Court Choreography

James Naismith, who invented basketball in 1891 by tacking up two old peach baskets in a Springfield, Mass., gym, once said that he preferred lacrosse. Naismith would have changed his mind if he could have seen a game like the one played last week between the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers.

The first game of the final play-off series for the National Basketball Association championship was basketball at its whirling, swirling, entertaining best. Skill not size, strategy not speed, and marksmanship not muscle were the dominant factors as the poised New York Knicks upset the prestigious Los Angeles Lakers 114-92. Even the Lakers were awed as the sharpshooting Knicks passed and moved through swift, intricate patterns; in the first half, they hit 72% of their field shots. Rasped Los Angeles Coach Bill Sharman, victim of a long siege of laryngitis: "They could be the best-shooting team in basketball."

They could, but no one, not even the Knicks, expect the rest of the best-of-seven series to repeat the action of the first game. The Knicks could hardly play any better; the Lakers clearly can and doubtless will. The Lakers' giant center, Wilt Chamberlain, for instance, may never again be as effectively neutralized. Teammate Jerry West, the alltime N.B.A. play-off scoring leader, cannot do anything but improve his sickly opening-game shooting performance of three baskets in 15 attempts. At the very least, the Knicks1 performance in the first game gave promise that the championship series would be far more exciting a match than anyone had dreamed.

Showdown. For most of the regular season, in fact, fans had looked forward to the final series as little more than an anticlimax. The real drama figured to come in the inevitable showdown between the red-hot Lakers and the defending Champion Milwaukee Bucks for the Western Division title. The winner of that clash, so the smart money said, would then face some hopelessly outclassed team from the Eastern Division.

Part of the scenario came true. The Lakers and the Bucks did meet, but their series rarely generated the anticipated excitement--not even in the seesawing struggle of the seven-footers, Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In the vital closing minutes of the decisive sixth game, Chamberlain, 35, took almost humiliating command of 24-year-old Jabbar and led the Lakers to victory.

Meanwhile, back in the East, the division final between New York and the Boston Celtics took a surprising turn. The Knicks, who had been the Cinderella team of 1970 (when they won the first N.B.A. championship in their 24-year history), had earlier this season seemed back in the pumpkin class. But after bouncing past the Baltimore Bullets 4-2 in their semifinal, the lightly regarded Knicks proceeded to savage the Celtics 4-1. Suddenly the New Yorkers were at center court, confronting the mighty Lakers.

Despite the opening loss on their home court, the Lakers remained favorites; the title, if they take it, would be their first since they moved to Los Angeles in 1960. They have finished second seven times; they were the team that the Knicks beat for the championship in 1970. But this season, under the skillful shaping of New Coach Sharman, who came to Los Angeles from the Utah Stars of the A.B.A., the Lakers have become one of the most formidable squads in N.B.A. history. They set league records for both consecutive victories (33) and most wins in a season (69, against a mere 13 defeats).

Selfless. Nowhere has Sharman's shaping been more evident than in the play of Chamberlain, who earns about $250,000 a year as center and has occasionally been accused of being something less than a team player. Not this season. Never in his 13-year pro career has the "Dipper" concentrated so little on shooting (he once scored 100 points for Philadelphia against New York) and ILLUSTRATED so much on rebounding, blocking shots and setting up someone else to score. As an intimidating pivot and selfless team captain. Chamberlain has led the Lakers to their new heights.

Which is not to underestimate another Laker superstar, Jerry West. Shrewd playmaker, quick-handed defender and usually sharp shooter, West is probably the best guard ever to play basketball. His fellow guard, completing what may be the finest pairing ever, is Gail Goodrich, who is barely over 6 ft. tall but long on shotmaking skill. As one starting forward, the Lakers have Harold ("Happy") Hairston, a rugged rebounder who complements Wilt in controlling the backboards. The other is Second-Year Man Jim McMillian (rhymes with villain), who is deadly from the corner and scored a career high of 42 points in one of the play-off games against Milwaukee.

The Knicks have no one of the Chamberlain or West magnitude. Their strength --carefully nurtured by Coach Red Holzman--lies in remarkable poise, extraordinary all-round skill at any position on the court, and almost uncanny balance. If some of the players cool off, others almost always compensate by heating up as scorers, rebounders or playmakers. If the Lakers are a team of carefully selected specialists, the Knicks are an impressive pack of general practitioners.

At center is Jerry Lucas, who can score consistently from more than 20 ft. out. The starting guards are Walt Frazier, a clutch player who is the Knicks' leading scorer and most larcenous defender, and dazzling Earl ("The Pearl") Monroe, beginning to return to his best ball-handling form after a season hobbled by injuries. Starting forwards are Dave DeBusschere, a bruising rebounder and probably the N.B.A/s best defensive forward, and "Dollar Bill" Bradley, a study in thoughtfully planned perpetual motion.

The Knicks' offensive strategy revolves around Lucas, a veteran forward acquired in an off-season trade to take over for injured Willis Reed. Too small to battle under the boards with most other pivots (he gives away 6 in. and 50 Ibs. to Chamberlain), Lucas is a center in name only. He floats far away from the basket and fires his high-arcing shots with such consistent accuracy that the opposing center is almost always forced to move out to try to stop him. That clears the lane to the basket for lay-ups and rebounds by the rest of the Knicks. If the opposing center hangs back and does not take the bait, Lucas can usually make him reconsider by bombing the hoop with a mortar-like barrage.

The Knick strategy worked to improbable perfection in the first game against Los Angeles. "We knew what they were going to do," sighed West, "and they did it." Added Coach Sharman: "Wilt made an effort to go out on Lucas, but he wasn't quite fast enough and he got caught lots of times in no man's land." That not only left Pivotman Lucas free to score well from the outside, but it also opened up the lane for his teammates. Chamberlain was seldom able to get into position to clear the boards and toss his football-like passes to set up the Lakers' most potent scoring play: the fast break downcourt.

The drama of all this court choreography has not been lost on viewers or on the ABC television network. Last week, for example, just before the start of the first game, delayed to accommodate President Nixon's Viet Nam speech, about eleven million of a total of 33 million viewers were tuned in to ABC. Once the President stopped talking and the Knicks started bombing the Lakers, ABC's audience escalated to 25 million.

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