Magic Takes a Page From Kareem’s Hook, Wins It

When the Lakers need a game-winning shot, the attempt usually comes in the familiar form of a swirling sky hook from across the lane. It is not customary, however, when the shooter is someone other than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

With the Lakers trailing the Golden State Warriors by one point with just six seconds left Thursday night, Magic Johnson had the ball and also had a problem: There was no way to feed the heavily covered Abdul-Jabbar.

So, Johnson simply dribbled to the lane with three seconds left and sank a miniature Abdul-Jabbar sky hook from eight feet away that gave the Lakers a 112-111 victory over the pesky Warriors before 15,011 fans at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

Perhaps, Johnson had seen Abdul-Jabbar hoist his famous hook so many times in these situations that it became an automatic reaction to do it himself. Whatever the motivation, the ball swished, and the Lakers won, which was all that mattered to Coach Pat Riley.

“Well,” a hoarse Riley said, “it wasn’t as high as Kareem’s, but it got the job done.”

Before Johnson came to the rescue, the Lakers were puting on a display of how to lose a game they seemingly should not lose. In the end, though, they had won their third straight and got even for a 24-point spanking by the Warriors in the Bay Area last month.

“It seems like I’m always hearing that Golden State plays us tough,” said Riley, whose team is 3-2 this season against the Warriors. “They match up well and always give us problems. But it was good to get a win, especially in back-to-back games. Now, we’ve got five of our next six at home.”

For a while, it appeared that the Lakers had packed it in early and were thinking about going home. Their comfortable halftime lead of 72-61 was erased six minutes into the third quarter, and with 3:08 left, the Warriors had built a 110-105 lead.

That was when the Lakers began their comeback, which almost proved to be not enough. With 28 seconds left, Johnson scored inside on a give-and-go play with Abdul-Jabbar and drew a foul. The basket tied the score, 110-110, but Johnson missed the potential go-ahead free throw.

That gave the Warriors a chance to wind down the clock and take the lead. With six seconds left, forward Purvis Short was fouled by Johnson, who was fast becoming the goat of the game. But Short quickly took over that role by making only one free throw to give the Warriors a tenuous 111-110 lead.

Presented with a chance to pull this one out, the Lakers called a timeout and set up a play on which Johnson would have an option of passing to Abdul-Jabbar for a baseline sky hook or of driving the lane himself.

“I think everyone in the building knows what we were going to do,” Johnson said. “We were going to the big fella. But my man (Terry Teagle) went to Kareem, and I had room to move. “The play was designed to go to Kareem, but I kind of didn’t want to give it to him after I missed that free throw. I wanted to make it up.” Johnson did just that with his game-winning shot. All told, Johnson led the Lakers with 30 points and 14 assists in 41 minutes, but his performance most of the second half was inconsistent at best. Johnson had six turnovers and three assists in the half, perhaps the result of having to play so much.

The Lakers had only nine healthy players. Mitch Kupchak is out after knee surgery, Maurice Lucas stayed behind to rest a sore elbow, and moments before tipoff, Byron Scott left the court and returned to Los Angeles with the flu.

“(Johnson) has been doing it for us for seven years, and tonight he did it again,” James Worthy said. “Hey, he can shoot the hook. That’s one of his favorite shots.”

The trio of Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar (24 points) and Worthy (21 points and 8 rebounds) carried the load. The Lakers’ depleted state had to be particularly taxing on Worthy, who was playing in only his third game after suffering a groin injury on Feb. 19.

Had Scott not been a late scratch, this would have been the first game since mid-January that the Lakers would have started their regular five players.

But as long as Johnson and his hook shot were around, the Lakers weren’t too disappointed.

In addition to the increased offensive burden that Johnson had to carry, he also had to guard Teagle, who scored a career-high 27 points but missed badly on a last-second desperation shot that would have given the Warriors the win.

Teagle was supported by center Joe Barry Carroll, who scored 30 points and had 10 rebounds. This was in sharp contrast to Monday night at the Forum, where Carroll was held to nine points in a 127-117 Laker win.

“We had a great effort from everyone tonight,” Warrior Coach John Bach said. “But the disappointment was greater.”

Laker Notes

With Wednesday night’s 130-84 win over Utah, the Lakers officially clinched a playoff spot for the 10th consecutive season. Given the strength of the Pacific Division, though, the Lakers had unofficially clinched a playoff spot in October. . . . Chris Mullin, Golden State rookie guard, missed his third straight game Thursday night with a sore left heel. Mullin, averaging only 11.6 points in his last five games, had been starting. But in his absence, Terry Teagle has scored 16 points a game and shot over 50% from the field, and Coach John Bach has said that Mullin will have to earn back his starting spot. . . . The Lakers aren’t expected to decide on a player to replace injured Mitch Kupchak until General Manager Jerry West returns this weekend from an East Coast scouting trip. . . . The Lakers will play Sacramento Saturday night at the Forum. The championship game of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. tournament will be held there Saturday afternoon.