Lakers Again Do a Number on Portland

Not only do the Lakers have their own number, now they’ve also got somebody else’s.

The Lakers stretched their winning streak to nine games with a 128-122 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, who keep showing up in the Forum and keep getting beat.

Five times the Lakers have played Portland and five times they’ve beaten the Trail Blazers. This one didn’t turn out to be nearly as easy as it appeared in the first half, but the Lakers survived despite blowing a 20-point lead only to win yet again.

Is this merely a coincidence?

“Can’t be,” the Trail Blazers’ Clyde Drexler said. “They’ve been doing it with regularity.”

The Lakers did it Tuesday night when Magic Johnson scored 26 points and James Worthy scored 22. Every Laker who played scored in double figures, except for Kurt Rambis, who finished with eight points.

It’s been a very long drought for the Trail Blazers in the Forum, their Death Valley.

The Trail Blazers have lost 15 consecutive times in the Forum, counting playoffs. The last time Portland won on the Laker home court was in the 1982-83 season.

Trail Blazer center Caldwell Jones said he has to believe that the Lakers have a whammy working.

“Some teams just always seem to have your number,” Jones said. “They just always find a way to beat you, no matter what. We just have to beat them one time. If we don’t, it’ll be a heart-breaker.

For a while in the third quarter, it seemed as though the Lakers’ winning streak would be broken instead. They led by 16 points at the half and were up by 20 points before the Trail Blazers quickly got back in the game.

Led by forward Kenny Carr, who scored a season-high 27 points, Portland outscored the Lakers, 15-0, and 27-7 during one stretch to take an 87-86 lead.

“We got a little lazy,” Worthy said. “We tried to sit on the lead, which was a mistake.”

Johnson scored seven points right after the Trail Blazers took their lead and, when Worthy sank a short jumper, the Lakers finished the third quarter with a 99-96 lead.

Carr began the fourth quarter with a short jumper, but then the Lakers finally began putting the Trail Blazers away. The odd thing was, they did it while both Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were resting on the bench.

Michael Cooper dropped a jumper and Mike McGee followed with one of his own.

Maurice Lucas hit a free throw and, when he missed the second, A.C. Green stole the rebound and scored.

By the time Lucas finished the two-minute rally with a sideline jumper, the Lakers were ahead by 10 points, 108-98. Seconds later, Green scored on an offensive rebound, Lucas worked free for a layup and Green dunked after an alley-oop pass from Johnson.

The Lakers moved ahead by 12 points and remained just far enough ahead that a late Trail Blazer surge wasn’t enough.

“If the game was two or three minutes longer, it might have been different,” Cooper said.

But it wasn’t. Instead, it was only the Trail Blazers’ next-to-last chance this season to beat the Lakers in the series, which isn’t exactly Coach Jack Ramsay’s dream matchup.

“We had some good parts tonight, but, realistically, they just kill us,” he said. “We haven’t been able to put a dent in them.”

The Lakers put many of the dents in the Trail Blazers in the first half, noteworthy for the passing of Abdul-Jabbar.

Abdul-Jabbar finished with eight assists, one short of his season high.

He had six assists in the first half, five of them in a 40-point Laker second quarter when Abdul-Jabbar continually found his teammates cutting to the basket while he had two defenders on him.

Kiki Vandeweghe had 25 points and Drexler came up with 23 before fouling out, but the Trail Blazers failed to entice the Laker offense into more of a half-court game, which is what Ramsay wanted.

The Lakers got a lot from their non-starters, beginning with Cooper, who played 30 minutes without a turnover. Lucas and Green had a total of 23 points and 10 rebounds, and McGee had 11 points in 15 minutes.

Soon, the Lakers may be getting help from somebody else. They announced after the game that they have signed 7-2, 270-pound Petur Gudmundsson to a 10-day contract.

To make room for Gudmundsson, 27, who has been playing with Kansas City in the Continental Basketball Assn., the Lakers waived Jerome Henderson.

A native of Reykjavik, Iceland, Gudmundsson played the 1981-82 season with Portland, then two years in Iceland where he was also a coach, before going to the CBA.

The Lakers have Gudmundsson’s number, too. He will wear uniform No. 34.

Laker Notes

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has already signed a contract to play next season, said Tuesday night he will honor it. “I’ll play next season, unless an injury happens,” he said. Abdul-Jabbar said before training camp that he would wait until after the playoffs to decide whether to play an 18th season for $2 million, but he now sees no reason to wait. He said there was never any question he would be back next season. “Not really, but I had to leave myself an opening just in case something happened. I decided (to play next season) when I signed the contract, basically.” Abdul-Jabbar said he has not yet shared his intention to play next season with Coach Pat Riley, General Manager Jerry West or owner Jerry Buss. According to Abdul-Jabbar’s contract extension, there is a “courtesy date” by which time Abdul-Jabbar must must notify the Lakers whether he intends to play another season.