NBA NOTES AND QUOTES

BOSTON Possibly a case of wishful thinking? Before the LosAngeles Lakers hammered San Antonio 135-88 Thursday in their seriesopening playoff game, Houston coach Bill Fitch said, "San Antoniocould be a monster for the Lakers in the first round." How about aMonster Mash? Los Angeles shot an NBA playoff record .663 for thegame and outrebounded the Spurs 47-18 while Artis Gilmore was makinga fine stretch run toward free agency. Gilmore had one rebound in 31minutes. Proving, however, that it was a team effort, the Spurs hadno rebounds in the second quarter. . . . Spurs coach CottonFitzsimmons has lost 29 straight games in the Forum dating back to1974. . . . Sacramento general manager Joe Axelson picked Houston todispose of his team in four games. "I think we'll win a game," saidAxelson, "but if somebody put a gun to my head, I'd say four."

Houston's Akeem Olajuwon won't come close to Boston's Larry Birdbut he had a MVP season. Olajuwon, who missed 14 games with a kneeinjury, was third in blocked shots (3.4), 11th in steals (1.97),eighth in scoring (23.5) and would have been fourth in rebounding(11.5) but fell 19 boards short of the 800 needed to qualify.

The Bulls are 8-34 on the road this season but they are evenworse in road playoff games. Including Thursday's beating, the Bullsare 4-34 away from home during the playoffs. . . . Dallas was sothrilled about its 116-115 victory over Boston March 10 - the firstin franchise history - that the Mavericks sold a video highlight filmof the event. It probably didn't hurt sales that Larry Bird had 50points.