The Lakers Add Insult to Another Sun Injury With Easy 142-114 Win

Everything ran pretty true to form Thursday night at the Forum. The Lakers won big, and Phoenix had another player get hurt.

In a series that promises to get a whole lot uglier before it’s over, the Lakers hung a 142-114 defeat on the Suns, who were in the game until just after the first timeout was called.

So the Lakers went right ahead and did what everybody was expecting. They set an NBA playoff record with 45 points in the first quarter, led by 26 at the half, by 39 late in the fourth quarter and walked off the court with a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five first-round series.

If opening-game suspense was what you were looking for, you would still be searching.

The Lakers soon ended any lingering doubts about what they were up to when they produced a 25-4 run that ended the first quarter, a stretch that Coach Pat Riley said was about as good as the Lakers could play.

Eight Lakers scored in double figures, but no one played more than 29 minutes. Magic Johnson passed out 19 assists, Mike McGee scored 22 points, Byron Scott had five steals and the Suns had nothing left to do except wonder which player would get hurt next.

Charles Jones answered the call in the first half when he reinjured his left ankle, which will keep him out of Game 2 Saturday afternoon. Center James Edwards, who missed Game 1, won’t play Saturday, either. That means the Suns will try to even the series with only nine players.

Sun Coach John MacLeod said he has no idea what he can cook up for the Lakers by Saturday.

“We can’t cook anything up,” he admitted. “We got cleaned, but Saturday’s another day.”

If it’s anything like Thursday, the Suns are in deep trouble.

Sun forward Maurice Lucas knows it. He had a rather brief answer when asked whether it would take a miracle for the Suns to win a single game in this series.

“Sure,” he said.

The way the Lakers are playing, Lucas could be right. They shot 60.4%, totaled 41 assists and took advantage of 20 Sun turnovers, 10 of which came in a turnaround first quarter, to do a complete job on the Suns.

Even so, Pat Riley clung to his pre-series statement that he wasn’t going to take anything for granted. Riley insisted that he actually experienced moments of worry.

“I was worried when I walked into the building,” he said. “Of course, I felt much better when we were 40 ahead, but I’m still worried.”

There would seem to be little cause for such anxiety, but the Lakers are talking the same way as their coach.

“It’s just one game,” said Johnson, whose 13 first-half assists tied his own NBA playoff record. “It doesn’t mean nothing except that we won the first game.”

The way the Lakers won it could prove demoralizing for the Suns, who might have sufferered still another injury. Their spirit might be broken.

Scott doesn’t think so, although he said the margin of victory could be a little demoralizing for the Suns.

“They’ll probably get real angry about it,” he said. “We’ll have to be ready for that.”

Bob McAdoo, who scored 18 points in only 20 minutes, agreed that the Suns are going to be upset for Game 2.

“We’ve got to look at it like they’ll come out foaming at the mouth because of the way we played tonight,” he said.

The Suns came into the series with just one wish, and that was not to be embarrassed.

For awhile, they weren’t, but it didn’t last very long. Charles Pittman, who led the Suns with 22 points, got Phoenix off to a quick 10-5 lead, and five minutes later, it was 20-20.

That’s when the Lakers turned it on. They enticed the Suns into shooting and missing perimeter jumpers that were easily converted into a stream of fastbreaks. The Lakers got away, riding a 25-4 streak to end the quarter with a 45-24 lead.

After that, it was all downhill for Phoenix.

Less than a minute into the fourth quarter with the Lakers holding a 115-88 lead, many in the Forum crowd of 15,547 began a chant.

“We want Boston. We want Boston,” they said.

Soon afterwards, another cry began: “Nevitt, Nevitt, Nevitt.”

They got 7-5 reserve center Chuck Nevitt for all of six minutes, but they’re not going to get Boston, if at all, for a long time to come. Riley said he is more concerned about the Suns right now.

“We still have two more games to win,” he said. “At the beginning of the game, I felt it was a basketball game.”

Riley correctly identified what was going on, all right, but his use of caution in this series seems misplaced unless the Suns make medical history with some quick recoveries.

Lucas listed two other ways for the Suns to beat the Lakers.

“First, catch Magic Johnson in an alley before the game,” he said. “Second, do the same to Kareem.”

Yes, but you have to catch them first, and the Suns just don’t seem to be able to do that.

Laker Notes Last season, the Lakers won the first game of every playoff series and took a 2-0 lead in each series except the final. . . . Sun Coach John MacLeod used his 27th different starting lineup of the season in Game 1. Charles Pittman had never started with forward Mike Sanders or with guard Jay Humphries. . . . Sun forward Larry Nance, who has a pulled groin muscle, has been officially scratched from playing in the series. . . . The cover of the Phoenix playoff press guide is made up to look like the front of a box of Band-Aids. . . . For Game 3 Tuesday night at Phoenix, the Suns are running a promotion with Blue Cross. Each fan who comes to the game will be given a first-aid kit.