Lakers Hit New Lows in 96-83 Loss

The Lakers showed up Saturday night, and that’s about the nicest thing you can say about the way they played against the Utah Jazz.

Maybe the Lakers left their game back at the Forum, where less than 24 hours earlier they had knocked off the Philadelphia 76ers. Against the Jazz, who weren’t exactly overpowering themselves, the Lakers absorbed an embarrassing 96-83 defeat.

Let us count the lows.

The Lakers haven’t had fewer points this season, falling a mere 32 points short of their average game score, and they experienced their worst offensive night since they scored 82 points against Portland Oct. 19, 1979.

Utah led for the last 46 minutes, during which time the Lakers committed 27 turnovers and looked every bit the reverse of Friday night, when they beat Philadelphia, 109-104.

The Lakers performed before 12,675 at the Salt Palace. It was a standing-room-only crowd. Speaking of standing, that’s what some of the Lakers were doing.

Some more lows:

--There was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s perfect bounce pass down the lane that unfortunately fell incomplete because nobody moved an inch to get it.

--There was the third quarter, when, with 3:44 to play, the Lakers had almost as many turnovers (seven) as points (nine).

--There was the fourth quarter, in which the Lakers scored a grand total of 15 points, also a season low.

--And then there was Byron Scott dribbling the ball off his foot in front of Jazz Coach Frank Layden, guarded only by Layden’s breath, Magic Johnson dribbling smack into 7-4 Mark Eaton’s massive midsection, Ronnie Lester getting his feet tangled up in the sideline stripe, and so on and so on.

You get the idea. Laker Coach Pat Riley said not one Laker was mentally prepared to play.

The result is that this is not a game the Lakers will remember for very long. The only trouble is, now they can’t afford to remember the 76er game because of it either.

“It’s a shame because that was such a great win,” Riley said. “This sure takes the luster off and makes it a downer. But I’m gonna’ write this one off.

“I know we’re better than that.”

Rarely have the Lakers been worse. They were bad enough to make the Jazz, as sick as they played, look good enough to win for only the fifth time in their last 13 games.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson each scored 19 points for the Lakers, who because they were so busy making turnovers, managed to attempt only 68 shots, another season low.

All the Jazz had going, meanwhile, was Adrian Dantley, who scored 31 points, but 17 came from the free-throw line, where Dantley has taken up permanent residence this season.

Dantley attempted 19 free throws to bring his total to 368 for the season, or 130 more than Johnson, the Laker leader, has attempted.

The Lakers were with it enough to realize that Dantley’s free throws didn’t beat them. They did it to themselves.

“It was just one of those games, really,” Jamaal Wilkes said. “They had been struggling, and I guess it was a bigger game for them than us.

“We thought we were going to keep on rolling after beating Philly,” Wilkes said. “It didn’t quite work out that way.”

The Lakers made only one run at the Jazz, getting within five at 73-68 after three quarters. But they started the fourth quarter with four turnovers, a wild shot and two baskets to allow Utah to run off an 85-72 lead with 6:35 left.

It got so bad that the Lakers didn’t score another field goal until 2:18 to play.

“We were just like in slow motion or something,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “There’s no sense to it. Don’t ask me to make logic out of it.”

The Lakers, who still have a nine-game lead over Phoenix in the Pacific Division, could have the same problem getting up for the rest of the season. Riley doesn’t like being reminded of that.

“You don’t take any nights off in this league,” he said.