The Celtic Lakers

The Atlanta Hawks hardly knew what hit them. With less than a minute remaining, they were trailing the Los Angeles Lakers by only one point, 96 to 95. Then two dunk shots, three intercepted passes, eight points and 31 sec. later, the Lakers walked off the court with a 104-95 victory. The Hawks need not have felt victimized. All season long Los Angeles has been terrorizing the entire National Basketball Association with the Laker lunge, a strong finishing kick that leaves opponents panting and fans chanting for more. The win over the Hawks, in fact, gave the Lakers 21 victories in a row and a new N.B.A. record.

The Lakers were not always known as strong finishers, even though they have been touted as potential N.B.A. champions ever since they settled in Los Angeles in 1960. From the start, they had two of the top shooters in N.B.A. history: Guard Jerry West and Forward Elgin Baylor. Then in 1968 when they acquired the highest scorer of all, 7-ft. 1-in. Center Wilt Chamberlain, it was generally conceded that they would be invincible. All that the Lakers proved, however, was that supershots do not make a superteam. Over the past eleven seasons, Los Angeles has advanced to the finals seven times without ever winning the championship. This year many of the preseason prognosticators gave up on the veteran team, predicting that the Lakers would fail to win their Pacific Division championship. Now, with nearly half the season gone and the Lakers rolling along with the best record in basketball (29 wins, three losses), the Hawks and every other N.B.A. team are still wondering what has happened to Los Angeles.

Run, Run, Run. The answer is Bill Sharman, the Lakers' new, no-nonsense coach. Unlike his three predecessors, Sharman learned the game on the hardwood courts of the N.B.A., where he was an eight-time All-Star guard with the Boston Celtics during their late-1950s glory days. After coaching the Utah Stars to the championship of the American Basketball Association last year, Sharman was hired away for a reported $75,000 a year to work similar miracles in Southern California. His tactics were simple: stressing defense, the fast break and "running, running, running," he transformed the team into a Los Angeles version of the Celtics. "Basketball players have to be in better shape than any other athletes," says Sharman. "If you're not in condition, it catches up with you in the fourth quarter, and that's the most important part of the game--the last four minutes. That will decide about a third of your games. So conditioning is a big part of my philosophy."

As early as mid-September, when most other N.B.A. teams were just beginning to loosen up for the coming season, Sharman was already putting his team through long punishing workouts. In the past, the Lakers' exhibition series in Hawaii had been a time to loll on the beach and sip a Mai Tai or two. This season, game or no game, Sharman hustled the team off each morning to a rickety, dimly lit high school gymnasium to sweat for three hours in the tropic heat. "I went to Hawaii with a tan," says Jerry West, "and I came home without one."

He also came home with a new assignment. Long the team's deadliest outside gunner, West leads the fast break and divides his scoring duties with Guard Gail Goodrich. Result: Goodrich, who at 6 ft. 1 in. is the littlest Laker, is the team's highest scorer with a 27-point average, and West is leading the league in assists. The biggest change, however, has been in the play of Chamberlain, the moody, taciturn giant whose uneven performance in the past has earned him such derisive nicknames as "Big Musty" and "The Load." Now, coaxed into a different role by Sharman, he is recognized as team captain. In the Lakers' new offense, Chamberlain's chief duties consist of raking in the rebounds and then, like some king-size quarterback, firing bullet passes to the streaking guards downcourt. Shooting less and enjoying it more (his point average has dropped from a high of 50 in 1962 to a current low of 12), Chamberlain is leading the league in rebounds and setting a personal high in assists and blocked shots. "It's a different era and a different team," says Wilt. "I'm just doing what's needed."

As the Lakers rolled to their 23rd consecutive win at week's end, there was even talk that they could go all the way against Kareem Jabbar (formerly Lew Alcindor) and the vaunted Milwaukee Bucks, the overwhelming preseason favorites to win their second straight N.B.A. title. If conditioning alone determined the winner, the Lakers would be shoo-ins. Last week, when Laker Owner Jack Kent Cooke jubilantly broke out the champagne to celebrate the team's record-breaking victory, most of the players drank their toasts in Gatorade.

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