Lakers Make Mavs Look Like Mav-Nots With a 130-116 Win

The Laker playoff series with the Dallas Mavericks is only one game old and already is a lot more interesting than the previous Laker series, at least off the court.

Even though the Lakers are playing Dallas instead of the San Antonio Spurs this time, the result Sunday was the same, a 130-116 blowout in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals.

It is a series that the Lakers should take, Dallas Coach Dick Motta said afterward.

“We know we are the underdog in this series,” Motta said. “We know the Lakers are favored to win.”

As it turns out, Motta had officially signaled the opening of the psychological-warfare season.

“He’s insulting our intelligence with a statement like that,” said James Worthy, the normally mild-mannered Laker forward. “That’s a lot of bull, really. He’s just trying to take away some of our intensity. If he really believes that, he should go ahead and forfeit the rest of the games.”

Since that isn’t likely to happen, Laker Coach Pat Riley simply refused to take Motta’s bait.

“Dick is working on us,” Riley said.

Maybe so, but it’s nothing like the way the Lakers worked over the Mavericks.

With Worthy scoring 17 points in the first two quarters, the Lakers led by 18 at halftime and never allowed Dallas to get closer than 13 the rest of the way.

What could be easier? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said you might be surprised. Abdul-Jabbar, who scored a game-high 28 points in 40 minutes, said the game was closer than the score indicated.

“Even though we’ve been winning, it hasn’t been as easy as it looks,” he said.

He could have fooled many of the 17,505 who filled the Forum and watched the Lakers jump to a 30-17 first-quarter lead, then close it out in a breeze.

Part of the reason why it looked simple for the Lakers was that nothing worked for the Mavericks until it was too late. Motta runs a forward-oriented offense, but neither Mark Aguirre nor Sam Perkins shot well enough to hurt the Lakers.

Aguirre finished with 4-for-13 shooting, while Perkins failed on three three-pointers as well as a variety of inside shots in shooting 4 for 17 and showing that he could miss from any spot on the floor.

“It was almost like everything was numb,” Motta said.

It was the opposite for the Lakers, who got off to a quick start and shot 61.2% for the game. As an example of their momentum, Worthy’s first shot was deflected by Perkins, hit the side of the backboard and still dropped into the basket.

“I’ll take it anyway,” said Worthy, who finished with 23 points.

And after the Lakers accepted one gift on Worthy’s shot, they received another awhile later. Magic Johnson’s alley-oop pass to Byron Scott bounced off the glass directly to Abdul-Jabbar, who immediately banked in a jumper from 12 feet away.

That put the Lakers ahead, 22-6, and also provided them with a comfortable margin to stand off the Mavericks when Dallas finally came back. And the Mavs, as they are often called in Dallas, did come back, once Motta went to Brad Davis and Jay Vincent.

When Aguirre re-entered and made a pair of free throws, the Mavericks trailed only 39-34 four minutes into the second quarter.

At that point, the Lakers began running again and quickly inflated their lead to 54-38 on an Abdul-Jabbar hook followed by a Worthy dunk and jumper.

Johnson, who had 16 points and 14 assists, picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter with the Lakers ahead by 22 points. Dallas closed to within 89-76, helped by a pair of three-pointers by Dale Ellis, but by then it was apparent that something was missing for the Mavericks.

It turned out to be Rolando Blackman’s jump shot. Motta removed Blackman midway through the third quarter and kept him on the bench the rest of the game. Blackman wound up playing just 27 minutes, during which he made only 5 of 14 shots.

Ellis was playing at least as well as Blackman, Motta explained.

“Dale hit a couple of three-pointers, so playing was kind of a reward for him,” Motta said.

Scott was assigned to defend Blackman, who averaged 20.8 in Dallas’ playoff series against Utah but scored only 11 against the Lakers. Riley credited Scott with a strong defensive job on Blackman, but Blackman disagreed about the source of his problems.

“It wasn’t anything Byron did,” Blackman said. “When he does, I’ll let you know for sure.”

All right, then maybe Scott, who scored 24 points as well, was just dreaming the whole thing. Actually, he said he did precisely that. Just before Scott went to bed Saturday night, he watched Blackman on videotape and then dreamed about playing defense, which Scott considered pretty unusual in itself.

“My dreams are normally not related to basketball,” Scott said.

Aguirre didn’t get his first field goal of the second half until 8:21 remained in the game, and that was a bad sign for the Mavericks. They had been down by 25 points in the third quarter, which was already bad enough.

“The Lakers just beat us everywhere,” Aguirre said. “I had a bad game.”

Maverick center James Donaldson was steady in 40 minutes with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and so were Vincent and Ellis in relief. But with Aguirre, Perkins and Blackman struggling, the Mavericks didn’t have enough going for them.

The Mavericks got to within 121-107 with 2:40 to go, but that was after Abdul-Jabbar had picked up his fifth foul and Dallas scored 10 straight points on layups.

Aguirre was asked whether the Mavericks can come back.

“Anything is possible,” he said.

Lucas, who led the Lakers with eight rebounds splitting time as Aguirre’s shadow with Kurt Rambis, did not disagree.

“No one is supposed to win a game,” Lucas said. “This is still a seven-game series, and I’ll guarantee you, the best team will win this thing.”

Laker Notes

The Laker playoff victory was Pat Riley’s 53rd and tied him with Dallas Coach Dick Motta for the most among active coaches. . . . In its short playoff history, Dallas is 2-8 on the road. . . . When the Lakers held Dallas to 17 points in the first quarter, it was the Mavericks’ lowest quarter total in playoff history. . . . The Lakers have outscored their opponents by an average of 27.3 points in the playoffs. . . . Even though it was a blowout, Riley basically stayed with a seven-player rotation, using four other reserves for a total of only 15 minutes.