en route to becoming the sport's all-time leading money winner.

Affirmed did it with cool detachment and now Genuine FILLY VS. NEW FACES IN By ROSS NEWHAN Times Staff Writer BALTIMORE Genuine Risk, only the second filly to win a Kentucky Derby, tries today to become only the fifth to win a Preakness, last won by a filly (Nellie Morse) in 1924. Pimlico's 105th renewal, having drawn Santa Anita and Hollywood Derby winner Codex from California and the front-running Colonel Moran from New York, has generated some of the anticipatory excitement that seemed absent in Louisville until the lady had her day. If she never has another, the roses will always be hers. "It doesn't really matter what she does now," co-owner Bertram Firestone said Friday, "because she's already won the greatest race in the world.

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