Lakers Glad to Find Bulls Aren’t Bears

Sitting on the bench of the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan wore the uniform of the injured superstar: Italian designer suit, off-white shirt, silk tie, tinted glasses and, of course, foot cast by plaster of Paris.

Jordan also carried a cane and a worried expression. Later, Jordan was asked how he felt?

“I’m looking forward,” he said.

That’s optimism, but if Jordan is looking for the Bulls, he’s not going to find them in that direction.

He’d better look back, or down, because that’s where the Bulls are going without Jordan, who has been on the injured list since Nov. 5 with a broken bone in his left foot.

The Lakers kept the Bulls on the skids Monday afternoon, winning easily, 133-118, before a Martin Luther King holiday crowd of 17,284 in Chicago Stadium.

While the Lakers were bouncing back from their loss to the Pistons Sunday afternoon, the Bulls were dropping their fifth straight and seventh in their last eight.

So, as the Lakers improved their record to 32-7 and got ready for their Wednesday night matchup with the Celtics at Boston, the Bulls sank deeper into the pack.

Their record is 15-28, and they may have only one hope left for salvaging their season.

Michael Jordan.

Doctors will look at Jordan’s foot again this week, then decide whether it has improved enough for a splint, rather than a cast. If so, it could put his return to the team as close as two weeks away.

Jordan sat in the locker room and sifted through a pile of get-well cards from his fans. He thought there might be one saving grace to all the troubles the Bulls have been having this season.

“Thank goodness for the Bears,” Jordan said. “They’re keeping us off Page 1.”

The Bulls seemed close to total disarray. Coach Stan Albeck has been feuding with Quintin Dailey, who played sparingly, and the Bulls had four technical fouls. They fell out of the game early and never found a way to do anything about James Worthy, who scored 33 points in 33 minutes.

Worthy appeared to be on his way toward 48 in 48 minutes after bagging 17 points in the first quarter. But he needed his rest. Actually, the Lakers didn’t need a lot of anything else to knock off the Bulls, but they still had a couple of problems to overcome before the game even started.

For one, Somebody stole Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s jersey, so he had to play wearing No. 50 instead of his No. 33. There was no name on the back, but you could figure out who he was by his point production.

Abdul-Jabbar wasn’t at his best, playing his second game in 26 hours, yet he still finished with 27 points in 31 minutes.

Then there was Magic Johnson, also not playing at his best because of his swollen right knee. Johnson worked 33 minutes and finished with 24 points and 14 assists.

“It’s killing me,” Johnson said of his knee. “I probably shouldn’t be playing, but I am. We’re undermanned with Larry (Spriggs) hurting and Kurt (Rambis) out. If I sat down, we’d only have nine players.”

Johnson’s availability was supposed to be questionable because of his knee, but after the half there was little question about the outcome of the game.

Fueled by Worthy’s 21 points, the Lakers led, 68-52, at the half, withstood 10 third-quarter points by George Gervin and eventually increased their lead to 20 points with a little more than four minutes left.

That lead was inspired by Worthy, who punctuated it with a steal at midcourt and a tomahawk dunk at the other end.

“When we play back-to-back games, it seems like I might carry over the intensity from the game before,” Worthy said. “I think my concentration must be better. You tell yourself you’re tired and fatigued, but I’m also accustomed to telling myself to play hard and then good things might happen.”

The good things began happening early for Worthy, who also scored 33 points in the first meeting of the teams this year. This time, he created many of his own shots on drives into the lane, where he dominated his defender, Orlando Woolridge, with a series of power jumpers.

At the same time, bad things keep happening to the Bulls, especially Dailey, who spent 31 days in a substance-abuse treatment program earlier this season.

On Saturday, Dailey missed a practice, his third missed practice in the last 11 days, and a flight to Washington. Although Albeck said that the latest absences were excused, Dailey played only 11 minutes against the Lakers.

“I can’t talk about nothing now,” Dailey said. “I got no power over the situation. If he (Albeck) is punishing me, then he’s punishing me. All I know is I get paid no matter if I sit on the bench or if I play.

“I can’t say anything. If I go out and jump the guy and go crazy, who does it hurt?” Dailey asked. “Me.”

Albeck said he refuses to put someone in the game who is not playing well.

“When Dailey is out of rhythm, we go with Ice (Gervin) or whomever,” Albeck said. “We keep plus and minus points to see who produces and who gives up more when they are on the court.”

Dailey shot 0 for 11 in a loss to the Bullets Sunday afternoon and played only five minutes in the first half against the Lakers.

“All I can say is it was frustrating,” Dailey said.

Thank goodness for the Bears.

Laker Notes Larry Spriggs played three minutes Monday, his first action since he tore connective tissue in his left arch. . . . Kurt Rambis missed his second consecutive game because of a sprained left ankle. . . . Michael Cooper played 33 minutes off the bench and made each of the three three-point shots he attempted. Cooper has made 25 of 63 three-pointers this season and ranks among the NBA leaders in long-range accuracy at 39.7%. . . . Besides Cooper’s 15 points, the other Laker reserves produced a combined seven points.