Lakers Get the Clippers Down, but They Can’t Help It, 127-96

The first meeting of the season between the Lakers and Clippers was neither high drama nor comedy, but something more along the lines of a tragedy in sneakers.

Laker Coach Pat Riley said he didn’t get any particular pleasure out of watching the Clippers absorb a 127-96 thumping Friday night at the Sports Arena.

“They’re injured, they’re hurting and they’re down,” Riley said. “I don’t find a whole lot of joy in this kind of win because I have a lot of compassion for Don Chaney.”

Clipper General Manager Carl Scheer said he appreciated Riley’s feelings, but he had a question.

“Does he want to forfeit the game?” Scheer asked.

That isn’t likely to happen, said Kurt Rambis, who didn’t exactly offer a sympathetic ear to the Clippers’ plight.

“That’s the way it goes,” he said. “Nobody feels sorry for us when we’re hurt. You’ve got to put that stuff out of your mind. If you feel sorry for somebody, that’s when they wind up beating you.”

The Lakers have blown out a few other teams this season but never one in such obvious disarray. Besides all the turmoil over Norm Nixon, three other key Clippers are hurting and Clipper fans aren’t exactly getting behind their team.

With Derek Smith out with a knee injury, Cedric Maxwell out with a hamstring injury and Jamaal Wilkes missing with a sprained ankle, the Clippers simply got run over, which did not seem to upset the pro-Laker crowd of 11,380.

The Clipper home crowd cheered the Lakers, booed the new team mascot and treated the Clippers with indifference. Even some of the music played during timeouts seemed to typify the way things are going in Clipperland.

The taped song played over the loudspeakers was Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m Going Down.”

“We feel bad enough as it is,” James Donaldson said. “There’s nothing we can find positive about the game because we played so badly. We know the season has its ups and downs, but right now we’re definitely down.”

Not much is going right for the struggling Clippers. The Clippers don’t press, they depress.

Jim Thomas quickly discovered what it feels like to be a Clipper in these trying times. Thomas, the newest Clipper, was pressed into service almost immediately.

Thomas didn’t show up at the Sports Arena until 1 p.m. and by 8 p.m. he was in the game. At 8:01, Thomas picked up his first foul. At 8:03 he got his second.

Welcome to the team, Jim.

“We’ll see better days,” Clipper owner Donald T. Sterling said.

Marques Johnson returned to the Clipper lineup after missing two games with a lower back strain and scored 30 points, but he could not prevent the Lakers from getting their blowout.

Besides having Johnson back, there was only one other Clipper highlight. The mascot managed to sink a shot from mid-court, which, considering the trouble Clipper players were having with their own shooting, should have qualified him for a 10-day contract.

The Lakers knew they were in a game for about the first six minutes when the score was tied at 16. After that, the blowout was in full force. James Worthy scored 14 points in the first quarter, and the Lakers led by 14 points.

By halftime, the lead grew to 21 points and then to 22 points at the end of the third quarter. Riley tried not to embarrass the Clippers, so he left much of the game to his non-starters.

Seven Lakers scored in double figures, and Mike McGee set the pace with 19 points.

Chaney found the score difficult to take as it soared higher, and the game swiftly moved out of sight. Actually, that’s the direction the Clipper coach thought it should be. Losing this badly even drove him to drink.

“I’m going to a restaurant that no one else has ever heard of,” Chaney said. “I never drink, but I’m going to sit down in the corner and have a nice glass of wine and try to forget.

“I don’t like losing,” he said. “I don’t like to carry it home, but this has affected me every waking hour.”

The crowd chanted for Nixon and they chanted for Chuck Nevitt. Only Nevitt played.

“With Nixon, it would have been a better game,” Scheer said.

The Lakers steamrolled the Clippers in the first half when they put the game away. Magic Johnson, who had 12 of his 14 assists at the midway point, brought the crowd to its feet with a no-look assist to Michael Cooper, who finished the play with a rousing slam dunk.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar brought Chaney to his feet a few minutes later when he dunked with no Clipper within 10 feet of him. That’s the way it went for the Clippers, who just happened to have the bad luck of playing the Lakers in their time of need.

“We had a job to do,” Magic said. “We weren’t going out there to blast them. We have friends on their team. We didn’t try to blow them out.”

It just turned out that way.

Clipper Notes

Jim Thomas, the free agent signed by the Clippers before the game when Derek Smith went on the injured list, was waived by the Indiana Pacers in the exhibition season. Thomas was a second-round draft choice of the Pacers in 1983 after playing at Indiana University. . . . Last season at this time, the Clippers were 3-6. . . . A Laker team dentist X-rayed Magic Johnson’s right front tooth, which was loosened when he was accidentally struck in Thursday night’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers. The X-rays showed no damage. . . . The Clippers travel to Denver tonight to play the Nuggets. . . . The Clippers expect to have Cedric Maxwell back for tonight’s game. Maxwell has missed three games with a strained right hamstring. Jamaal Wilkes, who was placed on the injured list Friday, won’t be back until next Saturday at the earliest.