Lakers (4-0) Rally to Overcome Warriors

James Worthy earns his salary by taking shots, not by blocking them. So it is probably a little unexpected that the Lakers needed a crucial rejection by Worthy in the last minute to keep them from taking a beating that also would have been unexpected.

The Lakers remained undefeated by coming from 12 points down in the fourth quarter Saturday night and defeating the Golden State Warriors, 120-116, at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

Worthy’s block of a shot by Peter Verhoeven rescued the Lakers from a not-so-sharp performance against a struggling Warrior team, although Magic Johnson said afterwards that they’ll take a win no matter how it happens.

“Maybe we were flat, but we came back and won,” Johnson said. “What else counts?”

Nothing much, except 4-0, which is the Laker record, although the Warriors certainly had them worried. The worst moments came early in the fourth quarter, when Golden State held a 105-93 lead.

The Lakers took advantage of four Warrior turnovers and finally assumed a 117-116 lead with 1:32 to play. Then they watched Worthy make sure the lead was safe when he blocked Verhoeven’s shot at the free-throw line.

With the shot clock running down, Verhoeven tried to get the ball past Worthy’s outstretched arms, but Worthy slapped the ball downcourt, where Byron Scott scooped it up on the dead run.

Scott finished the play with a dunk that gave the Lakers a three-point lead with only 41 seconds left. The Warriors had another opportunity, which they promptly squandered when Terry Teagle walked with the ball. That play was typical of the Warrior offense during the last few minutes of the game.

Going against what had been a half-hearted Laker defense, from the 3:43 mark on down, the Warriors took only four shots, made one, and committed three turnovers.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 31 points, but he also committed two turnovers in the last two minutes as the Lakers kept giving the Warriors more chances.

“We just couldn’t get anything going for the longest time,” Worthy said. “But we’ve been in the position of having to come back so many times, we were never out of it.”

They certainly were close in the third quarter when they suddenly went very flat. The Lakers led, 83-76, with 6:01 left in the third but scored only six points the rest of the quarter to fall behind, 98-89, going into the final period.

When Abdul-Jabbar picked up his fifth foul with more than five minutes to go, it didn’t look much better. But Laker Coach Pat Riley made an unusual defensive adjustment, putting 6-9 rookie A. C. Green, a small forward, on 7-1 Warrior center Joe Barry Carroll.

Carroll had 31 points overall, but he got only one basket off Green, who said he doesn’t really want to make it a habit of guarding centers.

“Once every 30 games would be all right, I guess,” Green said. “I think I’ll wait until after the All-Star break for the next time.”

The Warriors trailed by only 63-59 at halftime, which was some sort of moral victory since perhaps three-fifths of their projected starting lineup isn’t even here.

One highlight of the first half was when Golden State’s 6-8 Larry Smith blocked a dunk attempt by Abdul-Jabbar. The luster of that play was lost quickly, however, when Abdul-Jabbar threw the ball down through the hoop on a high leaping dunk the next time the Lakers got possession.

The trajectory of the shot closely matched the direction the Warriors are taking in the early going this season.

Consider this: The Lakers are 4-0 on the road. The Warriors won five games on the road all last season.

This season, they’re still getting to know each other because 3 of the 11 players on the roster weren’t even on the team 24 hours before opening night.

That hasn’t made up for those three players who still aren’t around.

Purvis Short walked out on his contract, No. 1 draft pick Chris Mullin of St. John’s is still walking because he can’t agree to contract terms, and Greg Ballard is barely walking after arthroscopic knee surgery.

Eric (Sleepy) Floyd, who scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half, carried the Warrior scoring early, while the Lakers seemed to be playing down to their opposition.

Abdul-Jabbar scored 17 points in the first half and enticed Carroll into three personal fouls, but Abdul-Jabbar managed only two rebounds in that time. Neither Abdul-Jabbar, who had another shot blocked in the second half, nor the rest of the Lakers appeared to be nearly as sharp as they had been in their three other victories on this season-opening trip.

Johnson said the Warriors were partially responsible for that.

“They played the perfect game,” he said. “They can’t play better than that and they still got beat. We have to win this kind of game. Some other times, when we fall behind like that, we lose, but we’ve been through it all before.

“We just make our own road,” Johnson said.

The Lakers will play their home opener Tuesday night at the Forum against the Cleveland Cavaliers and, in a pre-game ceremony, are to receive their NBA championship rings.