Kupchak and McAdoo Help Scale the Towers, 100-94

The worst that can happen when you’re playing Houston’s Twin Towers is not to have a tower of your own. That’s what happened to the Lakers in the Forum Tuesday night when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sat down with four fouls early in the third quarter.

“They probably thought they could take advantage of us then,” Bob McAdoo said. “But uh-uh.”

In the meantime, the Lakers might have learned something about their depth. Mitch Kupchak and McAdoo, the Lakers’ unlikely counterparts to the Twin Towers, kept the Lakers close until Abdul-Jabbar came back and Magic Johnson finally appeared to beat the Rockets, 100-94.

For Kupchak, who hasn’t played much this season, this was a game to remember.

Spending so little time on the floor, Kupchak has been less of a tower than he has a vacant lot. But combined, Kupchak and McAdoo gave Laker Coach Pat Riley 14 points, 12 rebounds and a reason to be thankful.

“We could have really gotten hurt with Kareem out,” Riley said. “But that’s not what happened, thank goodness.”

Abdul-Jabbar, who collected three quick fouls to start the third quarter and left with the Rockets ahead by three points, took mild exception to his foul calls.

“I didn’t collect them, they were deposited on me,” he said.

But by the time Abdul-Jabbar came back, the Lakers had not only stayed close to the Rockets, they also had gone ahead. Then, when Rocket Towers Ralph Sampson and Akeem Olajuwon got their fourth fouls within four minutes of each other, the Lakers finally quit struggling and shot ahead to stay.

Michael Cooper’s three-point play, accomplished on Sampson’s fifth foul, started the Lakers on an 11-2 run that turned a 79-78 deficit into an 89-81 lead with 6:05 left in the game.

The Rockets got within 91-89 on Lionel Hollins’ breakaway with 4:20 left, but then Magic Johnson, who had slogged through a miserable first half, ended his struggle with a three-point play.

Right after that, Hollins threw a pass away and Abdul-Jabbar caught Olajuwon going the wrong way and dunked. When Byron Scott, who shot 0 for 7 in the first half, scored on a layup after a pass from Abdul-Jabbar, the Lakers were virtual winners, holding a 98-89 lead with 2:45 left.

Abdul-Jabbar wound up with 19 points, as did James Worthy, helping the Lakers overcome a less-than-thrilling overall performance.

The Lakers’ shot just 46% and turned the ball over 25 times. But they also outrebounded the Rockets, 51-42, withstood a combined 41 points from Olajuwon and Sampson and won for the third time in four matchups with the Rockets.

As poorly as the Lakers played in the first half, Riley was grateful that they hadn’t been buried by that point.

“We played like a bunch of junkyard dogs with the mange,” he said. “But even some junkyard dogs have a pedigree.”

Johnson certainly wasn’t dogging it in the first half, but he had nearly twice as many turnovers (seven) as points (four).

“I was out of rhythm,” he said.

The Lakers, however, were never too far out of step. When Johnson finally got untracked, he finished with 15 points, 18 assists and 11 rebounds. If he had made two more turnovers, Johnson would have had an odd quadruple-double.

Houston finished with 20 turnovers, but the Rockets shot only 43%, and not even Olajuwon’s 16 rebounds could make up for that.

Mitchell Wiggins and Lionel Hollins gave the Rockets brief offensive boosts, but the night belonged to Kupchak and McAdoo. Not many nights have.

When Abdul-Jabbar gets into foul trouble, Riley can go one of three ways: McAdoo, Kurt Rambis or Kupchak. So until Riley turned to him, Kupchak didn’t know it was going to be his turn.

“I wasn’t really prepared,” Kupchak said. “I never thought, ‘This is my chance.’ But you never know when you’re going in, so I just jumped up and went in.

“I can play very well, still,” he said. “It’s just that minutes are hard to get on this team with this front-court, even with Jamaal (Wilkes) out.”

Kupchak took Sampson, and the matchup was more or less a draw. It may not be that way again if the Rockets and Lakers meet in the playoffs, but it might have given the Lakers some hope and the Rockets something to think about.

“I was really glad to see those guys, Mitch and McAdoo, on the backboards,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “We’ve got to get more rebounding help if we’re going to go further in the playoffs.”

McAdoo dropped a couple of baseline jumpers when the Lakers were building their game-winning lead. He said he wants to drop a few more against the Rockets in the playoffs.

“They’re the class team in the conference, besides us and Denver,” McAdoo said. “I expect to see them somewhere down the line.”

Rocket Coach Bill Fitch said he isn’t going to worry about playing the Lakers in the playoffs until it happens. He’s more concerned at the time by the Rockets’ ballhandling and turnovers.

And like everyone else, Fitch was impressed at how the Lakers performed when Abdul-Jabbar was out of the game.

“They won with Kareem on the bench,” he said.

They won’t do that very often, but Kupchak and McAdoo made sure it at least happened once.