Lakers Fall as Wrong Johnson Has Magic

Coach Pat Riley knew there were going to be games like this. His Lakers, after all, can’t win them all. But he probably never would have guessed that his team would ever have dirt kicked in its face by Steve Johnson.

Johnson, a fifth-year pro who finally has found his home in San Antonio, and at power forward, made 10 of 11 shots from the field, most of them dunks, and scored a season-high 26 points as the Spurs beat the Lakers, 109-91, Thursday night at the HemisFair Arena.

For the Lakers, it was only their fourth defeat in 28 games. So even though it was the second time they’ve been blown out by 18 points and was the least amount of points they’ve scored this season, Riley couldn’t complain. Well, he could have. But he preferred to talk about the Spurs, who have won four straight games and are challenging for the lead in the Midwest Division.

“They were in chaos at the beginning of the season because of the trade, but Cotton Fitzsimmons has done a hell of a job,” Riley said, referring to the Spurs’ coach. “They’re a team that’s definitely going to have to be contended with.”

Fans here still talk about the trade, the one that sent George Gervin and Gene Banks to Chicago before the season for David Greenwood and Johnson, but the difference now is that most of the words they use aren’t obscene. The Spurs’ followers have become so supportive that the team’s management is considering allowing Fitzsimmons to be introduced before games.

Fitzsimmons was so unpopular after Gervin, a fan favorite, was traded that the coach has been spared the pre-game jeers and who knows what else that might have been directed toward him by the hometown crowds.

What crowds, you might ask.

Even though professional basketball is the only game in town, the Spurs have been deserted by their fans, once considered the NBA’s most boisterous. Some would say rabid. But the average attendance through their first 12 home games was about 7,600. That means they were about as well regarded in San Antonio as the Clippers are in Los Angeles.

That was before Thursday night, when the Spurs had their first sellout, a crowd of 15,786 that had to be told by the public address announcer early in the game when to cheer but later got the knack.

Most of the fans no doubt had come to see if Alvin Robertson, the second-year guard from Arkansas who had scored 32 and 41 points in the previous two games, is for real.

He is. Robertson may have had only 17 points in this game, but he also had 8 assists, 5 steals and a game-high 13 rebounds--11 in the first half.

“He’s playing as well as any guard in the Western Conference right now,” said an authority on that subject, Magic Johnson, who had 22 points and 9 assists himself Thursday night. The only other Laker who scored in double figures was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored only 4 points in the first half but finished with 24.

Fitzsimmons predicted Western Conference coaches will select Robertson as an alternate for the All-Star game.

“Hands down,” the coach said.

Robertson, typically humble, said he would rather the honor go to the Spurs’ point guard, Johnny Moore, who didn’t play against the Lakers because headaches had caused by an upper respiratory infection.

His minutes were shared by Wes Matthews and Jon Sundvold, who combined for 30 points. Sundvold frustrated the Lakers by making 9 of 14 shots from the field, all but one of them from 18 to 20 feet, and finishing with 18 points. Forward Mike Mitchell also had one of his quietly destructive nights with 19 points and 12 rebounds.

But it was Johnson who hurt the Lakers most, scoring all 26 of his points in the first three quarters. None of the Lakers who tried to guard him--Kurt Rambis, Maurice Lucas or Abdul-Jabbar--had any success.

This is the Steve Johnson who starred as a center at Oregon State but was humiliated in the same role at Kansas City. His coach, who happened to be Cotton Fitzsimmons, did most of the humiliating, deriding Johnson during and after games before finally trading him to Chicago.

But the Bulls found a place for Johnson at power forward, where, at 6-10, he is not undersized. Fitzsimmons, who left Kansas City a few months after Johnson and landed in San Antonio, took notice. When the Bulls and Spurs began discussing a trade that would bring Gervin to Chicago, Fitzsimmons said he wanted Johnson included in the deal.

“We made him play center at Kansas City, but he’s not a center,” Fitzsimmons said. “By that, I mean he’s not a defensive center. I only let him play 16 minutes a game, which was his fault because he was always in foul trouble.

“But offensively, I thought he was the best post-up center I had seen in college since Kareem. I’m not comparing him to Kareem. All I’m saying is that he can score from a post-up postion as well as anyone except Kareem.”

Johnson was stunned, but also flattered, when he learned that Fitzsimmons wanted him.

“I was surprised because we hadn’t been on the best of terms when I left Kansas City,” he said. “There were a lot of negative things said about me, a lot of them true.

“But when someone trades you, and it’s because of a lot of negative things, and then they trade back for you, it must be because you’re a changed person. I must have made a believer out of him.”

The Spurs also are making believers out of their fans. They still appreciate Gervin, but they began to understand after he scored only two points against the Spurs the last time they played Chicago that the trade had to be made.

The addition of Johnson, who was averaging 13.2 points before Thursday night, and Greenwood, a solid rebounder and defensive player, to go along with Mitchell and Artis Gilmore gives the Spurs a more than adequate front line. Their three front-court starters had 61 points and 24 rebounds to 38 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers’ three front-court starters.

“With this team, sometimes a good butt-kicking is good for them,” Riley said of the Lakers. That is certainly what they got Thursday night.

Laker Notes The Lakers are scheduled to travel to Sacramento today for their first game against the Kings in their new home Saturday night. If the Sacramento airport is fogged in, the Lakers may have to fly to San Francisco and take a bus to the capital. . . . The Lakers had 18 first-quarter points, 39 at halftime and 65 at the end of three quarters, their lowest totals of the season at those stages of the game. . . . They scored only 96 points in the game before this one, a 12-point victory at Washington. . . . The Lakers probably will remember the antics of Spurs guard Wes Matthews, who was playing to the crowd after significant baskets by giving them the “We’re No. 1” sign with his index finger.