Kareem Shows a ‘46’ Offense as Lakers Win

What is the best way to defend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Certainly not the way the Houston Rockets did it Thursday night when they put one player on him. That was about 11 players too few.

While Akeem Olajuwon spent the whole game trying to steal the ball from Abdul-Jabbar, the Laker center spent the whole game throwing down a breathtaking series of hook shots on his way to a 46-point explosion.

So it wasn’t too surprising that the Lakers won easily, taking a 117-95 decision from the Rockets, whose home record was a lot better than their defensive strategy on Abdul-Jabbar.

For some reason, Rocket Coach Bill Fitch thinks it is a good idea to let Olajuwon go one-on-one with Abdul-Jabbar. It proved to be the biggest coaching blunder in any Laker game this season.

Abdul-Jabbar made 21 of 30 shots in 37 minutes to reach his high this season. He probably could have scored 50 points (his career high is 55) had he played any longer.

The Rockets’ chances of improving on their 25-1 home record were in trouble in the first quarter as Abdul-Jabbar scored 20 points and the Lakers built a 38-31 lead.

It got worse for Houston from there. Abdul-Jabbar made his first 10 shots of the game, by which time the Lakers held a 55-36 lead.

“We just got too far back,” the Rockets’ Ralph Sampson said.

So total was Abdul-Jabbar’s domination of the Laker offense that no teammate scored more than 15 points--that by Magic Johnson.

Abdul-Jabbar’s 46 points were the most any Laker has scored against a Rocket team, breaking Gail Goodrich’s 12-year-old mark of 44.

Some coaches think it’s OK to let Abdul-Jabbar go one-on-one, believing that he will tire himself out shooting all those hooks.

“I do,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “But what can happen before I get tired is that the opponent is out of the game.”

That’s exactly what happened. The Rockets got beat before Abdul-Jabbar got tired.

By halftime, Abdul-Jabbar had 26 points in only 18 minutes and the Lakers were up, 66-47. Then the Lakers withstood a third-quarter skid in which they made only two shots from the field in the last nine minutes but lost only five points off their lead.

Olajuwon scored 18 points and had 14 rebounds, and Sampson, the other half of the Twin Towers, had 17 points and 12 rebounds. But the Rockets were clearly mistaken in the defensive tactic they chose to use--Olajuwon alone against Abdul-Jabbar. Fitch passed on the blame to his player.

“Akeem made some bad decisions on defense trying to go for steals,” said Fitch, who nevertheless, since becoming coach of the Rockets, has always insisted that Abdul-Jabbar be guarded by one defender.

Abdul-Jabbar was charitable when he spoke of Olajuwon’s defense.

“What he tried didn’t work at all for him,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who also had 11 rebounds. “I know he can play a whole lot better than that.”

On the other hand, the Lakers aren’t going to able to improve their performance all that much. They shot 53.8%, outrebounded the Rockets, 57-41, passed out 33 assists, held the Rockets to 42.7% shooting and thoroughly trounced a team that had the best home record in the National Basketball Assn.

“I thought we played great, period,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “And Kareem was really on his game. I must have been calling the right plays.”

So were Michael Cooper and Magic Johnson, who both had nine assists. Johnson played 29 minutes off the bench, although he admitted he still felt rusty because of his sore right knee.

The Rockets, who tried hard to keep their meeting with the Lakers from becoming too much of a big deal, apparently failed at it. They got caught when they didn’t keep the game in perspective.

“It’s not a devastating defeat,” Sampson said. “We can’t feel that way now. It’s the All-Star break, we’ve got a good record and some pretty good things are happening.”

It’s just that none of them happened Thursday night.

“I think they got too excited about one ballgame,” the Lakers’ Kurt Rambis said. “If they had won, all it would have meant was one more victory for them. Since they lost, all it means is one more defeat.”

This makes it 14 straight wins for the Lakers in the Summit, counting one playoff game. Their next match here isn’t until April, and the game is already sold out. Abdul-Jabbar will probably be ready for that one, too.

“If I were to defend me, I would keep the ball out of my hands,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

That seems as good a strategy as any, and certainly preferable to what the Rockets tried.

“If we stay in the laboratory long enough, maybe we’ll figure out a way to stop them,” Fitch said. “If nothing else, maybe they’ll get tired of beating us.”