Phoenix Is in Ashes, and Lakers Are Set to Sweep, 147-130

Does anybody still think this is a five-game series?

Not even the Lakers, who were biting their tongues before their best-of-five National Basketball Assn. playoff matchup with Phoenix, are still able to work up much enthusiasm for the Suns’ chances.

“We’ve got a great chance to end it Tuesday night,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said. “Of course, we can’t take it for granted.”

No, the Suns don’t deserve to be taken for granted, even though a sweep became much more of a possibility Saturday after the Lakers trounced the Suns again, this time 147-130, before 15,261 fans at the Forum.

Now that they’ve got a 2-0 lead, the Lakers can put the Suns out of their misery by beating them in Game 3 Tuesday night at Phoenix.

“We’d like to end it Tuesday, but if it doesn’t, we know it’s eventually going to end pretty soon,” Magic Johnson said.

Pretty soon is probably coming right up. The Lakers don’t really have to be too cautious when they’re talking about the Suns, not after what they’ve done to them so far. In two games, the Lakers are averaging 145 points and 61% shooting.

Meanwhile, Chuck Nevitt has played two more games than James Edwards.

That’s a pretty good indication of what’s going right for the Lakers, who lost a little enthusiasm in the second quarter but not nearly enough for them to lose a game, which would be the only upset in this series.

“Everyone is asking us how we can beat them, saying we have to hold them to 40% shooting and shoot 70% ourselves,” said Alvan Adams, who led the Suns with 23 points. “But that’s not very realistic. They’re just playing great. That’s been written enough, and that’s what probably will be written again tomorrow.”

It also will be written again that the Suns are playing hurt. Two starters--Walter Davis and Larry Nance--are out for the series because of injury.

Edwards, the Suns’ starting center, might be back Tuesday but didn’t play again Saturday because of a back injury, and his absence was more noticeable in Game 2 than in the opener. Abdul-Jabbar had more trouble with a case of strep throat, for which he is under medication, than he had with shorter defenders Adams and Charles Jones.

Abdul-Jabbar scored 24 points in only 21 minutes, his playing time shortened because of another blowout and too many fouls. He threw 10 of 12 shots through the hoop and also threw his wad of chewing gum beneath a chair after disagreeing with a called foul.

For a while in the second quarter, the Lakers seemed to spend more time chewing gum and watching the Laker Girls during timeouts than concentrating on the Suns.

The Suns decided to try to run with the Lakers, as they had tried to do in Game 1, and that worked pretty well until just before the half. After building an 11-point lead after the first quarter, the Lakers suddenly found themselves trailing, 63-62, with 1:48 to go in the half.

Charles Pittman, Rod Foster and sore-ankled Charles Jones were suddenly jamming in the faces of Lakers. The Lakers blamed this on a soft defense, which Coach Pat Riley said he is concerned about, and they also blamed their intensity, which is what Johnson found to be the real culprit.

“Their intensity level was a lot higher than ours was,” Johnson said of the Suns.

You can’t really blame the Lakers for letting down a bit against the Suns, whose top three scorers still haven’t played a minute. But if the Lakers have proved one thing in this series, it’s that just as quickly as they can turn it off, they can turn it on.

The Lakers woke up when Byron Scott broke loose. They ended the second quarter with an 11-2 run and began the third with a 21-6 roll that produced a 96-71 lead. The only danger remaining was whether Johnson and Scott would break each other’s hands with their high-five slaps.

Not a chance of that, Johnson said.

“No, because we’ve been working on positioning,” he said.

The Lakers were working on a serious emotional letdown until they became enthused again. Johnson was largely responsible with 12 assists and a lot to say to Scott, who had three breakaway dunks while the Lakers were putting the game out of the Suns’ reach.

“I was just trying to rev him up,” Johnson said. “We really needed something to get us going again because we weren’t playing very well. We just had to get something to get us out of that spell, and a couple of dunks by Byron was what did it. I was only talking to him.”

The way Bob McAdoo was shooting, Johnson didn’t need to talk to him. McAdoo, who had 18 points in 20 minutes in Game 1, came back Saturday with 22 points in 23 minutes.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Lakers shot their way to a 29-point lead, and even though Jay Humphries helped the Suns cut it to 13 points after Riley pulled his starters, there was no doubt about the outcome.

Just as it has been for the first two games, the question isn’t who will win; it’s by how much.

Scott said the Lakers still have a reason for not letting down.

“We’re scared they might win a game,” he said.

Laker Notes The Lakers shot 61.7%, which set a team playoff record. . . . Phoenix forward Maurice Lucas, who hasn’t started despite all the Suns’ injuries, doesn’t think he’ll be back with the team next season. Lucas makes $650,000 next season, the same as this season, but the Suns have an option whether to keep him. “I don’t fit in,” Lucas said. . . . James Worthy was limited to only 16 minutes because of foul trouble. . . . Kurt Rambis has scored just four points in only 33 minutes of playing time during the series, but he had seven rebounds Saturday. . . . Michael Cooper, who had 12 assists, was knocked to the floor in a mid-court collision with Kyle Macy and talked about the contact almost like a football player. “That one felt good all the way down to my toes,” he said. . . . Both teams are taking the day off today. The Lakers travel to Phoenix Monday for Game 3, which will be played at 6:30 p.m. PST Tuesday in Veterans Memorial Coliseum.