Kareem Is the Key to Laker Win

Working on a total of two hours’ sleep, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar picked a great time to wake himself and the rest of the Lakers Wednesday night.

Outside Milwaukee Arena, it was seven degrees below zero, which isn’t unusual for this time of year. But inside, in the fourth quarter, Abdul-Jabbar was just warming up for a play he only makes in his dreams. His most novel play of the season was rather unusual for any time of the year.

Would you believe Abdul-Jabbar stealing the ball, then dribbling about three-quarters of the court on a one-on-three fast break to score on a finger-roll?

If you said yes, then you understand the Lakers these days, a team that somehow always manages to come up with just the right play at the right time, even if it is one that features their 38-year-old 7-2 center acting like Magic Johnson.

Plays like that are why the Lakers are 22-3, and they are also a good indication of how the Lakers came back to beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 107-105.

Abdul-Jabbar’s wonderfully timed impression of a point guard gave the tired Lakers just the lift they needed to subdue the Bucks, who like to choke teams into submission with their defense. Abdul-Jabbar said he got a lump in his throat just by leading the fast break.

“That was fantasy time,” he said. “That’s going to happen like once every other year.”

For the Lakers, it was enough that it happened Wednesday night. The Lakers never led until the fourth quarter, but once they got ahead, they never trailed.

Abdul-Jabbar scored 31 points, 8 in the fourth quarter, including back-to-back baskets within 35 seconds that gave the Lakers a 104-98 lead with only 2:18 left.

As good as he was when it counted, that much is always expected of Abdul-Jabbar. But what nobody counted on was his dribbling exhibition on the breakaway that had tied the game at 92-92 a few minutes earlier.

“It was certainly a welcome sight,” Maurice Lucas said. “We needed any break we could get at that time.”

Behind 23 points by Terry Cummings, the Bucks built a 70-59 lead in the third quarter and seemed on the verge of putting the Lakers to sleep with their slow-it-down, walk-it-up-the-court style, as if the Lakers needed any help with their slumber.

After all, they had been forced to get up Wednesday morning to catch a bus to the airport at 6 a.m. in New York, which converts to 3 a.m. Los Angeles time.

No Laker could have been more tired than Abdul-Jabbar, who got very little rest after receiving Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year Award at a banquet following Tuesday night’s game with the Knicks.

“Sometimes you come into a game tired, and that’s how I felt,” he said. “All of a sudden, in the fourth quarter, I felt better and kept on running. We felt if we could catch up and get back in, we could make a game of it.”

Of course, it had been a game all along, just not a very fast-paced one.

The Bucks do that to teams. Second-year veteran Kenny Fields of UCLA, who hasn’t been doing it to many teams, scored 15 points in the first half, which combined with 12 points by Craig Hodges, meant that the Bucks were in control, 58-52.

However, Sidney Moncrief, who never seems to have a good game against the Lakers, made only 5 of 15 shots, and the Bucks ran out of people who could score for them.

They also ran out of timeouts.

James Worthy scored 22 points, 6 coming in succession in the fourth quarter when the Lakers finally caught up and went ahead, 100-96.

Moncrief’s three-point bomb got the Bucks within 104-101, and then Michael Cooper and Cummings traded pressure baskets before two free throws by Cummings cut the Laker lead to 106-105 with 26 seconds left.

The Lakers were able to work the clock down to four seconds when Cummings fouled Abdul-Jabbar, but he made only the first free throw, and that left the door open for the Bucks, down by only two points.

“I didn’t feel too good about missing that one, but it didn’t end up costing us, thank goodness,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

The Lakers survived despite 22 turnovers, 14 of them occurring during a sadly played first half in which Coach Pat Riley thought fatigue was a factor.

“You have to work through all the sluggishness that happens in a game like this and hope that at some time you’re going to feel good,” Riley said. “Tonight, Kareem felt good at the end.”

Laker Notes Kurt Rambis played only 16 minutes because of a back injury but had a season-high 13 rebounds. Rambis wore a pad to protect his back, which he hyperextended against the Knicks. . . . Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 31-point performance was his fifth game of at least 30 points this season. He had 14 last season. . . . The Lakers’ two lowest-scoring games of the season have been the first two games on this trip. . . . Since January, the Lakers are 58-9 in regular-season games and 73-13 counting playoffs. . . . Milwaukee Coach Don Nelson had his players fake a timeout with four seconds left, trying to get the Lakers to hesitate a little, but it didn’t work.