Baylor Paces Lakers To Win Over Celtics

The Los Angeles Lakers remained alive in the National Basketball Association championship playoffs last night by edging the Boston Celtics 126 to 119. The Lakers now trail Boston three games to two in the best of seven series.

Elgin Baylor and Jerry West paced the Laker victory; Baylor scored 43 points and West finished the game with 32. Baylor made a key basket in the final period which put Los Angeles ahead to stay. The Lakers had trailed the Celtics by five points at the start of the fourth quarter.

The Celtic efforts to close the gap in the final minutes were stalled by the disputed ejection of Tommy Heinsohn and by Bob Cousy's fouling out with two minutes to play. Heinsohn had been the Celtics third highest scorer with 23 points. Boston was paced by Sam Jones, who scored 36 points, and Bill Russell, who got 24.