Lakers Get 60th Victory, 137-130, Plan to Rest

After the Lakers finally got around to bumping off the Warriors for their 60th victory of the season, Coach Pat Riley had a question about the last two games still on the schedule before the playoffs.

“Have they canceled them yet?” he asked.

No, but they probably should if they’re going to be anything like the one that was played Thursday night at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

The Lakers, who are now 60-22, clinched the second-best record in the league with a 137-130 victory over the Warriors, who have already wrapped up the second-worst record in the league.

Because of the victory, the Lakers will have a home-court advantage in every potential playoff series except against the Celtics, who clinched the league’s best record by beating Cleveland Thursday night.

Of course, a Laker-Celtic series could only happen if they met in the championship final.

Perhaps with one eye on that possible occurrence, Riley plans a few personnel changes for tonight’s last regular-season home game against Seattle. Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy are going to get some rest, Riley said.

“We’ve got to get through this thing (the regular season), rest some players and get ready for the playoffs,” Riley said. “We’re going to play catch-as-catch-can.”

That was about the way it went against the Warriors, whose only chance of beating the Lakers seemed to be if they caught them totally bored. But the Lakers wanted their 60th victory badly enough to remain involved just long enough to get it done.

Johnson scored 28 points and passed out 17 assists, which along with Byron Scott’s 22 points and Kurt Rambis’ 15 rebounds were enough to offset a season-high 32 points by Eric (Sleepy) Floud, 30 more by Purvis Short and a whopping 25 Warrior offensive rebounds.

The Lakers trailed by a point at halftime, but they built a 17-point lead two minutes into the fourth quarter and then withstood a late Warrior rally that cut the lead to three points with about two minutes left.

Scott ended the suspense with a baseline jumper that was followed by a 15-foot jump shot by Johnson. Ahead, 128-121, with 1:28 to play, the Lakers free-throwed the game to its conclusion and retired to the locker room to think about the playoffs.

Johnson, who played 41 minutes, said he wouldn’t mind a breather against the SuperSonics tonight and in Sunday’s regular season wrapup at Kansas City.

“We’ve been runnin’ hard . . . runnin’ hard,” he said.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 16 points in an interesting 32 minutes that included a technical foul for arguing a call with official Mike Mathis, who with Jim Capers, allowed a lot of hacks and chops to go unnoticed.

“I think they were on vacation a little early, too,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who cautioned: “Now, you didn’t hear me say that.”

The Lakers shot 59.8%, with Scott leading the way on a 10-for-16 night highlighted by a seldom-seen lob pass to Bob McAdoo, which resulted in something called the “Doo-A-Loop.”

If the game was officiated loosely, it was played the same way. There were 11 blocked shots, 59 personal fouls and 37 turnovers as well as 60 assists.

There were even a few surprises, such as the 20 points scored by Warrior free agent Terry Teagle, fresh from the Detroit Spirits of the Continental Basketball Assn.

Should Riley rest Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and Worthy as planned, there could be a few Laker lineup surprises in the season’s last two games, which are now meaningless. Mitch Kupchak, Ronnie Lester and Larry Spriggs are supposed to work in their places.

“We might have a little bit of a (mental) letdown,” Riley admitted. “We just want to close this thing out. We’re not conceding anything, but we just want to rest some players and get on with the playoffs.”

Laker Notes Before the game, the Warriors honored former center Nate Thurmond for his recent selection to the Naismith Hall of Fame. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who wrote the letter nominating Thurmond, took part in the ceremony . . . The Lakers have workouts planned Tuesday and Wednesday at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion before beginning their first-round playoff series against Phoenix Thursday night at the Forum.