Lakers Get a Scare but Also a Win : Abdul-Jabbar Scores 25, Worthy Adds 23 in 109-104 Victory

The Seattle SuperSonics, not welcome visitors to the Forum, seemingly have a way of cramping the Lakers’ style. That is, Seattle’s methodical, pass-the-no-doze offense and relentless defensive pressure has turned the Lakers’ Showtime into Slowtime each time the teams have played this season.

Tuesday night before another Forum sellout of 17,505, Seattle once again proved to be a nuisance, making the Lakers plod their way to an uninspiring 109-104 victory that lacked much suspense or entertainment value until the last few minutes.

The Lakers, who have not reached 110 points in any of their six meetings with the SuperSonics this season, appeared headed to easily surpassing that mark until the final three minutes when the Lakers went cold and Seattle pulled within three points.

The only Laker basket in the final 3:35 was scored by center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar off a James Worthy pass with 16 seconds to play, which gave the Lakers the 109-104 winning margin.

No doubt, the Lakers are happy to have seen the last of the SuperSonics Tuesday night. It was the fourth time in the last 23 days the teams have played, and the style of play definitely is not to the Lakers’ liking.

“They made it difficult for us to do what we wanted to do,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “They always do that. They have been holding us to 100 points a game, which is about 17 less than we usually score. If you’re limited to 80 shots a game and have a lot of turnovers against them, you’re in trouble.”

Before the frantic final minutes, the Lakers were never in serious trouble, mostly because they, in uncharacteristic fashion, dominated the boards. The Lakers held a 55-40 edge in rebounding, 24 of the boards coming on the offensive end.

The Lakers’ power-forward combination of Kurt Rambis (13 rebounds, 11 points) and Maurice Lucas (9 rebounds, 13 points) dominated inside. Abdul-Jabbar augmented his 25-point night with 7 rebounds. Worthy added 23 points, while Magic Johnson had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists.

Meanwhile, Seattle’s inside game was mostly subdued by the Lakers. Only sixth-man Tom Chambers, who had 26 points and 8 rebounds, did damage inside. Guards Gerald Henderson (22 points) and Ricky Sobers (17) hurt the Lakers from the outside. But the starting front line of Xavier McDaniel, Tim McCormick and Jack Sikma combined for only 25 points and 20 rebounds.

That inside domination, combined with a defensive effort equally as strong as Seattle’s, resulted in the Lakers’ 58th win in 76 games and their 11th straight win at the Forum. All the Lakers need to do to better than last season’s 60-22 record is to win two of their remaining six games, which seems a certainty.

Riley, however, isn’t using that to motivate the Lakers in the final days of the regular season. Instead, he said he has shown his players videotapes of some of their recent efforts and pointed out a distinct lack of effort in what he terms the “little areas.”

A popular Riley topic these days is rebounding.

“Our players have to recognize that getting a rebound doesn’t start and finish when the ball hits the rim,” Riley said. “It’s really a couple of counts earlier when the shot goes up. They have to position themselves so that they can get the rebound. We haven’t been doing that.

“But tonight, I thought we had that from Kurt (Rambis), Luke (Lucas) and Cap (Abdul-Jabbar). We can be a much better team if we work on the little things like rebounding and blocking out and pursuing loose balls. Right now, we’re winning despite that.”

But winning, nonetheless.

Rambis, for one, wasn’t satisfied with the Lakers’ effort because they did not blow out the SuperSonics. Clearly, the Lakers had their chances. They built a 15-point first-half lead, lost it, then rebuilt a 10-point third-quarter lead and lost it once more.

So, the Lakers were forced to spend the rest of the game surging ahead and falling back. For a few moments late in the fourth quarter, it appeared they might fall back so far Seattle would pull out a win.

“Everyone says this is a fast-break club, that’s what we rely on for success,” Rambis said. “But we need defense and rebounding to start the fast breaks and we’re not getting that consistently. It was evident tonight. We should have blown them out, but we had too many lapses. A couple of breaks and it could have been their game.

“Look, we had them down in the first half and we were playing well. But we just couldn’t keep it up.”

Unlike what happened in the first quarter of last Saturday’s loss at Seattle, the Lakers started as fast as can be expected against the SuperSonics, leading, 57-46, at halftime.

When Worthy made a jumper three minutes into the game, it gave the Lakers an 11-1 lead. That was significant because the Lakers scored a season-low 11 points in the first quarter of Saturday’s game.

It took Seattle 5 minutes 15 seconds to finally make a basket, Henderson doing the honors with a drive through the lane. The SuperSonics had missed their first nine shots before Henderson’s field goal. After that, though, Seattle made six of its next eight shots to slash the Lakers’ lead to 18-15 with 3:43 left.

The Lakers didn’t look worried at that point, and they played like it. They were able to take a 32-24 lead into the second quarter.

Seattle made its only other run of the first half at the start of the second quarter, when Chambers made a jump shot and two free throws and Ricky Sobers scored on a rare Seattle fast break to pull the SuperSonics to within two points (32-30).

After that, however, the Lakers’ domination returned. They outscored Seattle, 10-2, in the next two minutes to regain a 10-point margin they did not lose the rest of the half.

The Lakers were even able to break out of Seattle’s slowdown tempo for a few fast breaks. The highlight was a Worthy dunk off a no-look pass from Johnson.

Laker Notes

Forward Maurice Lucas confirmed that he has been fined $1,000 by the National Basketball Assn. after his March 13 fight involving Seattle’s Tom Chambers. Chambers was fined $250, which is the automatic fine for ejections. Lucas also received a warning to curtail his fighting. . . . Before Thursday night’s Laker game against Sacramento, a Laker old-timers game will be held. Among the participants will be UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard, Connie Hawkins, Tommy Hawkins, Hot Rod Hundley and Lucius Allen. Allen is a Sacramento television commentator.