Lakers Beat Kings, but It Takes Two Overtimes, 122-121

If the National Basketball Assn. playoffs were to start today--and some secretly wish they would--the Lakers’ opponent would be the Sacramento Kings, who showed Saturday night that they might not be the first-round punching bags the Lakers usually face.

Before a sellout Forum crowd of 17,505 that no doubt expected another Laker rout, the Kings nearly pulled off the franchise’s first win at the Forum in 12 years before ultimately falling to the Lakers, 122-121, in a double-overtime marathon that both teams had numerous chances to win.

Magic Johnson, whose three-point shot with five seconds left in regulation sent the game into an extra period, missed four free throws in the final 14 seconds of the second overtime with the Lakers clinging to the tenuous one-point lead.

After Johnson’s first two misses, the Kings had possession with 12 seconds left and no doubt planned to wind down the clock for a final, once-and-for-all game-winning shot attempt. That shot was never tried, though, because Johnson stole the ball from a double-teammed Larry Drew.

The Kings, needing to foul someone quickly, picked Johnson and sent him to the line with two seconds left. Despite the fact that Johnson had missed his two previous attempts, it had to be comforting to Laker fans to have him at the line. Johnson, after all, is an 87% free-throw shooter, and the odds of him throwing up another two clinkers were dim.

Incredibly, though, Johnson missed both again, giving the Kings one more chance, albeit remote, to win it with one second left. But Laker guard Byron Scott intercepted a lob pass near the basket to finally assure a Laker win, the club’s fourth straight.

Johnson, who led all scorers with 33 points and had 17 assists, wasn’t the only player who will have nightmares of missed free throws.

Sacramento’s Otis Thorpe, who led the Kings with 28 points, missed a potential game-tying free throw with 25 seconds left in the second overtime. Thorpe had scored on a dunk and was fouled by Kurt Rambis in the process. This, too, was unusual, since Thorpe had made two free throws with six seconds left in the first overtime to send it into a second extra period.

If not for Magic, who was coming off a game-winning hook shot Thursday night against Golden State at Oakland, the Kings would have been celebrating their first win over the Lakers in Los Angeles since Oct. 20, 1974, when the team was based in Kansas City and Omaha.

Johnson, as he did in Philadelphia Feb. 23, dramatically sent the game into overtime with a rather unexpected three-point basket, this one erasing the Kings’ 103-100 lead. Only this time, his three-pointer came with five seconds left, meaning that either team had a chance to break the 103-103 tie and win in regulation.

The Kings had the ball at half-court with a potential game-winning shot attempt on the drawing board. It never got past Reggie Theus’ possession. As soon as Theus took the inbounds pass, he headed for the baseline with his head down. But the Lakers’ James Worthy didn’t budge from his position in front of Theus, and the King guard was called for an offensive foul. All that happened in only one second, so the Lakers had four seconds left and the ball out of bounds at half-court after a timeout. Michael Cooper could not find an open man, so he called another timeout.

After that break, he flung a pass over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s outstretched arm. But Abdul-Jabbar, who had 21 points before fouling out in the first overtime, managed to get a hand on the ball, deflecting it to Scott. Scott had the ball 10 feet out and with two seconds to shoot. He missed, and the game headed into overtime.

In the first extra period, the Lakers seemingly had control with a 111-107 lead and 33 seconds left.

But the Kings, who did not fold all night, including when they trailed by 12 after the first quarter, used free throws by Theus with 29 seconds left and Thorpe with six seconds left to tie it at 111-111 and force a last-second Laker game-winning shot attempt.

That attempt, a layup by Worthy (32 points) with two seconds left, was swatted away by Thorpe to send the game into the second overtime.

Laker Notes

Among the courtside observers Saturday night was tennis star John McEnroe, sporting the beginnings of a beard. . . . Saturday night’s game started at 8 instead of 7:30 because of the PCAA tournament championship game Saturday afternoon. . . . The Lakers, playing their fourth game in five days, will travel to Seattle to meet the SuperSonics tonight at 7 (Channel 9). The teams will be seeing a lot of each other; between tonight and April 1, they will meet four times. That isn’t good news for Seattle, which is trying to overtake Sacramento and Phoenix (and stay ahead of the Clippers) in the battle for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot.