Lakernoise

Somebody should have told Paul Pierce about the balloons.

All good Lakers fans worth their salsa know about the balloons.

Game 7, 1969 NBA Finals. The Lakers have lost six NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics, but for the first time in the history of the rivalry the L.A. guys have home-court advantage. Game 7 is being played in the Forum.

Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke is so sure that his team is finally going to win a title that he orders the rafters filled with balloons. As soon as the Lakers win, Cooke wants the balloons released as his pep band plays “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

Celtics player/coach Bill Russell walks into the Forum before the game, looks up in the rafters and says, “Those balloons are gonna stay up there a hell of a long time.”

To this day, Jerry West remains furious over Cooke’s blunder. The owner had ceded the emotional edge to Russell and his Celtics, who promptly sealed the Lakers in their private hell despite West’s furious effort with 42 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists.

The moment revealed two seriously important truths about championship play in American professional basketball:

1) Emotion is the huge factor because it drives focus. The team that finds a deep emotional edge in the championship series is going to win, forget what should happen.

2) You better watch what you say in the Lakers/Celtics rivalry because it all sticks around forever. You could be eating your own trash talk for decades.

Now, there remains a long way to go in this series, which the Lakers lead 2-1 heading into tonight’s Game 4, but there’s absolutely no question that Pierce, the outspoken Celtics forward, presented the Lakers with a huge emotional edge when he announced after Boston won Game 2 in Los Angeles that the series was headed to Boston and wouldn’t be returning to L.A. for the sixth or seventh games.

His meaning, of course, was that the Celtics were going to win all three games on their home floor to take the title, four games to one. Los Angeles sportscaster Jim Hill heard the comment and couldn’t wait to pose the question to Lakers guard Derek Fisher on camera.

“Your reaction to Paul Pierce saying that the series is not coming back to LA?”

You can see the whole sequence in the excellent Fisher highlight video put together by up-and-coming producer Chris Manning ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hShtVQxuJQ ).

Fisher, the emotional leader of the Lakers, says nothing in response to Hill’s question. He simply stares with indignation.

If there’s any question about the depth of Fisher’s anger over Pierce’s comment and other insults from the Lakers, you need look no further than the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the series, when Fisher personally closed out a pivotal win for Los Angeles.

Now, the emotional and motivational power of Pierce’s words has become all too clear for the Celtics.

It’s true. The series could end in Boston — with Los Angeles taking all three games played in the Garden.

You’ll never hear Lakers players express anything close to that notion, yet there is no question that the insult drives their focus in the series. Fisher was answering post-game questions for the TV cameras immediately after Game 3 when he changed gears and began talking about Game 4.

Manning’s video also offers a scene from the ESPYs with the Celtics gloating over their 2008 humiliation of the Lakers in the championship series. The camera quickly cuts to a stone-faced Fisher, sitting in the audience.

There is a deep, deep reserve of emotion driving Fisher and his Lakers in this series.

The Celtics realize that all too well now. That’s why Boston coach Doc Rivers has stepped up his media complaints that the officials allowed Fisher to be too physical defensively in Game 3. The counterpoint to that, of course, is that Fisher has to move through the series of moving and brush screens that the Celtics set for Ray Allen every time down the floor.

So, in addition to an emotional war, the championship series is a public relations battle, with either side willing to pay the league fines for criticizing the officiating this time of year.

Boston minority owner Jim Pallotta reportedly went off on Commissioner David Stern over the officiating immediately after Game 3. Expect to see a hefty fine for Pallotta and possibly Rivers. If they can sway the officiating of the series, it will be money well spent.

Too bad they can’t come up with some strategy to erase Pierce’s fool-hardy boast. If the Lakers can ride the emotional tide to the superior kind of focus that allows them to out-rebound and out-defend the Celtics in Game 4, they’ll take a 3-1 lead and put huge pressure on Boston.

There’s no question that proving Pierce a good prophet is just the kind of motivation Fisher craves. He doesn’t have to say a word to confirm that.

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon recently released by ESPN Books.