Wayne Cooper’s Shot Stuns Lakers, Nuggets

Wayne Cooper was the worst shooter the Denver Nuggets had Thursday night. So guess who beat the Lakers with a game-winning shot.

The very same Wayne Cooper. He shocked just about everyone when he threw in a jump shot from 22 feet away with only four seconds left, and as a result, the Nuggets handed the Lakers their first road defeat of the season, 121-120, before a sellout crowd of 17,202 at McNichols Sports Arena.

Before his game-buster, Cooper was having the type of game worth forgetting. He had missed six of his previous seven shots. Maybe that explains Nugget Coach Doug Moe’s reaction when Cooper put up the jumper.

“No, no, no!” Moe screamed. Then, as the ball went in: “Great shot!”

This might represent the very essence of coaching: the ability to change direction in mid-reaction. Moe knew that Cooper was not supposed to take the shot, but since it went in, it seemed like a good idea, after all.

“I was terrible for most of the game and I missed a lot of shots, but I guess the right one went in,” Cooper said.

The wrong Lakers went out on the court for the first half, and that ultimately cost them the game. They had to battle back mightily from a miserable performance and a deficit that reached 20 points during the third quarter, but battle back they did, actually taking the lead three times in the last two minutes.

“If we had won, it would have been the biggest theft in the NBA this year,” Coach Pat Riley said.

The Lakers very nearly stole a victory in spite of themselves. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made it almost possible, scoring 32 points on 15-for-26 shooting and being involved in the two biggest plays of the game.

After Abdul-Jabbar dropped a 15-foot hook from a right-side angle to give the Lakers a 120-119 lead with only eight seconds left, Moe called for a timeout and drew a play for either Alex English (30 points) or Calvin Natt (23). But the defense Riley called in the Laker huddle had both those options covered. Cooper wasn’t even an option, which made his shot all the more implausible.

Abdul-Jabbar sloughed off of Cooper to protect against a lob pass, and that gave Cooper just enough room to get off his shot.

“Kareem didn’t step back out soon enough,” Riley said.

As soon as Cooper’s jumper dropped through the net, the Lakers called a timeout and set up for a last shot. They wanted to go to Magic Johnson, but the only inbounds pass open to Michael Cooper was to Abdul-Jabbar, who was standing near the baseline, 20 feet from the basket.

All Abdul-Jabbar could do was launch a jump shot that bounced off the rim, and when Johnson couldn’t come up with a clean rebound, the Nuggets had their hard-earned victory while the Lakers’ 6-0 road record was a memory.

“I got it off pretty good,” Abdul-Jabbar said of his jumper. “It just kind of went in and out. If it had gone in, we would have stolen a game we definitely shouldn’t have won.”

The Lakers began the game, their second in two nights, as if they were still lost in the fog that delayed their arrival here by nearly two hours. They committed nine turnovers in the first quarter and had 14 at the half, then came right back with 11 more turnovers in the third quarter.

“We were just in disarray,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

Riley tried all sorts of combinations, including using Larry Spriggs in the first half for the first time this season. Ronnie Lester also saw some non-garbage-time action. James Worthy’s foul trouble made some of the Laker personnel changes necessary.

When the Lakers finally woke up, they were still trailing by 14 points early in the fourth quarter. Johnson finished the night with 18 assists, but he made only 3 of 14 shots. Luckily enough, Michael Cooper took up the slack with 20 points and Maurice Lucas came through again.

Lucas had 12 points and 10 rebounds in 22 minutes, and it was his work on the backboards that helped the Lakers to a whopping 51-32 rebounding advantage.

“We’ve just got to be more aggressive from the beginning,” Lucas said. “If teams get ahead of us and then let us back in, we feel like we’ve got a good shot.”

The Lakers wound up with 28 turnovers, a season high, and Riley was perplexed when he tried to come up with an explanation for such a slow start.

“We weren’t ready to play,” he said. “Maybe there is a lesson to be learned. You just can’t turn on the switch when you want to.”

Moe said he tried to flip Wayne Cooper’s switch when he took Cooper out at the end of the third quarter. Moe told Cooper not to be afraid to shoot the ball.

“So what happens?” Moe asked. “Coop made the magnificent move, one dribble, step up and swish. Nothing to it.”

Cooper said the only other time he made a game-winning shot was four years ago when he played with Dallas.

“I guess lightning strikes twice,” he said.

Laker Notes Kurt Rambis had a rare perfect shooting night, going 5 for 5, and he added 9 rebounds in 23 minutes. . . . Denver didn’t have either Lafayette Lever or Elston Turner because of injuries and only eight Nuggets played. T.R. Dunn went the entire 48 minutes. . . . Byron Scott is eligible to come off the injured list now that he’s missed the minimum of five games. Scott has been out with a slightly pulled hamstring since Nov. 13 and could be activated for Saturday night’s game in Portland. . . . Nugget owner Sidney Shlenker has offered Coach Doug Moe a contract extension, even though Moe still had two years left on his current deal.