Bol Not the Only Show as Lakers Run Away From Bullets, 118-88

Just as Cliff Robinson didn’t have to look at the Forum scoreboard to know what the score was Sunday night, he didn’t have to look at the clock to know what time it was either.

“Once the Lakers are on a roll, well, then it’s Showtime,” he said.

All together, the Lakers synchronized their watches. They set them to the time they know best. Yes, it was certainly Showtime.

You know what time that is, right?

It’s when the big hand is on the ball stuffing it through the basket and the little hand is on somebody else’s hand engaged in a high-five.

But for the last couple of weeks, Showtime stood still.

“Maybe we’ve come back closer to where we were two or three weeks ago,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “We haven’t been like this too often lately.”

After a brief absence the Laker fast-break offense returned with electrifying results. So it was no shock that the Lakers were able to trounce a depleted group of Washington Bullets, 118-88, before their third consecutive sellout crowd of 17,505.

In improving their NBA-leading record to 27-5, the Lakers worked the Bullets over for an 18-point lead at halftime, then quickly buried them in the third quarter, which ended with a 94-62 Laker advantage.

Bullet Coach Gene Shue said his team’s hopes had actually ended long before then.

Without center Jeff Ruland, who is out of the lineup because of a broken ankle, Shue said the Bullets have really been struggling.

“We had no chance at all tonight,” he said.

Byron Scott said the Lakers wanted to prove Shue right.

“We kept running continuously,” Scott said. “We wanted to make sure they didn’t have a chance. Usually, you have two or three good spurts. We had that many in the first quarter.”

You can pin the reason for that on Magic Johnson, who originated the idea of Showtime long ago. Johnson finished with 17 assists, 15 of them in the first half, by which time the Lakers held a 67-49 lead.

At that juncture, the Bullet offense consisted primarily of turnovers. There were 13 of them, leading directly to 20 Laker points. The Bullet defense, meanwhile, was mainly 7-foot-7 Manute Bol, who blocked five shots.

Neither Johnson, who had 16 points in the first half, nor James Worthy, who had 14, were needed much in the second half, or really after the third quarter.

But then the rest of the Lakers starters weren’t either.

Not one of Riley’s starting five played more than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 27 minutes and he probably wouldn’t have hung around that long if he hadn’t needed to reach double figures for the 649th consecutive game.

And for the first consecutive game, the Lakers ran themselves silly. Abdul-Jabbar pointed out one simple reason for the Laker victory.

“They didn’t play that well,” he said.

But there was another reason. Part of it was because the Bullets have two injured starters, Ruland and point guard Frank Johnson. The rest of it is because the Lakers put one of their better defensive efforts on display, especially in the third quarter.

Washington scored just 13 points, the Lakers’ best defensive quarter of the season. The Lakers scored 27 themselves to take a 32-point lead into the fourth quarter when Showtime became garbage time.

Then, it was A.C. Green’s time to show his offense, which has been missing since the first week of the season. Green scored 20 points, his highest total of his rookie season. He also blocked four shots and even defended Bol for a while.

“I’ve never had that experience before,” Green said.

Green dropped a couple of 10- foot jumpers and even threw in an off-balance hook, of all things. As a Laker, he’s never had that experience before either.

Twice in the fourth quarter the Laker lead reached 37 points before Tom McMillen and newly signed Freeman Williams brought it back down a little bit.

McMillen, who has announced his intention to run for a Maryland Congressional seat, is called “Tommy Congress” by Bol. Congress was in session for McMillen, who led the Bullets with 18 points. Williams scored 14 in 16 minutes.

Both Worthy and Johnson had 18 points for the Lakers, who also got 16 points from Scott, 10 rebounds from Green and season-highs of 17 steals plus 12 blocked shots from everybody as a group.

As the clock wound down on Showtime and the game, Abdul-Jabbar, Maurice Lucas and James Worthy stood up for the last few seconds, eager to get it over so they could go home.

But Johnson said it was in the first several seconds of the game that was special for the Lakers.

“We wanted to jump on it and keep it going,” he said. “You know there aren’t going to be a whole lot of these kind of games, but the ones you get, you might as well enjoy.”

Laker Notes

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored just 12 points in the blowout and needs 28 more to reach 34,000 for his career. . . . The Bullets have not won in the Forum in nearly 10 years, since Jan. 25, 1976. . . . The Bullets have had eight players miss a total of 60 games this season because of injury (45 games) or illness (15 games). Center Jeff Ruland, who broke his right ankle Dec. 11 at Detroit, missed his 13th game Sunday night. Ruland had the cast removed from his foot Saturday, but isn’t expected to be ready to play for about a month. Point guard Frank Johnson is on the injured list because of a fractured bone in his foot which has forced him to miss a total of 19 games. Rookie forward Kenny Green, who has the flu, is not with the team. . . . Maurice Lucas didn’t play either. Lucas has tendinitis in his right knee. Larry Spriggs played briefly, but he left in the second quarter when he sprained his left arch.