Magic Johnson Rips His Rival Celtics, But Perhaps He Should Look At The Lakers, Too?

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Former Laker and NBA great Magic Johnson tended to hate the Boston Celtics during his illustrious playing career in which he led the Lakers to five NBA championships in 1980, '82, '85, '87 and '88. There were none sweeter than when Magic beat Larry Bird and the Celtics for titles in 1985 and '87, avenging the NBA title loss to Boston in 1984.

Boston Celtics Quit

But Johnson watching his former rival get embarrassed by Miami, 128-102, on Sunday to fall behind, 3-0, in the NBA Eastern Conference finals hurt. Mainly because the Celtics clearly looked like they quit - something Magic did not see throughout his playing days.

"If they're going to quit, embarrass them," TNT analyst Reggie Miller said during the game. And that's what happened.

Former Laker Magic Johnson knows plenty about the Boston Celtics. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images).

The favored and No. 2 seed Celtics have to beat No. 8 seed Miami Tuesday (7:30 p.m., TNT) in Miami to avoid a sweep.

Johnson had more tweets about the loss.

And:

Johnson, though, may need to look at his former team as well. The Lakers are also 0-3 in the NBA Western Conference finals against Denver. The Nuggets are one win away from breaking a franchise-long curse against the Lakers.

Denver is 0-6 against the Lakers in NBA Playoffs history and have never made the NBA Finals.

Denver Can Take Series Monday

That could change Monday night in Los Angeles (8:40 p.m., ESPN). Magic will be watching, but will he be tweeting?

Johnson has been active on twitter through the playoffs. He apologized to Denver fans after trash talking before the Nuggets took a 3-0 lead Los Angeles.