Lakers Get Away With a 105-104 Victory

The Lakers made it a lot tougher than it should have been, but they somehow managed to escape from New York in the last 42 seconds and defeat the Knicks, 105-104, Friday night at the Forum.

The Lakers and Knicks are two teams headed in opposite directions this season, but until the two-minute mark, you had to wonder if somebody hadn’t gotten lost on the highway.

“We come out at the beginning of the game and something is wrong mentally,” James Worthy said.

Actually, Laker thought processes were muddled for a long time after that.

When Bernard King made a free throw with 2:15 left, the Knicks led by five points and looked as though they might actually win a road game for the first time since Nov. 21.

But the Lakers, who had been cleaned and pressed by the Knicks’ trap defense during the first half, woke up just in time to avoid a defeat they seemed intent on accepting.

Michael Cooper’s two free throws with 42 seconds left gave the Lakers’ their 105-104 winning margin, which was also their first lead since the opening minutes.

New York scored only once after King’s free throw and got caught in an 8-2 Laker roll in the final two minutes. The Knicks had two shots at reclaiming the lead, but Darrell Walker missed both times when they couldn’t get the ball to King.

Walker’s last shot with three seconds left was off the backboard and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rebounded, although Knick Coach Hubie Brown thought it was goaltending.

“He definitely hit the rim,” Brown said.

The Knicks might have avoided the need for an official’s call in order to win if they hadn’t committed 11 turnovers in the third quarter, two in the last two minutes, and 25 for the game.

If the Lakers won ugly, then the Knicks lost ugly, too.

After Worthy’s driving layup got the Lakers within 102-99, Rory Sparrow forced a pass to King which was tipped away by Byron Scott and stolen by Larry Spriggs.

Magic Johnson drove the middle for a basket and Walker responded with a lean-in jumper to give New York a 104-101 advantage with 1:27 remaining.

Scott’s jumper preceded a turnover by Walker, then Sparrow fouled Cooper, whose two free throws sent the Knicks to their 14th consecutive road defeat.

Abdul-Jabbar scored 26 points to lead the Lakers, while King, who was playing for the first time since missing the Knicks’ last eight games with a sprained ankle, led New York with 23 points.

But King scored only five points in the second half and was strangely ignored on the Knicks’ last two offensive plays.

“I was kind of surprised by that,” admitted Spriggs, who was assigned to guard King.

No more so than Brown, who said Spriggs was playing “eight feet off of Bernard” and that King should have shot the ball instead of Walker, a 44.5% shooter.

“That wasn’t the shot we wanted,” Brown said. “Unfortunately, we took the jump shot and missed.”

So the Lakers got away with one. They dug themselves into a 12-point hole at halftime, the excavation work done by a trapping Knick defense.

“We were fortunate to win,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “The whole thing could have caved in on us.”

The Lakers, Riley said, had trouble recognizing the Knicks’ trapping defense in the first half, so they tried one of their own in the third quarter and forced New York into a string of seven consecutive turnovers.

Even so, the Knicks still led 82-79 going into the fourth quarter and 102-97 with 2:15 left.

The Lakers, who have shown a remarkable tendency to play down to their opposition, shot just 44.6% and managed to get outrebounded by the Knicks, a feat they have accomplished only 11 times in 48 games.

Pat Cummings scored 18 points for the Knicks, but he also had 17 rebounds to help give New York an unexpected 44-39 advantage on the backboards.

“As much as you talk about getting up for a team, the reality of the situation is that the players know that already,” Riley said. “It just doesn’t sink in.”

Laker Notes

Bob McAdoo missed his 12th game of the season and his third because of a bruised left heel. McAdoo received treatment on his heel earlier Friday and could not play. . . . Jamaal Wilkes sprained his left knee in the first half and did not return. He isn’t expected to play tonight against the Clippers or Sunday night against Indiana.