Resurgent Wilkes Leads Lakers to an Easy Victory

The revival of Jamaal Wilkes reached a new level Tuesday night during the Lakers’ 122-106 blowout of the Portland Trail Blazers.

The man the Lakers call “Uncle Silkie” isn’t quite ready for the rocking chair yet, but Wilkes said there’s a lot more going on in his head than he’s willing to talk about right now.

“All I can say is the time will come when I lay it all out,” Wilkes said after scoring a season-high 24 points in 27 minutes coming off Pat Riley’s bench, which is what he does these days.

It didn’t used to be that way. But the last time the Lakers were in Memorial Coliseum was the first time Riley removed Wilkes from the starting lineup. Not the beginning of the end as it turns out, even if it might have seemed that way.

Wilkes was not happy with his demotion, but since the Lakers went on a 23-6 roll without him as a starter, there wasn’t much Wilkes could do about it.

Wilkes’ playing time dwindled to almost nothing before Riley did an about-face six games ago. Riley hasn’t played Wilkes fewer than 20 minutes a game since.

What’s happened to him in the meantime?

“I could write a book about it,” Wilkes said.

And Tuesday night, there was Wilkes flinging his funny little slingshot jumper and bagging garbage points inside, helping the Lakers defeat the Trail Blazers for the fourth time this season.

Afterward, Wilkes admitted he was pleased with his recent resurgence, but cautioned against making too much out of what happened Tuesday night.

“It’s only one game,” he said. “That’s all it is.”

The Lakers played only one poor quarter, the second, in which Portland scored 39 points to take a 66-59 halftime lead. After that, though, the Lakers sent the Trail Blazers spiraling downward to their 18th defeat in their last 24 games.

“It’s an agonizing puzzle right now,” said Portland Coach Jack Ramsay, whose puzzling team now trails the Lakers by 11 1/2 games.

Playing without Byron Scott, who has the flu, and Mitch Kupchak, who needed 40 stitches to close a cut above his right eye after getting injured in practice Monday, the Lakers received 29 points and 13 rebounds from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which was more than enough to subdue the Trail Blazers.

“I wish that guy would retire right now,” Portland guard Jim Paxson said.

Many thought that’s what Wilkes should do after Riley sent him to the bench when the Lakers got off to a 3-5 start this season. Riley reasoned that Wilkes was slow in coming back from a gastro-intestinal infection last season, and decided to go with a bigger lineup that did not include Wilkes.

“That was a phase,” Riley said. “He probably showed the residual effects of that illness, too. But he’s going to get more and more playing time as he gets more and more confident.”

With Scott unavailable as the Lakers’ shooting guard, Michael Cooper stepped in and scored 13 points, including a trio of confidence-building jump shots that began the fourth quarter when the game turned into a rout.

Cooper, who has now played small forward, point guard and shooting guard, said he has to look for more shots.

“I have to start thinking like a shooter,” Cooper said.

He passed the ball pretty well, too, and finished with eight assists. The other point guard, Magic Johnson, led the Lakers with 13 assists, the kind that broke the game open at the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.

Mychal Thompson scored 24 points for the Trail Blazers and rookie Jerome Kersey had 18 points off the bench, but that was the extent of Portland’s offense.

Kiki Vandeweghe scored 17 points, but none in the second half when the Lakers broke loose. They led, 83-80, when Wilkes scored twice to end the third quarter, then ran off to a 104-89 lead five minutes into the fourth quarter behind Cooper, Larry Spriggs and Wilkes.

The Lakers had little trouble with the Portland defense and shot 65.1 percent. Abdul-Jabbar was 11-for-15 and Wilkes was 11-for-14.

More impressive, perhaps, was the manner in which Wilkes scored. He did not hesitate when he received the ball on the wing and instead went quickly into his shooting motion.

“That was a big part of my problem--a lack of confidence,” Wilkes said. “I feel more relaxed about things.”

Wilkes refused to say he felt vindicated.

“You know, I can admit though that I’m more motivated in a lot of ways besides just winning,” he said.

Abdul-Jabbar said he was relieved that Wilkes is making an impact again.

“Nobody can say that Jamaal has ever been a loser,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Maybe he needs to play guard more so he doesn’t get pushed around.

“I asked him where he has been. I thought maybe he took a trip somewhere. He said no, but that his jump shot did.”