Lakers Roll in First Half On Way to Big Victory

The Phoenix Suns missed jump shots, layups and dunks Thursday night, but most of all they missed Walter Davis, Larry Nance and James Edwards.

None of the injured Suns stars played in Game 1 of the best-of-five series against the Lakers, but then they might not have made much difference anyway.

The Lakers played about as well as they can play in the first half, then coasted through the second half to hang a 142-114 victory over the Suns in front of 15,547 at the Forum.

Not one Laker had to play more than 29 minutes against the injury-riddled Suns, who will go into Game 2 Saturday with only nine players. Forward Charles Jones reinjured his left ankle and was ruled out. He will be joined by Edwards, who will miss the game because of a back injury.

The Lakers didn’t miss much against the Suns. They shot 60.4% passed out 41 assists (19 by Magic Johnson in only 29 minutes) and dominated the game from the midway point of the first quarter.

The Laker lead, which was 26 at halftime, ballooned to 39 late in the fourth quarter.

Eight Lakers scored in double figures, led by Mike McGee with 22 points. James Worthy, Johnson and Byron Scott all had 18 and Scott also finished with five steals.

Charles Pittman led the Suns with 22 points while Mike Sanders and Maurice Lucas each had 20.

The first half went pretty much as expected. The Lakers set an all-time NBA playoff record with 45 points in the first quarter, led by 34 points with 4:24 left in the second quarter and then coasted on in.

A brief Suns rally closed out the final few minutes of the half, but the Lakers still led, 77-51, going into the third quarter.

Nothing much went wrong for the Lakers in the first half after the first few minutes. The Suns got off to a quick 10-5 lead and were even at 20 with 5:40 to play in the first quarter before the Laker fast break suddenly appeared.

From that point on until the end of the quarter, the Lakers outscored the Suns 25-4.

Worthy and Scott each scored 10 points in the first quarter and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who finished with 15 points in 21 minutes, had nine.

Pittman, who had started one game all season for the Suns got eight first-quarter points, but the Laker defense forced 10 turnovers, Scott came up with five steals and the Lakers were off and running.

Scott came up with two breakaway layups in the Laker scoring splurge that ended the first quarter. The second one was on a length-of-the-court fastball assist from Johnson that Scott took in on the dead run.

The Suns were within 20 points when Bob McAdoo started shooting. McAdoo bagged consecutive baseline jumpers, then McGee hit three no-arc jumpers and Larry Spriggs got loose for a slam dunk.

The Lakers quickly were up 60-30, which grew to 71-37, their largest margin, on another McAdoo jumper with 4:25 remaining in the half.

Johnson, who had 13 assists in 19 minutes of the first half, sat down when the score was 75-41 and that’s when the Suns, with three baskets after offensive rebounds, managed to get as close they did.

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 finals. . . . Suns’ 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. . . . Suns’ 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.