Radja Rabbit Jumps All Over Lakers : Pro basketball: Yugoslav star scores 36 points and grabs 15 rebounds in the Celtics’ 109-99 victory.

BOSTON — Vlade Divac had seen this kind of thing from his friend before, back when he and Dino Radja were teammates for seven years on the Yugoslav national team.

So what transpired Friday night at Boston Garden, when they were opponents, came as no surprise, though that didn’t make it any easier to handle.

“He was too much,” Divac said. “Dino won the game.”

Not single-handedly, considering Dee Brown scored 14 of his 22 points in the critical fourth quarter, but close.

All Radja did was score 36 points and grab 15 rebounds, both game highs, to earn Boston a 109-99 victory over the Lakers in front of the 14,890 fans who celebrated the Celtics’ first win since Jan. 30 and the end to a 13-game losing streak.

“With about eight minutes left in the third quarter, the leprechaun was still sleeping,” Laker Coach Randy Pfund said. “But he woke up, obviously. That leprechaun must look a lot like Dino Radja.

“We tried everything right down the line: (Elden) Campbell, we tried Kurt Rambis, Danny Schayes, George Lynch, Vlade. Nobody could handle him. We doubled him, and that caused problems on the boards.”

Said Radja, who made 15 of 22 shots: “When a couple went in, it’s easy. You just feel relief of any pressure. And they kept putting a small man on me, and you can’t do that.”

The Lakers’ smallest man, Nick Van Exel, kept Celtic defenders just as busy. A game after making five three-pointers to tie a team regular-season mark for the third time, he hit for six for the record and 26 points. Michael Cooper also had six, in the 1987 finals against Boston.

“I knew I was going to be on tonight,” said Van Exel, who went so far as to predict to color commentator Stu Lantz that the record would fall. “The basket seemed so big.

“Being a rookie and breaking a record like that, it’s pretty nice.”

The Lakers shot only 41.5%, with George Lynch making two of 12 and James Worthy five of 13. Divac made seven of 17, but that was good enough for 19 points to go with 11 rebounds, his fifth consecutive double-double.