Riley Thrown Out as Lakers Are Blown Out

Call it the Snowball Theory. Tuesday night, the Lakers lost an argument, lost a coach and lost a game. Not just any old game, mind you, but a 137-113 crusher to the Golden State Warriors, the team with the worst record in the National Basketball Assn.

But for at least one night, the Lakers out-Warriored Golden State in as ugly a Laker performance as they’ve had all season.

Pat Riley watched most of the game from a television monitor in the press lounge. His seat was provided courtesy of official Mike Mathis, who served Riley his first ejection in five years as a head coach.

“It was horrible in there,” Riley said. “They didn’t have any popcorn.”

Mathis showed Riley the exit in the second quarter, the result of a frank and serious exchange of ideas at midcourt. Riley was upset because he thought the Warriors were receiving more calls than the Lakers.

Trailing by eight points at the half, 68-60, the Lakers collapsed completely in the third quarter, which ended with the Warriors holding a 23-point lead. So the 24-point margin of defeat, the Lakers’ worst loss of the season, indicated that on this night anyway, the Lakers were as bad with Riley as they were without him.

The Lakers committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter and finished with 24, which were worth 30 points to the Warriors. Magic Johnson, the principal offender, got a dubious triple-double of 13 points, 10 assists and 11 turnovers.

But as poorly as the Lakers played, Riley thought the officiating of Mathis and Mike Lauerman was more of a factor.

“The Warriors played great, we were lousy and the officials were even worse,” Riley said.

Mathis and Lauerman are well-remembered by the Lakers because of the last time they worked a Laker game. That was Jan. 3, when they called five technical fouls and ejected both Johnson and Mitch Kupchak in a nine-point Laker victory against Utah.

The latest meeting between the Lakers and the two officials, played out in the Oakland Coliseum, may go down as a classic. Certainly Riley will remember it. Reporters along press row listened intently.

Riley began the discussion by saying something to Mathis, who responded: “I don’t cheat.”

Riley: “I didn’t say you cheated.”

Mathis: “I have a college education. I know what you meant.”

Riley got his first technical. He continued talking. Mathis quickly whistled a second technical foul on Riley. Assistant coach Bill Bertka quickly became the Laker coach-of-the-night.

As it turns out, this is not the first time Bertka coached a team when the head coach was absent. In 1979, New Orleans head Coach Elgin Baylor was scouting, and Bertka coached the Jazz against Houston.

Down by 27 points at the half, the Jazz came back to win that night. Bertka thought the same thing might actually occur a second time.

“I saw shades of it happening, but it went the other direction instead,” he said.

Neither Riley nor Mathis offered a transcript of their second conversation.

“I can’t tell you what he said,” Mathis said after the game. “But I had to unload him.”

The Warriors had already unloaded on the Lakers. For the Lakers, it might have been a lousy game, but at least it was entertaining.

Golden State, which has a two-game winning streak over the Lakers, got 25 points from Joe Barry Carroll, 22 from Chris Mullin and 21 from Terry Teagle to send the Lakers on to their 12th loss of the season.

For the Lakers, James Worthy finished with 21 points and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 20, but Abdul-Jabbar was no factor after picking up his fourth foul in the first 48 seconds of the third quarter.

At that point, the Warriors led, 71-62. Worthy got his fourth foul three minutes later with the Warriors ahead by 11. There were a total of 22 personal fouls called and 35 free throws shot in the third quarter, which ended with the Warriors completely out of sight, 104-81.

Golden State finished with a total of 52 free-throw attempts, which was 21 more than the Lakers were allowed, and that is what Riley was so upset about.

“It should go both ways,” he said. “It’s always been that way for us (with officials). The Lakers are so damned good, let the other team do what it wants to defensively.”

And in the meantime, the Lakers were busy cementing their reputation as the Robin Hoods of the NBA. They take from the rich and give to the poor. The Lakers are 24-5 against teams with winning records but only 13-7 against teams with losing records.

“I guess it just goes like that,” Johnson said. “Our timing just wasn’t there. We just didn’t have it. We tried, but it just wasn’t there.”

Neither was their coach. After their argument, Riley lost and left, but Mathis won and remained.

“I didn’t say anything to him about his character,” Riley said. “If he was thinking that, he was obviously on the defensive.”

Where are the Lakers? They are in Phoenix tonight to face another sub-.500 team.