Rambis, Wilkes Move Up --and Lakers Win, 110-92

Two new old faces surfaced in the Forum as the Lakers closed out the first half of the season by wiping out the Dallas Mavericks, 110-92, Friday night before a sellout crowd.

Kurt Rambis moved into the starting lineup for the first time this season, which was mildly surprising, and Jamaal Wilkes moved into Pat Riley’s substitution pattern, also for the first time this season, which was really surprising.

But the ease of the Lakers’ victory was probably the biggest surprise of all because it quickly followed three consecutive road defeats.

Riley’s revival of Wilkes was pretty much unexpected. It appeared that Wilkes, who lost his starting job after the Lakers began the season 3-5, did not figure into Riley’s plans any longer.

But Riley said he now plans to use Wilkes as part of his normal substitution pattern.

“I hope he can go from here,” Riley said. “He’s got to be affected by a lack of playing time that has hurt his conditioning. We’ll just see what he can do.”

Wilkes, who sensed Riley might be leaning toward using him more during the Lakers’ just-completed trip, thought his re-emergence was the only sensible thing for Riley to do.

“If he’s serious about winning he’s got to start acting like it more,” Wilkes said.

Wilkes claimed his confidence had been “shattered” by not playing much, would not say that he longs to get back into the starting lineup.

“I’m willing to ride out the year and see what happens after that,” Wilkes said.

Since taking up residence on the Laker bench, Wilkes, 31, acquired a new nickname: “Uncle Silkie.”

Magic Johnson said it was nice to have his uncle back.

“That’s about five more assists for me,” he said. “We read each other real well. We’re the best two on this team doing that. Maybe in the league.”

Dallas Coach Dick Motta was not comparing his team to the best afterward.

“We don’t have an NBA caliber team,” Motta said. “We don’t have a power forward or a center. Our players are an average team struggling to be at .500.”

The Lakers were threatened only once when they went more than eight minutes of the first half with just three field goals, but the Mavericks fumbled away their best chance to stay close by taking only seven points off the Laker lead.

Dallas was within 27-25 two minutes into the second quarter before Wilkes, who had not scored in double figures since Dec. 12, came up with five points in 30 seconds.

Wilkes finished with 13 points in 24 minutes, the most he has played since Nov. 11. Many of Wilkes’ points came before a prolonged fourth-quarter of garbage time that made the final score look a lot closer than it actually was.

The Lakers, who led by seven points at the half, finished the third quarter with a rush. James Worthy’s steal and flying dunk provided the final punctuation to the period, 84-65.

Bob McAdoo, Wilkes and Michael Cooper shot the Lakers to a 97-70 lead with 8:26 left and that was that. Johnson (18 assists) led one of the best Laker fast breaks of the season.

They had four-on-ones, two-on-nobodies and even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar filling the wing for breakaway layups against the Mavericks, who put up very little defense and allowed too many easy shots.

Tonight in Oakland, the Lakers play the worst team in the league, the Golden State Warriors, and they hope for a repeat of their game against the Mavericks.

Worthy led the Lakers with 19 points and both Abdul-Jabbar and Byron Scott finished with 17 points. The Mavericks got 22 points from forward Mark Aguirre, but not a whole lot out of the center position.

Starter Kurt Nimphius had six points in 24 minutes and backup Sam Perkins scored 13 points, in 22 minutes, the majority during garbage time, and sank three three-pointers.

The Lakers finished the first-half of the season with a 27-14 record compared to a 25-16 mark at the same point a year ago.

Johnson said Riley’s switch of Rambis for Larry Spriggs and his plans to use Wilkes more signal a major tactical decision.

“He’s now trying to see what will win us a championship,” said Johnson. “We’re getting ready for the playoffs now. That’s what we’re doing for the next 41 gams. We won’t have many more blowouts later.”

Riley said the Rambis-Wilkes moves represent more fine-tuning and that Spriggs shouldn’t feel bad about becoming a non-starter.

“He shouldn’t look at it as a demotion, but as an adjustment,” Riley said.

“Nothing is permanent on this team.”

Rambis scored only two points in 22 minutes, but he had seven rebounds. At the end of this season, Rambis becomes a free agent, but he said his market value would be determined more by how the Lakers do than his personal statistics.

“I’ll get my individual rewards if we play well,” he said.