Lakers’ Waiting Game to End Tuesday

The Lakers’ waiting game continued Thursday night, when Detroit forced the Boston Celtics to a seventh game Saturday afternoon at Boston in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals.

Instead of a Sunday date in the Forum to open the finals, the Lakers will spend the weekend in Santa Barbara. They will play an intrasquad game there tonight.

The finals will begin Tuesday night at the Forum, with Game 2 scheduled for Thursday in Los Angeles. Both games of the best-of-seven series will begin at 6 p.m. and will be televised live by KCBS (Channel 2).

It had been incorrectly reported in Thursday’s editions of The Times that if Boston won the Eastern Conference finals the Championship Series would have started in Boston on Tuesday. But because the Lakers had the best regular-season record, they will be host for the firsts two games of the finals. Games 3 and 4 and Game 5, if necessary, will be played in either Boston or Detroit. The final two games, if necessary, are scheduled for the Forum.